This free Ruffwear Flagline harness from the Tripawds Gear Fund has been awarded to Alycia for front leg amputee dog Damon.
Learn more to see if you qualify for a free harness, or Support the Tripawds Foundation to help more Tripawds and their people!
Meet Amputee Dog Dudley
Damon Dog was hit by a car as a stray dog in October of 2022 in Central Florida. The vet the shelter hired tried to stop his elbow from dislocating multiple times between October 2022 and December 2022 and they finally decided to amputate. Much of his early recovery was done at the shelter. He was in the shelter for 6 months total. We adopted him in early March of 2023.
Damon gets around really well for a tripawd that hasn’t had a lot of aftercare. His veterinarians always say he is getting around really well and are surprised by how fast he can run. We do doggy push-ups with him sometimes to just try to keep him in shape. He has also gone through a full training course and has done some training with obstacles. As far as medication is concerned, he only takes one cosequin everyday.
Damon absolutely loves to run. He goes to the park weekly with his boyfriend Angus, a pug from upstairs, and will run with him for hours.
A few issues I have noticed is sometimes when Damon is very excited to play, he will be running and forget that he is missing the right front limb. I think that’s because they left his elbow. In addition, he gets very uncomfortable with dogs that are bigger than him most of the time. He feels very threatened but gets along with small dogs is great. He does not like anyone touching around his missing limb besides his dad and I. It took a lot of work to get him to trust.
Damon is also very friendly and very connected with me. He picks up on a lot of my medical issues so he has been training as my service dog for the past year. He mostly does tasks to help get my heart rate down or to calm me.
At one point, Damon was supposed to get a prosthetic leg donated by a school for engineering but the project got scrapped because they couldn’t work with his elbow that he pushes in and out as he wishes.
Overall, Damon is a really good dog. He is respectful of his rabbit siblings and looks out for us, all of us. Damon is extremely loyal and silly and we love him so much. We moved from Florida to Indianapolis Indiana last year and he has settled in really well and enjoys all the new smells.
Damon’s new harness is awesome for him. We haven’t been able to find a harness that fits him properly but this one is amazing. And he seems so comfortable in it. I really love the feature of the extra loop on the chest to help reduce pulling. Sometimes Damon just wants to run and we have to pull him back. This helps tremendously and keeps him on his feet stably when he is stopped from pulling. Thank you so much Tripawds for this awesome gift. My family would not be able to afford it otherwise.
~ Alycia and Dudley
Find the best harnesses for all Tripawds.