Printable worksheet
The six-week supplement trial scorecard.
You will see improvement. That is the problem. In the placebo arm of a blinded canine osteoarthritis trial, owners judged their dogs improved 39.7% of the time while the force plates under those dogs recorded no change at all (Conzemius & Evans, JAVMA 2012;241(10):1314–1319). Those owners were not careless. They were hopeful, and they were watching the dog they love for signs that the money was working.
This page exists to protect you from that. A finish line drawn at week six lands wherever the dog happens to be standing; a finish line drawn today does not move. So write the threshold down before the first chew, record two or three things you can count, and then stop judging until week six. Give it the full 4–6 week loading period before you ask the question at all — and change one thing at a time, or you will not know what did the work.
Print this page (portrait, black and white). Only the card below prints, and it is built to fill exactly one sheet.
Supplement trial scorecard
dogorthopedic.comBefore the first chew
I will call this working if improves by by week 6.
| Baseline I am recording today | Today's number |
|---|---|
| Stairs climbed without pausing | |
| Seconds to rise from lying down | |
| Minutes of morning stiffness |
| Week | Date | Stairs without pausing | Seconds to rise | Minutes of morning stiffness | Stiffness 0–10 | Weekly video filmed? Y / N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||||||
| Week 2 | ||||||
| Week 3 | ||||||
| Week 4 | ||||||
| Week 5 | ||||||
| Week 6 |
Video: the same short walk, the same camera position, once a week.
Week 6 verdict
One supplement at a time. If the dog is visibly painful, that is a vet conversation about pain relief, not a supplement decision.