Luxating patella and sport

[Ashlea]

I have a 4 or 5 year old rescued Pap. She has been diagnosed with asymptomatic bilateral luxating patella. Seeing that this is causing her no pain at all, how safe would it be for her to participate in agility? I think she would enjoy it once she got the hang of it but I worry about the knees.

I would really like to get her involved in some sort of group activity. Odedience will bore her to death as she is older and has quite a short attension span. She was also badly abused and tends to roll submissivly if she so much as thinks you might be getting a little uptight.

What do you all think?

[RD]

I have a Papillon with LPs and he does quite well in agility. The only thing I have to be careful of is extremely sharp turns, so he'll probably never be able to compete in open/excellent classes but I hope to someday get at his NA.
We did have a bit of trouble with them a while back... I've noticed that some days, Ripley's knees are pretty bad. Other days, he's fine. I just don't work him much on jumps and weaves on the bad days, and stick to the easier obstacles like tunnels and contacts.

Definitely give it a shot, but go easy and keep things gentle until you know what is hard on her knees and can figure out what to avoid doing. If you have no plans on competing, you can avoid certain obstacles altogether if she has trouble with them.

[Ashlea]

Thanks. I also have a BC and (well as you know) a Pap. Your little boy is too cute! I like his little badger mask. My girl is lemon and white.

[papillon806]

My pap doesn't have LP's, but my parent's english cocker did. They got surgery done before it got too bad and he is 100% better and hasn't had any problems since....is surgery an option?