Since I am not an expert, or even a novice for that matter, in this field, I sought out someone that could write just a couple articles on this subject. Well, I came up empty handed. For example, I emailed:
- Auburn Veterinary College - No response
- Christine Zink DVM, PhD - She is the author of the book, Peak Performance, Coaching the Canine Athlete, and the only one to respond. She said that she was away on business right now but would get back with me when she returned. I waited a month and emailed her again with no reply.
- Robert L. Gillette, DVM - I met this doctor at Auburn University, where he teaches. We had our Lab there when she was being checked out for hip dysplasia and I spoke to Dr. Gillette at some length about flyball. He has a website called Sportvet.com. He never responded.
- Carol Helfer, DVM - I got her name from Christine Davis of Inside Flyball. Christine told me that she had done some writing for her for an article on Inside Flyball. She never responded.
I emailed maybe a half a dozen other people as well and the response was not much better.
Robbie Barton, of Sure Shot Flyball gave me some good information about what he does for conditioning. One of his suggestions was power jumping with up to 12 jumps. This sounds like something that I could put into practice because I do have a lot of space in my yard.
I have heard that some people have treadmills for their dogs because they live in cold climate areas and cannot exercise their dogs outside during the winter months. I would like to learn more about this because even though it is very mild in the winter where I live, it is usually dark when I arrive home after work so any outside activities after work are out of the question.
I know that this is not very much information and was the reason for my search for experts in canine conditioning. I would love to hear your inputs on this subject. What do you do to keep your dogs in shape? I have purchased Christine Zink’s book and it is very informative, but as a practical matter, I would like to know what everyone else does.
If there is an expert out there that would like to write a couple articles on this subject please contact me. I am sure that any information on this subject would be of benefit to our canine athletes.
Larry
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I like to run my dog on a hill. Running up and down the hill builds up different muscles then just running on a flat surface. It’s also great for improving endurance. I did a little reasearch on this and not surprisingly over weight and out of shape dogs that are most likely to get injured. One game of fetch a week just doesn’t cut it if you are going to push your dog hard at events. One thing that’s semi related is people not taking the time to properly warm up their dogs. In this I don’t mean the 3 min prior to the race. Taking a dog straight from the crate to a race is asking for injury. You need to get the dogs heart rate up a little prior to running them full speed. Asking a dog to run right after they come out of the crate makes no more sense than asking a human athlete to sit in a chair until their event. Aside from the safety factor a properly streched and warmed up dog will run faster!
What do you do to get your dog’s heart rate up before the race? We usually try to have our dogs out of their crates for a race or two prior to our race. They are usually very anxious and hyped up before we go in the ring so would you say this is enough to get their heart rates up. We also do restrained recalls over the jumps during the warm up period but tend to slack off on this later in the day. Sometimes there is not enough time to have them out of the crates prior to racing.
I am no expert,nor do I play one on TV… but this works well for us.
I have always been advised to condition my dogs with the the rotating schedule Day 1: 20 min minimum of cardio (running, fast walking, accompanying you as you bicycle at a moderate pace) Day 2: do sprint work. 2 - 5 min of chuck it or frisbee, rest and recover, then repeat at least three times. following day back to day 1 activities. I live in a climate that is extremely hot and in summer all outdoor exercise must be completed by 7 am or forget it. So alternate ideas are the frisbee that has the light inside it for after dark frisbee playing, or playing fetch on the stairs inside your airconditioned house.
I have followed this routine prior to a big event here on the west coast that has lots of dog sports taking place simultaneously. I have successfully run my dog in a full position in flyball for two days while competing in frisbee for two days. Last year we took first in Flyball in our division and first in frisbee as well. My dog is about three years old so she’s in her prime.
