I keep a short list of the mornings Duchess has needed a hand, and the list has gotten shorter since last January. She is a 9-year-old yellow Lab, about 64 pounds, diagnosed at age 7 with hip dysplasia and early arthritis in both hips. Most days she gets around like nothing is wrong. Some mornings her back end does not come along, and those mornings used to end with me standing behind her on the porch steps with my forearms under her belly, which is a fine way for a 61-year-old man to wreck his back.
The LOOBANI rear support sling fixed that one problem. I bought the size Large about ten months ago, after an icy morning when she could not get her hind legs up the three steps to the back porch. It hangs on a hook by the door now, next to the leash. She was used to it inside a few days. It has not cured anything, because hip dysplasia does not get cured. What it does is move part of the load off her back end and onto my arms. Here are ten places that matters, in the order I ran into them.
One sling, one hook by the back door, ten seconds to put on
This is the exact LOOBANI sling I bought last January for a 64 pound Lab with bad hips. Size Large, adjustable nylon, a soft lining under the belly, and it folds into its own bag when the ice melts. Mine has been through ten months of mud, hose water and the washing machine.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It gets a heavy dog up three porch steps on an icy morning
This is the reason I bought the LOOBANI sling in the first place. Our back porch has three steps, and on a cold morning Duchess would stand at the bottom and think about it, then try, then slide back down. With the sling under her hindquarters and the straps in my hand, she takes each step with me carrying maybe a third of her weight. On dry ground she still does those steps alone. On ice, the sling comes off the hook. That is the whole arrangement.
It ends the four failed attempts to stand up off concrete
She spends most of the workday in the pole barn with me, lying on a folded moving blanket while I fix things. Concrete is cold and unforgiving, and a dog with arthritic hips has to rock three or four times to get her back legs under her. Now I set the LOOBANI sling under her and lift. She does the front, I help the back, and she is up on the first try. Fewer failed attempts means less wear on joints that do not have much left to give.
It steadies her on slick wood floors
Our kitchen and living room are old wood, and a tired Lab on slick wood walks like a man on a frozen pond. Her back feet skid and she catches herself with the front end. The sling does not give her traction, so do not expect that. What it does is keep her upright enough that she stops catching herself. I walk beside her with the straps and she crosses the room without the little scramble that used to happen at the turn by the stove.
It covers the days the ramp cannot be used
I bought a folding ramp eight months ago and it solved most of the truck problem. A ramp also needs level, dry ground to be safe. In mud season or on ice it is worse than nothing, and there were two weeks in February when I would not put it down at all. The sling gets her from the porch to the tailgate, and then I lift her into the back seat the way I did before. Two tools, two different jobs.
It helps her hold position for a bathroom break
Nobody talks about this part. A heavy dog with weak hips has to hold herself up while she squats, and by evening she is shaky doing it. The first time I put the LOOBANI sling under her for a bathroom break she looked back at me like I had lost my mind, then she went. Now it is routine. I take the weight and she does the rest. If your dog has started skipping trips outside because it is too much work, this is worth knowing.
The sling did not give her traction and it did not fix her hips. It moved part of the load from her back end to my arms, and on the bad mornings that turned out to be enough.
It handles ice, mud and wet grass without falling apart
Michigan hands us all three in the same week. Wet grass is the sneaky one, because she does not slip so much as sink and stagger. The LOOBANI nylon takes mud and hose water without complaint, and the lining does not stay soaked against her, which matters on a cold day. When it gets truly filthy I run it through the machine and hang it on the porch rail. Ten months of that and it still looks like equipment, not a rag.
It gets a nervous dog across a slick vet waiting room
Our vet's office has a slick floor and a narrow exam room, and a nervous 64 pound dog on tile is a bad combination. With the sling I can walk her in under control instead of hauling her across the threshold. It helps the exam too, because our vet can check her hind legs while I hold the straps and keep her steady. If your dog has started fighting the trip to the clinic, this may be part of why.
It buys her the walk from the barn to the woodstove
Hers, not mine. After a morning of following me around the barn, her back end quits before her front does, and she still wants to be where I am. That means the trip from the barn door to the living room. The sling handles those twenty feet, then she is on the orthopedic bed by the woodstove. Small thing. It is the difference between her spending the evening alone on a barn blanket and spending it in the room with us.
It keeps her moving, which is what our vet asked for
Our vet told me plainly that a dog with arthritis does better moving than parked, and that muscle supports a bad joint. The catch is that a dog in pain stops moving on her own. The LOOBANI sling is what makes a short walk possible on a bad day, which keeps her from losing the muscle she needs on the good days. It is a tool for keeping the routine. It is not a treatment, and I would not let anyone tell you otherwise.
It tells you how much weight she is actually carrying
The straps report things the dog will not. On a good morning she takes her own weight and I am mostly a steadying hand. On a bad morning I am holding half of her and I feel it in my shoulders by the time we reach the door. That is information. Two rough mornings in a row, or a change that does not go back to her baseline, is when I pick up the phone and call our vet.
What I'd Skip
Three things. I would skip buying a sling instead of getting a diagnosis, because a sling does not tell you whether the problem is hips, knees or a spine issue, and our vet is the one who sorted that out for Duchess. I would skip guessing at the size. The LOOBANI Large is listed for 15 to 30 kg and she sits near the top of that at 64 pounds, so measure the belly and check the chart instead of ordering by the word large. And I would skip expecting it to replace the bed, the ramp or the medication. It replaced my forearms, and that was all I needed from it.
One more honest note: it took her a few days to stop balking at the thing. I put it on, gave her a piece of kibble, took it off. Then I put it on and we walked to the mailbox and back. By the end of that week she stood still while I slid it under her, because she had figured out what came next.
If you are lifting your dog with your back, stop doing that
Duchess was up the steps the same week the LOOBANI sling arrived, and ten months on it still hangs by the door. Size Large fit a 64 pound Lab. Measure first, check the chart, and keep the vet in the loop on anything that looks like an injury.
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