Whether your dog is elderly, has arthritis or is recovering from surgery, you may need to use a ramp to help your dog get in and out of the car at some point. Following Irie’s ACL surgery, we have been reviewing the Solvit Deluxe XL Telescoping Pet Ramp, an extra long ramp made for large dogs that need a gradual climb into the car.
Today we took our first post-surgery day trip with Irie, thanks to the Solvit Deluxe XL Telescoping Pet Ramp!
As our regular readers know, three weeks ago today Irie had TPLO surgery for a torn ACL.
For two weeks, she was on extremely limited activity, just going outside on leash to potty. Last week at the two-week mark, she went back to the vet for a follow-up and was given a great report.
Her knee is healing wonderfully and she’ll go back for x-rays at the eight-week point. From there, she has another month of recovery time.
In all, she’s on restricted activity for 12 weeks with leashed walks only. Right now, she’s able to do 10-minute walks two or three times a day with no stairs.
We began training Irie to use the ramp before her first vet follow-up visit. She weighs 67 pounds so we really wanted a safe way to get her up into the back of my Jeep without injuring her leg (or our backs!)
Telescoping the Ramp to Change the Angle
The ramp, as the name suggests, telescopes so that it can fit in the back of your car then, when needed, be extended.
We loved the fact that it is an extra-long ramp so that the angle Irie walks up into the Jeep can be a very gradual slope.
The ramp can be extended anywhere from 47″ to 87″.
Right now, while Irie is recovering, we’re using it nearly fully extended so that the slope is gradual.
Once she’s healed, we’ll be able to use it without fully extending it (which will be easier in the case of crowded parking lots).
The ramp telescopes easily…all you do is pull or push on it!
It has a handy carrying handle and can lock in place when you are carrying it so it doesn’t accidentally open.
It’s surprisingly easy to use; all we do is extend the ramp and lean it up on the bumper of the Jeep. Once the dogs are up the ramp and buckled into place, we collapse the ramp and put it in the back of the Jeep behind the front seats.
Other Features We Like
Along with the length of the ramp and ease of use, two other features especially stand out to us: the width of the ramp and the walking surface.
The ramp is 15.5 inches wide, plenty wide for Irie to walk up easily (even when she was wearing a cone). We keep her on a short, short leash when walking up and, most especially when walking back down so she’s not tempted to jump off partway to the ground.
The walking surface is no-slip, much like that you’d see on stairs or a pool deck. Irie has a good grip and we can tell that she feels secure in walking up the ramp.
We load Tiki in the car first, and Irie, always a cautious canine, happily follows her up the ramp.
We give the Solvit Deluxe XL Telescoping Pet Ramp a big paws up for ease of use (both for us and for the dogs).
Price
The XL ramp is available from Solvit on Amazon (affiliate link).
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We received a Solvit ramp for review. As always, all opinions are entirely our own, and DogTipper only shares products that we use with our own pets.
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