Mark's Tyson 4/12 Conservative Bichon Grad now 6/12

"The first is to try to remain happy with your dog’s current status whilst encouraging improvement and the second is to be patient. This is not always easy as progress can seem relatively slow at the beginning and our only wish is for our dog to be normal again. This can lead to frustration and a feeling that your dog will never get better and this gives rise to obvious distress. If we feel like this our interaction with our dog will be flavoured by disappointment and what can be a unique opportunity to deepen our bond with our pet can turn into a tortuous process. In order to avoid this think about how long it takes a baby to learn to walk and how complicated walking is. Your dog will not take that long and things only seem to be dragging because you are focussing so intently on your dog’s disability rather than their progressive improvement in ability. Remember to keep life normal, do not spend every minute with your dog looking for progress, do not become housebound; go out and meet friends and family as you would normally, in this way ‘the kettle will boil’.

When your dog is beginning to walk, keep the sessions very short as tired legs make for reinforcement of negative habits.

The time taken from injury to return of independent function may be up to 3 months although improvement will still continue six months after surgery. In this latter stage the rate of improvement is slower and the process is more subtle, but it will happen."
www.torvet.co.uk/clinical-problems/spinal-problems/thoracolumbar-aftercare.html