Did you know that hydrotherapy, or water exercise was first used with horses and racing greyhounds? These animals were constantly exposed to the jarring effects of gravity and hard surfaces, putting extra stress on their bones and joints often causing injury. Because of its effectiveness, hydrotherapy in a warm water pool (with a temperature between 88 and 92 degrees) has become popular in most dog and cat rehabilitation centers.

What do you think is the best gift you can give your pet? Could it be your love? Or your time? Those are definitely important, but I think the best gift we can give our beloved pet companions is the gift of health.

You may or may not know this, but we spent a year researching what type of sanitation system we wanted to use in our aqua therapy center. We instinctively knew chlorine was very bad, and never considered it. We briefly considered bromine, a chlorine substitute, but again, it has many of the same harmful effects as chlorine. Then we looked at salt, but felt it would be too drying to both our skin and to the dog’s skin.

I give my dog Beau table food as I’ve done with all my other dogs. The one mistake I made in the past was giving them tidbits while I was eating and as a result they became very good at begging! Often times I’d have these eyes peering up at me from my lap and find a wet napkin from their attempt to lick off morsels of food that may have been wiped from my mouth. This of course is unacceptable especially when you have company for dinner.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately on the use of stem cells in the treatment of chronic conditions in humans. The question is whether these cells are viable or will they be rejected by the recipient. With animals, this is not a concern as stem cells are sourced and harvested from the animal’s own fat cells offering little danger of rejection.

Dogs are part of our family – many people consider them as their children. I know I do. Cats are also family members but they are so independent that the same nurturing we offer our dogs usually is not necessary.

Although I think most people are familiar with dysplasia, I thought it might be of use to just review what it is. Hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia are the common terms used to describe the abnormal development of the respective joints. Both hip and elbow dysplasia are inherited conditions.

If your dog is lost, what is the probability that he will be found and returned to you? Not sure – it depends on the circumstances.

Most of us have ID tags on our dog’s collar but it’s been my experience especially in my neighborhood that most dogs get out after having had a bath and have no collar on.

Oh just to have someone rub my ears, he thinks – the pleasured look on your dog’s face tells you how wonderful it feels. Why is this so enjoyable? It’s because there’s an entire network of nerves that extend to the internal organs sending impulses throughout the body. Acupuncture and acupressure practitioners have been targeting the ears for years for this reason.

We’ve had a bunch of rain over the last few days and many people have commented to us that their dog isn’t interested in going out at all. It got me thinking – what is it about rain that dogs hate?

We are the only Orlando dog boarding and Orlando doggie day care center that has an indoor heated pool for dogs. See it for yourself by scheduling a tour!

Rocky's Retreat | 2826 Shader Rd. Orlando FL 32808 | info@rockysretreat.com | (407) 295-3888