The first Canine Rehabilitation Institute Certificate Course to be held in the UK took place this weekend at Fitzpatrick Referrals.
The course is aimed at vets and veterinary physiotherapists and the first module, Canine Sports Medicine, which ran over three consecutive days was fully subscribed.
The module was delivered by M. Christine Zink, DVM, PhD, Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation – a recognised leader in this field and each day was a mixture of interesting presentations supported by excellent images and practical demonstrations.
Many of the demonstrations were held outside as we were fortunate enough to see plenty of good weather over the weekend. Fitzpatrick Referrals has plenty of hard standing space which was ideal for gait analysis and a new grass physio enclosure enabled the lecturer to display a variety of physiotherapy exercises using agility dogs and a wide range of equipment.
Topics included an introduction to canine sporting events, gait evaluation with interpretation of findings, conditioning the canine athlete, injury prevention, sports re-training, structure and locomotion relating to performance and rehabilitation after common sports injuries. Students were also able also to get practical hands on experience with dogs at the event.
