Old dogs, children and watermelon wine...

We knew the day was coming that Hercules (aka, The Senior Partner) would have trouble with his hips.

He is a nine-year-old German Shepherd and he was involved in an accident when he was three months old.

To put it inelegantly, I backed over him with the S-10. The growth-plate was sheared off the ball at the top of his femur. Vets were able to reattach it with a series of small, stainless steel finishing nails driven in through the ball and into the pancake of growth-plate.

The operation was a partial success. The ball ended up undersized compared to the socket and the vets advised us that it was not a matter of "if" but a matter of "when" Herc had issues with his hip.

A couple of weeks ago Herc went off his feed. Belladonna noticed he was favoring his left, rear leg. We dosed him with enteric coated, 81mg aspirin and nursed him along. This morning, I saw his left, hind leg go skating away from him as he walked across the vinyl flooring in the entryway. I suspect this was the root-cause of the insult that triggered the latest episode.

Our first attempt to improve the traction with a carpet remnant was a failure. The bottom of the door was so low that it bunch up the carpet and we were not able to open the door. We did not want to trade improved traction for the dog and increased tripping hazard for us humans.

Source

While discussing the issue with the ever lovely and wise Mrs ERJ, she suggested we look at improving the traction in the entryway with the same "stickers" we put in our bathtub. A quick visit to Amazon shows they are available in clear which will not impact the aesthetics of the entryway.

I know I have some readers who are dog owners. Maybe this will be useful to you at some point as well.

To be continued...