A soft-tissue injury, a strained muscle, tendon, or ligament, heals in stages, and exercise is both the risk and the remedy. Too much too soon re-tears healing fibres and can turn a short recovery into a recurring problem; too little for too long leaves the area weak and stiff. That is why this recovery runs under vet guidance rather than by feel: the vet sets the stage, the permitted minutes, and the ground rules, and your job is disciplined consistency at home. The details below are general information about how such plans usually run; your own vet's staging for this injury always takes precedence over anything general.
What soft-tissue recovery actually requires
Expect the plan to start with strict rest broken only by short lead walks for toileting, on flat, even, non-slip ground, at a slow walking pace where she moves evenly rather than hopping or swinging the leg. Free running, jumping in and out of cars, stairs beyond what is unavoidable, slippery floors, and play with other dogs are normally off the list at this stage, however bright she seems. Use a harness if the vet suggests one, keep the lead short, and choose quiet routes where she will not lunge at passing dogs or wildlife. Boredom is the hidden challenge, so ask the vet what calm enrichment is allowed, since a frustrated dog is the one who explodes off the sofa.
Building walks back in stages
Increases should be small and earned: a few more minutes only when the current level produces no setback, in line with the increments your vet has set. Walk the same measured route so distance is comparable day to day, and keep the pace deliberately unhurried even when she pulls to go faster, because enthusiasm is not the same as readiness. Note each session briefly as you go: route, minutes, surface, and how she moved during it. If the vet has given gentle controlled movements or stretches as part of the plan, do exactly those, exactly as shown, and nothing borrowed from videos of other dogs' recoveries, since the right exercise depends on which tissue is healing.
Reading soreness and knowing when to step back
Judge a session by the morning after as much as by the walk itself. Mild tiredness that resolves is different from limping that reappears, stiffness that is worse than the day before, swelling at the injury site, or reluctance to bear weight; those are step-back signals meaning the last increase was too much, and they should be reported to the vet rather than pushed through. Never exercise her through visible pain to finish a planned route, and do not give any leftover pain medication from another occasion unless the vet directs it for this injury. If setbacks repeat at the same stage, that pattern is exactly what the vet needs to hear about at the recheck.
Recovery fails most often through kindness and inconsistency: one person follows the plan while another lets her chase a ball because she seemed so happy. A written household routine prevents that, with every walk logged so the day's total is visible to everyone. Setting out each recovery walk, rest period, and recheck task in KinsLe's Care Teams, where completed tasks are marked with a timestamp, keeps the whole family working to the vet's single plan instead of five well-meant variations of it.