Underwater Treadmills for Dogs: Are They as Great as Everyone Says?
Over the past decade underwater treadmills have become increasingly popular within the world of Canine Rehabilitation, for both practitioners and dog owners alike. This, in turn, has led to the common belief that all dogs would benefit from underwater treadmill work, and it is sometimes even prescribed as a stand-alone treatment. However, while the underwater treadmill has its benefits and can be helpful for a number of canine conditions, it also has its limitations.
One of the main benefits of the underwater treadmill is that the buoyancy of the water decreases the effects of gravity and offloads the dog’s body weight, which allows the dog to move with less effort placed on their joints. While this is favourable for dogs who are overweight, suffer from osteoarthritis, or who have orthopaedic conditions such as hip and elbow dysplasia, one of its limitations is that it does not build significant muscle strength.
In order to build strength, muscles need to be progressively loaded. This has been well researched in human sports medicine. We know that to promote muscle and tendon growth, and subsequently gain strength, progressive loading using some form of resistance needs to occur.
You may be wondering why a dog moving against water wouldn’t provide adequate resistance to build muscle strength, particularly if the water level is high?
To answer this question we need to think about a dogs ratio of front limb to hind limb weight bearing. Dogs naturally place 60% of their weight through their front limbs, and 40% through their back legs. Research shows that when the water level is filled to hip level, this ratio shifts to 71:29. Which is great if your dog has osteoarthritis in their knee or hip joints and the aim is to maintain movement with minimal stress loading, but not so much if you are wanting to increase strength in the hamstrings and quadriceps to help support a knee with a partially torn crural (cruciate) ligament.
You may also be curious about whether decreasing the water level will require a dog to use more of their body weight to build strength? Again, the answer is no. If you decrease the water level to just above ankle height research shows that 9% of a dog’s body weight is offloaded, so they will still only be exercising at 91% of their body weight. All lowering the water level really does is increase the effect of gravity.
So, while the underwater treadmill can be used to build endurance (ie. by increasing the speed or time), it is a misconception that it will build significant improvements in strength. For this to occur, a muscle needs to be progressively loaded. So, what does this mean and how can we achieve this with our dogs?
Simply put, as muscles become accustomed to a certain exercise you need to make that exercise more challenging in order for the muscles to work harder, which in turn builds strength.
As an example, lets talk about how I have done this with a client of mine: A three-year-old French Bulldog who suffered an ANNPE (acute non-compressive nucleus pulpous extrusion - essentially the disc exploded!) requiring surgery earlier this year. Following surgery she had very limited movement, strength and balance in her back legs. Initially we started with simple plank-type exercises (such as static standing) to build up her core muscles. I then added controlled sit-to-stand exercises on a stable surface, increasing the repetitions and sets as able. From here we progressed to the same exercise on more unstable surfaces, such as the Bosu ball and wobble board. We also progressed her from static standing on all four limbs, to three-legged standing and hemi-stands (lifting alternate front and hind limbs from the floor together). This rehabilitation program allowed me to target specific muscles using progressive loading to build strength.
Being able to target specific muscles is another limitation of the underwater treadmill. While it can certainly help condition muscles generally, if you are wanting to rehabilitate a particular muscle or muscle group the best way to do this is through a progressive loading program, using a variety of equipment and exercises.
The underwater treadmill is also often prescribed in the treatment of dogs who have an abnormal gait pattern, which is essentially a dogs manner of walking. A dogs gait may be ‘off’ for a number of different reasons including (but not limited to) spinal injury, pain, muscle imbalance secondary to weakness and neurological disorders.
While in some instances the underwater treadmill can help normalise a walking pattern, it is important that the therapist is in the water and correcting the abnormal gait with their hands. Otherwise all that will be happening is reinforcement of the incorrect pattern while building endurance. It is therefore important that the underlying issue is correctly diagnosed and targeted with a rehabilitation program that includes manual therapy, massage and specific exercises first, before any underwater treadmill work is undertaken.
In conclusion, I am certainly not against the use of the underwater treadmill in Canine Rehabilitation, but my belief is that it is over-prescribed and over-used. For some dogs it is a great tool as it can help rebuild de-conditioned muscles, promote cardiovascular fitness and improve endurance. I even recommend it to some of my own clients. However, I do think we need to keep in mind that it is only one treatment modality and that it has limitations in the rehabilitation of many canine conditions.
A good Canine Rehabilitation program should be well-rounded and specific to your dog’s diagnosis and needs. Just as you would not expect your Physiotherapist to simply prescribe walking on a treadmill to fix your torn cruciate ligament, neither should we expect this for our own dogs.
If you are concerned your dog may be experiencing pain then my eBook, ‘How to Tell if Your Canine Companion is in Pain’ is a helpful resource full of advice & tips that help you monitor them. You can purchase a copy for only $19.95 (AUS) by clicking here.
