Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Our boy Max started limping on his front left leg this weekend.  The limping wasn't noticeable at first.  Rather, I first thought something was wrong because he was walking like a chicken (bobbing his head up and down).

We checked his paw and found nothing.  Same for his nails.  We also moved his leg back and forth and got no reaction.

Our Saturday wasn't anything beyond normal.  Just a walk and some inside/outside playtime.

Our plan is to take it easy for the next week or so until the limping stops.  If it continues, we're going to the vet (Even though I say I'm going to wait a week, I probably won't be able to go past Wednesday).

Any ideas of what to check in the meantime?

Just returned home from the dog park.  Great weather, however, we left after only about 3 minutes.  Our 17 month old saint Max, who I would have said had not met a dog he didn't like, had issues with 2 different dogs there.  First time was soon after coming in the gate and Max was sniffing along the fence.  A black lab came over to sniff Max.  Max responded with a growling bark.  We grabbed Max and put him in a sit-down. 

Soon thereafter he went over to greet people sitting at the picnic table and starting sniffing dogs with his tail wagging.  Max then started sniffing and was being sniffed by a yellow lab, when Max responded in the same growling bark as before.  There was some forward motion from him (not exactly lunges--best way to characterize it was aggressively defensive motion), and I was about to grab his tail (I remember reading in the dog park newsletter they recommended grabbing the tail in a dog fight.  Two weekends ago, a small dog was killed by a medium size dog at the park.  We weren't there when it happened, but that was the vision going through my head).  We got Max away and decided we were leaving immediately.

My husband and I were in shock.  This may sound like a cliche, but we have never seen Max like this.  We have been going to this park for about a year since around the time we adopted him.  The other dogs did nothing that should cause Max to act the way he did.  It just doesn't make sense to us.  Many times have I described Max as the ultimate dog park dog--loves to play, gentle around small dogs, loves greeting people and dogs. 

Not to influence anyone into thinking this is the cause, but about a month ago Max injured his knee at the park after his leg became caught between two smaller dogs (seeing him go down scared me to death.  I thought he either broke a bone or tore his acl).  We have since gone to the park once since the injury (this was a week ago), but we were there too long and he started limping (walking on only 3 legs) at the end.   

He didn't appear to be in any kind of pain today or recently.  Otherwise, we would not have gone.  The vet had told us after the knee injury to wait two weeks before going back...being paranoid parents, we waited about 4.

So, any ideas on what we could do or possibly why it happened?  I have heard that some dog's behavior changes around 2 years.  Is he just changing?

Max and us absolutely love going to the dog park, but unfortunately, this is not the type of behavior we can tolerate from him if we do.

We are very open to suggestions or ideas or your thoughts.

After owning a Nissan Sentra for years but soon learning a compact car and growing dog aren’t super compatible, we bought a small SUV this weekend (a Honda CRV).

Though Max has no apparent hip problems yet, I’m not comfortable having him jump down out of the car repeatedly.

Ramps I’ve found online range in price (some more than $150).  Does anyone have any recommendation s that are reasonable in price and weight?

We also thought about building a ramp ourselves.  However, with the back seats pushed forward, we have about 4 feet in length to work with (when storing the ramp inside the car).  The ramp then would be at a very steep angle that just doesn’t seem climbable.

Thanks.