Hydrotherapy
Our underwater treadmill provides a low load-bearing environment for your dog to exercise and receive rehabilitation. The treadmill allows us to control the temperature and depth of the water, as well as the speed and incline of the belt. This means that not only is your dog getting the benefits of hydro-static pressure helping blood flow and swollen joints but also receiving targeted exercise that is truly personalised for their individual need.

Benefits of hydrotherapy
• Warmth – a temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius helps your dog relax, and warms the muscles up
• Buoyancy – reduces pressure on the joints, particularly beneficial for dogs with arthritis or recovering from orthopaedic surgery
• Water resistance – means that a short stint in the treadmill is equivalent to a much longer workout on the land. A short, but targeted workout. This can be increased for those who wish to work on conditioning and fitness rather than rehabilitation, by simply increasing the speed and incline of the belt.
• Hydrostatic pressure – helps swollen joints by putting an evenly distributed, but gentle pressure over any immersed area.

We have chosen to utilise an underwater treadmill, rather than a pool for these reasons:

• It provides a closed kinetic chain exercise, which can in turn provide more joint stability as the joints are being used in a functional manner.  
• We can have several views of the dog at once (front, side, back and top)
• We have the ability to regulate the speed of the treadmill belt, so that we are more closely mimicking the natural gait of your dog. 
• Dogs have different swimming styles, with some not using their back legs at all – which isn’t beneficial if they need to rebuild that muscle, post-surgery.