An end and a beginning

I have just arrived home from taking Kaydee and Zazzy to a fantastic physiotherapist. There is good news for Zazzy. She has recovered well from the trauma to her back, and we can now start to rebuild her fitness with the aim of returning to normal agility training, which I guess will take about six to eight weeks. (So plenty of time to re-train her targeting, which she seems to have completely forgotten!) (I will be trying hard to ignore her brothers and sisters who have already made stunningly brilliant agility debuts!)
While Zazzy is about to start out, Kaydee has reached the end of her competitive agility career. After a very thorough examination and discussion, I think I have a much clearer picture of what is going on with her. A region of her spine is not mobile, possibly an arthritic response to an old trauma (she suffered a nasty accidental collision when she was younger). This lack of mobility causes a problem during the highly demanding athletic requirements of training and competing in agility, because the muscles in that area cannot function optimally where her back does not flex where it is supposed to. Although she compensates pretty well, the compensation causes soreness and problems in other areas that have to work harder and stretch further. This at first causes muscle soreness, then over-stretching of muscle, ligament or tendon, thus causing tears and injury. So my job now is to think of something she can do that will keep her physically fit and mobile, and mentally challenged, without causing any problems.