<human>: So my dog is a mut of sorts who I adopted about 4 years ago. A little over a year ago I noticed he was in pain and not soon after, he couldn't walk. I took him to the vet hospital in the area and he was diagnosed with IVDD and immediately taken in for surgery. The surgery was successful in releasing the pressure and making the pain stop for my dog. The surgeon also said that the spinal cord seemed to be pretty healthy, a little bruised, but in good condition. Still, they said the chances of a recovery was around 30% or so - he was paralyzed from about mid-abs down. I was happy to hear the spinal cord was in good health but still shocked to hear such a low recovery rate. Anyways, I took him to a couple of post surgery check ups where they tested for deep pain sensation and he didn't seem to have any. They said the outlook on him recovering was very slim. 

Well a year has passed and he is as happy as can be. I have a wheel chair for him and try to make his life as easy as possible. Within the last few months though, I've noticed some slight changes... he alerts me when he needs to go out, though he can't completely hold it if I am not there, and more importantly, I think he is starting to get DPS back. This observation comes from sitting here on the couch doing homework recently and when he's not paying attention, I poke his back feet with my pencil. I can see his body twitch the leg and after doing it a few times he becomes obviously annoyed. Now, I tried this before, and he never responded so this is kind of exciting to me.

So, my question is, if he is actually starting to get feeling back, what are some things I can do to help encourage his body to heal? That would be amazing just to have him walking again! It's obvious the muscle mass in the back legs has diminished as well. Any feedback or suggestions would be awesome.

Here is a pic of him in his wheel chair

Can you provide a brief overview of the text?
<bot>: Dog was diagnosed and had surgery for IVDD and was paralyzed from his mid abs down.. No DPS initially but seems to have started developing it recently. What can I do to encourage his body to heal and regain functionality