Compensation Patterns

Let’s talk compensation patterns!

One thing we don’t think about often is how heavily quadrupeds (dogs and cats) are affected by compensation patterns in comparison to us humans! Being that their spine is horizontal to the ground instead of vertical to the ground like ours are, the compensation patterns I find give me a really good idea of how chronically your animal has been struggling with this problem.

The two biggest compensation patterns I tend to see are:

1️⃣ cross-pattern compensations in the front and hind end! What this means is that if we have reduced range of motion on the right hip, the left shoulder/cervico-thoracic junction is what has to pick up the slack, so we will eventually see a short stride and reduced range of motion there.

2️⃣ weakness patterns shifting to the opposite end! This is especially common in senior dogs. When a dog gets older, it’s not uncommon for their hips and hind end to hurt. To take pressure off the hind end, dogs will shift everything to the front end. This is why when you see them get up, the back legs will kind of lag behind and they’ll pull forward extra hard with their front end muscles. Eventually this leads to two things- muscle atrophy in the hind end due to lack of use/lack of bearing weight, and eventually a front end problem popping up. Because everyone kind of “expects” their senior dog to struggle in the hind end, people typically don’t seek out chiropractic care until the front end problem pops up, not understanding why their dog now has a front end issue after only having hind end issues.

One great way to get ahead of this is to be consistent in assessing your pet’s musculoskeletal health! Watch for gait pattern abnormalities, check for range of motion, and have your pet checked regularly by a trained animal chiropractor!