07/08/2026
🐾 Want to help keep your pet’s knees strong?
Strong muscles are one of the best ways to support healthy knee joints and reduce the risk of common conditions such as cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) injuries and medial patella luxation (MPL). While not every injury can be prevented, improving strength, balance and coordination can significantly reduce joint stress and improve long-term function.
Here are some of our favourite strengthening exercises:
🏔️ Hill walking – Activates the gluteal muscles, hamstrings and quadriceps while encouraging controlled hindlimb loading.
🪑 Sit to stands on a narrow surface – Improves hindlimb strength, pelvic stability and encourages better limb alignment.
🐕 Three-leg balance – Carefully lifting one hindlimb challenges balance, proprioception and weight-bearing through the supporting leg.
🐾 Crawling – A fantastic whole-body exercise that builds core stability, coordination and hindlimb strength.
🥜 Raised standing on a peanut or unstable surface – Develops postural control, balance and activation of the stabilising muscles around the hips and knees.
⬆️ Sit to step-up – Progressing from sitting to stepping onto a raised platform builds power, strength and confidence through the hindlimbs.
⚠️ These exercises should always be tailored to your pet’s age, breed, injury history and current ability. Performing the wrong exercise, or progressing too quickly, can do more harm than good.
At MAP, our Animal Physiotherapists assess your pet’s movement, identify areas of weakness and create an individualised exercise program to help prevent injury, improve performance and keep them active for years to come.
Strong muscles. Stable joints. Happy adventures. 💙
CruciateLigament PatellaLuxation InjuryPrevention CanineFitness HealthyDogs SeniorDogs SportingDogs Hydrotherapy StrengthTraining
