Luxury heated spa baths and bubbling jet pools are usually just the place for stressed out, over-worked folk to head to for a spot of pampering. But at a spa, in Ashton Keynes, it's only four legged clients that are allowed on their books. Racehorses, for years, have benefited from taking a dip but now at The Glendora Hydrotherapy Centre it's dogs that are being encouraged to take the plunge.
 | | Toby taking a dip |
So we decided to go along and have a look. The centre, set up a couple of years ago by Mary and John Freeth, allows pets with aches, pains or a few extra pounds to shift to book in for a course of spa treatments, a serious pool workout or just a plain recreational swim. Swimming, it seems, is just as good for man's best friend as it is for man and can work wonders on the arthritic, the creaky and the just plain too lazy to go fetch a ball. The therapy begins with a spot of relaxation in the hot tub: "It's a bit like a Jacuzzi, hot spa," says Mary. "Some dogs actually do fall asleep in here. "It warms the blood and warms the muscles. It's like a pre-warm up exercise."
 | | Ohhh yessss... |
From the 38 degree bubbling hot tub, with muscles warmed and relaxed, the pampered pet is lifted into the specially-adapted heated canine swimming pool for a spot of doggy paddle therapy. But in a pool just 11 ft by 8 ft doing doggy laps is out of the question. Instead it's up against a couple of powerful water jets that the pooch has to swim. When we arrived Toby, a senior black Labrador with a few extra pounds to shift and arthritis, was already paddling gamely against the anti-swim jets trying to get hold of what looked like a doggy treat: "He's chasing a bit of food attached to a toy, he's food orientated," says Mary. "It's quite a powerful job that he's doing. One minute against those jets is the equivalent to a mile's exercise." Having faced a couple of minutes swimming against the tide Toby, donning an animal-sized life jacket to keep him afloat, is given a few minutes breather at the other end of the pool before facing the jets again. "They do look forward to coming in here," says Mary. "We've got some dogs that you just open up the door, stand back and they run up the ramp and just dive in."
 | | Sam in the hot tub |
Mary's next client Sam, a Springer spaniel, had to be stopped from doing just that when he came bounding in. An event which proved to be even more amazing when we found out that, back in May, Sam had been almost completely paralysed from the neck down. "He had a prolapsed disc," says his owner Jeanie Everitt. "We were taking him for a walk and his legs knuckled under. "He was completely paralysed, couldn't even lift his head – it was awful." After two major operations, a tracheotomy, and with vets suggesting that Sam be put down Jeanie turned to swimming lessons as a last option: "We carried him in here," says Jeanie "and Mary put him straight in the water. She was in the water with him rotating his legs like a bicycle to teach him how to move his legs again." "We actually got them rotating for him," says Mary "and he was soon able to twig on that: ‘Yes, I can move my legs.'" Watching Sam bouncing around the centre, it was hard to imagine him so paralysed that he didn't even have control over his own bowel movements: "When he actually took his first steps, it was in the car park," says Mary. "He got up, took his first steps, a bit wobbly, fell down than stood up again and walked in. We all stood in here and we were all crying."
 | | Sam with the much prized ball |
Now with the determination of a spawning salmon, Sam is paddling furiously against the current with his eye firmly fixed on a tennis ball toy that assistant, Shelly Jones, is holding out. "He’s brilliant," says Jeanie "and the fact that he loves balls has really been a great help." With his aqua-batic workout over, and with the tennis ball triumphantly gripped between his teeth, it's into the showers for Sam for a quick shampoo and a blow dry with what looks like the wrong end of a vacuum cleaner. But is it just dogs that can benefit from a swim? "No," says Mary. "We can do cats and monkeys as well but that's as much as we can do. "We can't do things like iguanas, snakes and things like that because obviously they carry salmonella and we could get cross-contamination so that's the only reason we don't." And can anyone bring their pet along for a dip? "Yes absolutely anybody can come along," says Mary "but you do need to get your dog checked out by a vet first, they don't charge for this it's purely so that we know that your dog is OK." For more information on canine hydrotherapy call the Glendora Canine Hydrotherapy Centre on 01285 860 719 or click on the links in the right hand column. | 
