FAQ
What is canine rehabilitation?
Canine rehabilitation combines therapeutic exercises in and out of water, hands on techniques and the use of modalities such as laser, electrical stimulation and ultrasound to assist your dog in pain reduction, tissue healing, strengthening and improving overall functional mobility.
What are Modalities?
A modality is an energy applied to produce therapeutic changes to biologic tissues, including thermal, acoustic, light, mechanical, or electric. Types of modalities we have available at Alta Dog are low level laser (cold laser/light therapy), therapeutic ultrasound, electrical stimulation including: interferential current, neuro muscular re-education, biphasic, and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS).
Is my dog a candidate for canine rehabilitation?
Whether your dog is suffering from an injury from an athletic event, arthritis, unspecified lameness, recovering from surgery or a neurological condition, or needs to loose weight canine rehabilitation can be a great benefit.
Will I receive instruction on how to continue treatment at home?
Alta Dog feels very strongly about teaching you a home exercise program. The home program is individualized to your dogs needs and your circumstances. Alta Dog provides both verbal and written instruction. At Alta Dog we believe that the key to success for returning your dog to their highest functional potential is a combination of therapy in the clinic and at home.
How long does a typical therapy session last?
Evaluation and first treatment typically lasts 75-90 minutes. Treatments typically last 45-60 minutes.
What do I need to do to set up an appointment?
Alta Dog must receive a referral from your veterinarian in order to evaluate and treat your dog. Your veterinarian can write a referral for rehabilitation to bring on your first visit or you can ask them to call Alta Dog at 385-226-5971 to provide a verbal referral. Your veterinarian should provide your dogs medical history and/or any precautions or medical concerns they may have regarding participation in rehabilitation. Alta Dog is happy to contact your veterinarian for the referral information prior to the initial evaluation.
Am I allowed to be with my dog during treatment?
We encourage you to stay during the initial evaluation and first treatment. We will be discussing your dogs medical and functional history with you throughout the evaluation. We will be providing you with hands on instruction so that you will feel comfortable with the home exercise program we establish for you and your dog.
We have found that 99% of dogs are able to focus better on therapy when their owners are not present during treatments, which in turn results in a more productive therapy visit. All follow-up visits will be drop-off appointments. We are able to better establish a therapeutic relationship with your dog when they are able to pay attention to us and their therapy session verses looking for and paying attention to you, or being on guard to protect you.
Covid-19 taught us that drop off treatments have been significantly more productive. We are able to fully concentrate on your dogs treatment and them on us. We still review your dogs progress and discuss any concerns you may have prior to treatment. After their treatment we will discuss what was done during therapy, provide and demonstrate any new home exercises.
What forms of payment does Alta Dog accept?
We are happy to accept cash, check, or credit card payments. Please note, listed prices are the cash/check price. A processing fee will be added for all credit card payments. Find prices for evaluations and treatment visits here!
Does Alta Dog Treat Cats?
Yes! We will need a referral from your veterinarian.
What is Alta Dog’s cancellation policy?
Alta Dog is a very small clinic and staff according to our schedule, thus we require 24-hour notice of cancellation for established client treatments and 48-hours notice of cancellation for New Client Evaluations.
Because we reserve a time especially for your dog, please make any schedule changes by 4pm the day before service to avoid incurring a cancellation fee. This advance notice will allow another patient access to an appointment time. To cancel or reschedule your appointment, please call and leave a voice message or text us at 385-226-5971
Cancellation and no-show fees with less than 24-hours of notice for established client treatments will occur as follows:
$50.00 for the first cancellation
$75.00 for the second cancellation
Full payment for the third cancellation and full payment in advance prior to scheduling any future appointments.
No Show Fee for established clients - Full payment of treatment scheduled and full payment in advance prior to scheduling any future appointments.
Cancellation fees with less than 48-hours of notice for New client evaluations and no show fees are:
$97.50 and full payment in advance prior to rescheduling your evaluation.
Thank you for helping us keep our business running efficiently and allowing us to treat all paws in need.
We started locking our doors during Covid-19 and learned something amazing! The dogs that we are currently working with are able to relax and finish their treatments without interruption or stress.
We are a very small clinic without a receptionist and are rarely in the front lobby. When the doors were unlocked and owners/dogs entered before their scheduled time and waited in the lobby we could all hear but not see what was happening. Generally the end of your dogs treatment includes some type of relaxing treatment, massage, icing, electric stimulation. Imagine if you were finishing up having a massage and ten minutes prior to ending you could hear someone yelling "hello" a dog barking "hello".... no longer are you relaxed and stress free. We thank you for remaining in your car until your scheduled appointment time and returning 10 minutes before your treatment ends. You do not need to call or text us when you arrive. We pride ourselves for running on time and will be out to get you at your scheduled time.
In the unlikely event you are waiting more than 10 minutes to start your appointment, you can call or text us at 385-226-5971 (we may be cleaning an accident!).