Charalambous Danae, Strasser Therese, Tichy Alexander, Bockstahler Barbara
Department of Companion Animals and Horses, University Clinic for Small Animals, Small Animal Surgery, Section for Physical Therapy, University of Veterinary Medicine, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Platform for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, University of Veterinary Medicine, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Jun 30;12(13):1702. doi: 10.3390/ani12131702.
Walking over obstacles is a widely used physiotherapy exercise in dogs. Current research is limited to the effect of this exercise in kinematics and muscle activation in dogs. The present study assessed the influence of walking over obstacles on the ground reaction forces (GRFs) and center of pressure (COP) in dogs. Data of dogs walking over one and two obstacles over a pressure platform were retrospectively analyzed and compared to normal walking. Walking over one obstacle did not affect the GRFs and COP of the forelimbs; however, significant changes were observed for the hindlimbs, especially the leading hindlimb. Walking over two obstacles caused significant changes to only one value at the forelimbs, whereas multiple significant changes in the GRFs and COP values were observed at the hindlimbs. Walking over obstacles seems to be challenging even for healthy adult dogs. Further studies are needed to investigate how different heights of obstacles and distances between them can further challenge the animals. The combination of kinetics and kinematics during walking over obstacles may be used in future as a diagnostic tool in geriatric and neurological patients in order to assess their proprioception awareness or to assess the improvement after an intervention, e.g., physiotherapy treatment.
跨越障碍物行走是一种在犬类中广泛应用的物理治疗运动。目前的研究仅限于该运动对犬类运动学和肌肉激活的影响。本研究评估了跨越障碍物行走对犬类地面反作用力（GRFs）和压力中心（COP）的影响。回顾性分析了犬在压力平台上跨越一个和两个障碍物行走的数据，并与正常行走进行比较。跨越一个障碍物对前肢的GRFs和COP没有影响；然而，后肢，尤其是领先的后肢，观察到了显著变化。跨越两个障碍物仅导致前肢的一个值发生显著变化，而后肢的GRFs和COP值则出现了多个显著变化。即使对于健康的成年犬来说，跨越障碍物行走似乎也具有挑战性。需要进一步研究来调查不同高度的障碍物及其之间的距离如何能进一步考验动物。未来，跨越障碍物行走时的动力学和运动学结合可能会被用作老年和神经疾病患者的诊断工具，以评估他们的本体感觉意识或评估干预（如物理治疗）后的改善情况。
