K9 Rehabilitation & Conditioning Medical Center – K9 ReC Center

Mission

Provide continually evolving compassionate, state-of-the-art, progressive, and innovative rehabilitative medicine that facilitates the unique mental, physical, and social needs of Service, Sporting, Athlete, and Working dog (SSAW Dogs) patients (training, active, and retired) and VSC staff.

Vision

Establish, maintain, and be recognized as a Center of Excellence by

1. practicing exceptional, compassionate, progressive, and innovative veterinary Rehabilitative medicine addressing the unique needs of SSAW Dogs (training, active, and retired) without interfering with training and/or performance physically, behaviorally, cognitively, or emotionally;
2. providing a safe, supportive, and facilitative work environment for employees; and
3. contributing to the advancement of rehabilitative science and medicine unique to training, active and retired SSAW Dogs, as well as evolve SSAW Dog performance and health from puppyhood through retirement.

K9 ReC Center Capabilities

The VSC K9 ReC Center offers cutting-edge rehabilitation and conditioning medicine designed specifically for Service, Sporting, Athlete, and Working (SSAW) Dogs. Our specialized K9 Team is trained and experienced in handling SSAW Dogs in a manner that minimizes the psychological and physical stress of medical evaluation and treatment. We focus on balancing physical, medical, and mental health in a manner that improves performance.

Some of our specific capabilities include the following:

• Individualized conditioning and rehabilitation plans focused on return-to-duty/sport
• Advanced gait analysis
• Advanced therapeutic LASER technology
• Underwater treadmills
• Acoustic compression therapy
• Therapeutic ultrasound
• Medical Acupuncture
• And much more!

SSAW Dogs may perform tasks or events well, even with high drive and enthusiasm, but this does not necessarily mean they are sound, pain-free, or at their optimal performance. More often than not, motivation and/or drive overrides pain or discomfort. Adrenaline kicks in and instinct and drive take over resulting in ignored pain or injury. SSAW Dogs have an incredible work ethic and determination. They are so capable of getting into the Zone, they can focus out even severe injuries. So even though they train, serve, play and work seemingly fine, they may still be lame, painful, or even have a significant injury. X-rays can even be normal in the face of significant soft tissue injury (e.g., biceps tendonitis, cranial cruciate rupture, iliopsoas muscle strain). Although their bodies often adapt to an injury (so much you can hardly tell they are injured at times), demands from compensating can lead to added physical, and even mental stress, compromising performance and/or career longevity.

For signs that your dog may benefit from professional assessment select from the links below.

• Service Dogs (guide dogs, medical alert dogs, assistance dogs, etc.)
• Sporting Dogs (hunting dogs, field trial dogs, bird dogs, etc.)
• Athlete Dogs (agility, barn hunt, freestyle, fly ball, skijoring, musing, etc.)
• Working Dogs (law enforcement, search & rescue, military working dogs, etc.)
• Retired K9 Dogs

To review the VSC K9 ReC Center exam process and experience follow this link.

We focus on the following groups at the K9 ReC Center –

• Service Dogs
• Sporting Dogs
• Athlete Dogs
• Working Dogs
• Retired K9 Dogs

Our K9 Team.