Yesterday, I did another round of hill and ankle sand work and had a similar level of success and then today, BHRR’s Apollo and I made the one hour journey to Canine Water Wellness in the east end of Ottawa to see if by getting some ‘new’ hands on him, we could get him to use that leg. This dog makes my heart just swell with the best of emotion with his calm, accepting temperament and though his eyes were a bit worried as unlike our pool, this pool does not have walk in steps, he did amazing! As I told the owners, he did so much better than I could have hoped for and all the hydro work we have done to date in our own pool plus springfed pond has made him that much more comfortable in the water as he was chasing after this one ball toy and did not want to stand on the shelf yet wanted to keep swimming after the toy! He also liked standing on their shelf and eating treats out of the dog bowl!!! LOL The underwater camera showed us that in the beginnng, he would use the leg every two strokes compared to his other leg or tuck it under and then cross it in front of his right knee yet by providing some support on his haunches, he would be more balanced and could really get the legs moving well together. He had some moments of doing this on his own too and after we got out, you could tell he was one step away from wanting to jump back in himself! We also used their ramp to do some walking up and down and he would use the tip toes yet not fully weight bear. He had some nice ROM and flexion work done on his knee and leg and when we were walking back to the truck, which I deliberately parked a piece away from CWW,  he was using that leg/foot almost full toes down about 50% of the time. This boy is a thinker, smart, stubborn and I love the way he will turn his head away to ‘ignore’ something that is being asked of him! He is so honest!!! I think he charmed the heck out of the two owners for he was given many many kisses  😉 and I have scheduled another session next week. I am now seeking for an approved BHRR Volunteer that might be open to assisting me in bringing BHRR’s Apollo to some extra sessions at CWW(located on Canotek Road off Montreal Road) up and beyond what I have planned/scheduled. I am looking at August 9th, 10th, 12th, 17th and August 20th at this time. If someone is open and willing to assist me in getting him to some extra sessions, I would be so appreciated. I am working at KAH most of the days myself and could have him at KAH for pick up and drop off after his session. Please do email me if you might be able to assist! BHRR’s Apollo cannot go up for adoption until such time as we can get him using all four legs and even today it was noted again that the more fun and distracted he was, the less focused he was on NOT trying to use his leg and believe me, this boy is hard to distract as he is used to living in such a large and busy multi-dog household! As I told the owners, sometimes getting a dog into other hands than what the dog has habitually become used to can be of benefit(just as dogs come to be for retraining along with their owners in regards to behavours) and I was very upfront in saying that I do not have a large ego and am not above asking or reaching out to others when it comes to my dogs or those in my program(s) to do ‘right’ by them. I am even more hopeful after today after this water session PLUS doing another sand/hill session with myself on the outside of the fenced in yard; that we are going to save this leg. I do not desire to see BHRR’s leg deteriote to the point that his circulation etc. begins to be deeply affected and that would mean that we would have to seriously consider removing that leg. So, we have now added another two lovely members to our ‘arsenal’ team of Apollo’s angels to get him up and literally running! AND as we were walking to our truck, we had two ‘monster’ comments….sigh…I was just fbooking on someone’s wall about this within the last 24 hours and now, more coins have been added to our jars that we make donations to each time we are exposed to comments such at this. At the end of each year, we make a sizeable donation to a Charity and use the rest towards the BHRR animals. So, we turn those comments into something ‘positive’. AND I cannot forget to mention that on our way home, BHRR’s Apollo went through the Timmie’s for a special treatie and then went to the Dairy Barn(a local ice cream/Chip stand place) and had his very own ice cream while he was being literally adored on by so many. This one little girl about 4 did not want to let go of his long tail. She kept using it to very gently tickle her neck and behind her ears and Apollo thought this was great and kept wagging it making it harder for her to hold on and her mom had to then hold on to her as Apollo’s strength was swaying her back and forth. The giggles from her and the crowd and the smiles and BHRR’s Apollo was sooooooooooooo happy; just made me feel so warm inside. He is such an awesome dog!!!! NOT just any dog would allow a small child to hold on to their tail and derive a lot of delight in seeing them giggle.