Dogs Need Active Care Everyday

Your dog’s joints--to know them is to love them.
Your dog’s body includes dozens of joints, all protected and fitting together perfectly because of the vital spongy cartilage that coats each moving part. The cartilage provides lubrication, acts as the joint’s shock absorbers, and prevents the bones’ hard, rough surfaces from coming into contact. It’s the smooth function of your dog’s joints that allow the thousands of movements, large and small, that get them through the day.

Which ages first, your dog or their joints?
It’s actually the cartilage that ages, to devastating effect. Even while your dog seems quite young and vital, the cells in their joints that make substances called GAGs have already begun to fail. Chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine, and hyaluronic acid are some of the GAGs that provide the cartilage with its basic structural materials. Ironically, your dog’s heart, lungs and muscles are all perfectly healthy from their years of running around. But without chondroitin sulfate, their cartilage erodes, and their joints begin to feel every movement. Physical activity loses its appeal. Your dog becomes more sedentary. Eventually, the good health the rest of their body enjoyed deteriorates along with their ability to move.

Will certain breeds always end up in pain?
Until recently there was nothing to do but wait for it. Especially for many large breeds including shepherds and retrievers, and long-backed breeds such as dachshunds and bassets, hip, joint, and back problems always seem to come too soon, and their severity can sometimes be heartbreaking. But now, the role of cartilage supplementation including chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine is understood. Now you can take some safe simple steps throughout the life of your dog to delay for years the onset of joint problems, substantially lessen their severity and, most importantly, start to reverse the damage that has already occurred.