As you know, a few dogs were “dropped” from the teams during the CB300. None for any real or obvious injuries, but showing enough signs of discomfort that the mushers made the decisions to drop them in the interest of the dogs’ best welfare. Aliy talked about all of the dropped dogs during Part 2 of the CB300 video debrief series, but we wanted to share a little follow-up with you on their status.
In this “Physical Therapy” Run mini-series, you will see that they are all quite well and in different stages of “rehab.” That’s not really a great word to describe it, but we have yet to come up with a better one. You’ll also note we use the term “physical therapy” but that really isn’t completely accurate either. Basically, after showing any signs of discomfort and/or being dropped from a race team, a dog will get some “time off” to rest, recover, restore… whatever. Then, rather than go right back to training at full speed and distance, they will go for a few short, easy, stretch-out runs during which Aliy takes a very close look at their gait, etc. Once they “pass” that examination, they go back into full training rotation.
In Part 1, Aliy starts with a candid review and description of the dropped dogs’ status, then hooks them up and heads out for a “physical therapy” run.
Physical therapists rehab sick or injured people. A few PTs rehab animals. It is appropriate to say, "I'm going to physical therapy to be rehabilitated."
PTs always examine the gaits of people to figure out their problems, just like Aliy did with the dogs. Once the PT knows what the problem is, corrections can be made. Typical patients usually don't go on "training runs," however, athletes who are patients do. PTs watch the athlete patient very carefully to see if there are any abnormalities in their running gait and help the athlete correct it.
Bottom line, your use of both terms was appropriate.
It was nice to see how careful you are of your dogs.
You all are sooo nice and knowledgeable to your dogs and I am learning a lot for my three non-sled dogs.
Thank you.