In case you have been living under a rock for the past several years, you know that three dimensional printing is all the rage. There’s even a very compelling documentary on Netflix called “Print the Future.” People have begun to use this new technology for some very worthy causes, and just recently, it was used to give a dog with no use of its front legs its mobility back, and a new “leash” on life.
We have all by now seen the large number of disabled human athletes sporting a very high-tech and fancy look “running blades.” And, if you have followed LifewithDogs.tv for a while, you may have caught our story about TurboRoo. A dog that was given a 3D printed wheelchair made especially for him.
Well, it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to make a fancy set of running blades, for a dog. Enter, Derby. Derby was born without the use of his front legs. Now, thanks to Tara Anderson and the people at 3D Systems, Derby can get around a bit more like a normal dog.
“I kept looking at his photo, and hearing his story, and I cried literally every time,” explained Tara Anderson. “I had to try and help this dog.”
Darby was first given a cart to walk with, and was using it quite well. However, Anderson felt like the cart was holding him back while playing with other dogs. So, using many 3D scanning and printing technologies, Darby had a custom set of running blades for his front paws.
Too see Darby get around on these new legs does look a bit silly. However, Darby doesn’t seem to mind at all. Check out the video for yourself. Regardless of how it looks, the look on Darby’s face is one of pure joy using those new front legs. How cool is that?
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