CC180: Powerful Performance: Fitness to Optimize All Sports

CONDITIONING

I think it is critical for every working dog to have an underlying fitness base.  Physically conditioned dogs:

• perform better in their sport,
• are less likely to get injured, and
• if they do sustain an injury, the injury is usually less severe and the recovery is quicker. 
• In addition, exercise not related to their sport is psychologically healthy for dogs. 

Before you begin, make sure your dog is cleared by your veterinarian to participate in a conditioning program.

When preparing an exercise program, you must take your dog’s structure and any physical limitations into consideration.  This does not necessarily mean your dog cannot be conditioned.  Conditioning programs can be tailored to meet an individual dog’s specific needs.

OLDER DOGS:  Extra care must be taken with older dogs to guard against injuries to joints.   They need a prolonged warm-up, a generous cool down and should be stretched at the end of the day.  Their exercise program should be geared towards activities that place minimal stress on aging joints (such as swimming, underwater treadmill, walks/hikes on soft surfaces).

Conditioning programs should have a rationale and be personalized for each of your dog’s unique needs.  I have three dogs and they are all on a different program! 

Your Dog is An Athlete

It is important to start thinking of your dog as an athlete NOT as a pet that’s getting exercise doing their sport.  Athletes need to be treated differently than the average dog.  Athletes warm up, cool down, stretch, cross-train and have strong core muscles.  Whether your dog plays in one sport or multiple sports, conditioning is crucial.  When working, our dogs are performing activities that they would NEVER do on their own, certainly not repeatedly…they would never traverse a dog walk, run through weave poles, jump a broad jump and turn for a front, repeatedly jump over a high jump, etc. 

I often treat dogs with a soft tissue injury that was likely caused by an event not related to training.  It was not a serious injury. If the dog were a pet, it might have resolved without intervention.   However, our dogs are working dogs. When you ask the dog to participate in their sport, the injury is aggravated.  Thinking of your dog as an athlete is a mental shift that has helped many of my clients.  It’s a change in perspective that increases your awareness and motivates people to be more proactive.

WARM-UP

Athletes warm-up their muscles and loosen joints prior to every workout and every competition.  Not only do warm-ups help prevent injuries, they have been proven to improve performance.   It is critical to warm your dog up before EVERY training and trialing session.   If your dog is older, and/or has been injured in the past, they need a longer warm-up.   The following is a generalized warm-up program:

Loosen Up

Start with a 7-10 minute controlled leash walk. Keep the sniffing and pottying to the first few minutes and slowly increase the pace. By the end, you should be at a brisk walk.

Active Stretches

They are done while moving and are an important part of a dog’s warm-up routine. They help elevate body temperature and move muscles and joints through a functional range of motion. An active stretch allows your dog to regulate how far to push a muscle.

Hold each stretch for 5-10 seconds. Do 5-7 reps of each one.  ALWAYS do the three posture exercises.           

• head to shoulder, hip, toe
• high 5 or wave (right/left paw)
• bow (elbows straight)
• spin right and left
• front feet up head up
• hip flexor stretch
• sit posture
• down posture
• stand posture

These active stretches can provide an early warning that an injury may be brewing.  Be on the lookout for imbalances or changes.  For example, if your dog stretches more readily to one side than the other, if your dog is more reluctant to turn in one direction versus the other, etc…..