Swim your dog back to full fitness
Sema Harding
“Kenmillto Summer Soltace at Simply Sema”
16th August 2002 – 9th January 2009
Sema was the compromise that turned out to be the best thing we ever did. Mark, having threatened not to marry if he could not have a GSD, compromised and agreed on a choc lab and so we found Sema, so named after being born on a farm near Sema water. Mark held her all the way home what a gorgeous bundle of fluff we had…..then it began!!
She cried all night until Mark gave in and let her sleep in the bedroom by his side of the bed.
When we eventually managed to get her used to sleeping alone she CHEWED EVERYTHING. The stairs, the furniture, the skirting boards, new shoes everything.
It wasn’t long before we found that she had a sensitive stomach and pedigree chum was not the best thing for a dog. She had violent sickness and the runs and she would spray paint our utility with projectile poo… not nice. Then came the limp. So we changed her food and the poo went but the limp remained. It was at 6 months that she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, wow how that changed our life. We searched for a hydrotherapy pool but came up empty handed and so gave up. We resigned ourselves to swimming her in streams and at the beach. But in true human fashion I felt she was lonely and so came Sulli, Sema’s one true doggy love and partner in crime. It was her continued battle with her hips that eventually led us to start the mammoth task of installing a pool and training how to maximise it use. In fact it was the search for somewhere to build it that led us to buy a kennels with room to build it ( field of dreams comes to mind here....”build it and they will come”). She needed the warmth of the water and the regular swims as the medication played havoc with her tummy . Within 6-8 weeks of starting regular hydrotherapy she was off medication and had regained the youthful spring and helicopter tail spinning that we had seen as a pup. It really worked wonders in giving us our little girl back. We knew the benefits and felt we could offer more to others who faced the same problems.
Since then we have had nothing but a fantastic friend. she is soft loyal smart cuddly loving and cheeky but also very importantly the leader of the pack. She has set the youngsters straight and protected them when needed. No one could ask for a truer companion and the founder of mine and Mark’s lives in the dog world. We owe her so very much, and due to her love and devotion our labs kennel name was born
“Simplysema”
Thank you. xxxxxxx