We are fortunate to have a Physical Therapist on our team and she devised a stretching routine that we put our dogs through prior to racing. The dogs think they are getting the best petting session in the world. We go from the crate to some gentle stretches… legs: bend and stretch, full body: paws on my shoulders while I stretch the dog upward and stroke down the body, lie dog on side and gently pull forward leg one direction and rear leg the other for full extension. We usually work in some belly rubs here and we get no complaints
We then walk the dogs slowly first then more vigorously to get their blood flowing. Going through all this is worth it by sunday afternoon. no one wants “weekend warrior” injuries.
cb has pretty much the same pre-race routine as us.
We fall in with what cb and bcollie are doing.
Some where along the way we were advised that different activities are necessary, in order to work different sets of muscles.
We do fetch, and have started breaking this session up into sets over thirty-forty minutes.
We have a rudimentary agility set, which we work on alternate workouts.
We also tend to work specific flyball behaviours each session, rather than do it all in one training session.
Stretching and walking, trotting, weaving are a part of each session. Jane of MCRD taught me to work out with recalls over six hurdles (set high for the dog) to build strength and drive past the Start/Finish line.
We pack ‘em up and take them to the park once a week - first a walk through the park for socialization, with a blow it all out session in the Bark Park to finish it off. (Unless there are too many unmanaged types in there.)
There is a secluded state park with a nice dock and lake nearby offering a swimming/diving opportunity. This is the funnest!
The side effect has been that our dogs have begun dragging us into the yard each day (I get 15 minutes to change and eat after I get to the house)!
However, we are comparatively new, not vets nor behaviourists. I want to thank Larry for starting this conversation, as I will follow it with interest.
An issue I feel is related, or maybe a topic of itself: what, if any, dietary supplements have people tried or are currently using? For example, does anyone have experience with a specific type and dosage of vitamin C? Vitamin B12? Is there a “doggie Gatorade” that seems to do for dogs what Gatorade does for humans?
eli, our vet recommended unflavored pedialite mixed with water for rehydration. there are some powder mixes out there (I think one is called GO Dog), but my dog won’t drink AT ALL if that is in her water. Frisbee folks will mix a bit of chicken broth in the dog’s water for a mid day protein boost. (I would only use the low sodium kind.. there is enough sodium in there to rehydrate, but regular canned chicken broth is to high in sodium.)
I have been working my way through the DVD Building the Canine Athlete (Zink and McCauley). Still not finished watching it. The information seems good but figuring out how to apply it is difficult. Which exercises best apply to flyball or should we do them all? So far I am teaching Snap to do high fives (so far one paw only) and Sit to Stand. Due to age she is losing muscle tone in her rear so that is one she needs. What I need at the end of how to do all the exercises is a sheet telling me which ones to do for what sport. It may be at the end of the dvd. Does look like I am going to have to figure out how to get down on the floor for some of them.
Jenny
I have a dogwalker come every day and her job is to play with the dogs. She is usually here for about 20-30 minutes and she plays fetch with them. If it is too hot she does not play or only throws the ball/frisbee a couple times each. Most weeks they get 3-4 fetch sessions with her.
I then will come home and about 3 times in the evening I will play fetch with them.
My backyward is a hill so all play is up hill.
I have also used the treadmill when needed.
For my older dog with knee problems we also do some muscle building exercises like sitting pretty (say please), sit to stand, backing up and backing in circles-also started backing up hill, front feet on me and doing backup and side to side etc…
Plus we have flyball practice once a week most times and I have one dog in agility classes.
I wish there was more time in a day
Larry, you can always get *lights*. Even though we can play outside almost all year in Florida, it does get dark early (this far south we never get daylight past 9 pm at the best and will soon be 6pm) and we get a couple sets of halogen *work* lights on a stand. Use a long extension to place them at right angles to each other to kill most of the shadows and we train agility at all hours !!
We have one dog that doesn’t like the lighting but the others don’t mind. Besides, dogs see MUCH better in the dark than we do.
I have a similar conditioning regimen as CB cardio and muscular conditioning. We also utilize activities the dogs enjoy like swimming, uphill training and frisbee. My dogs also have a treadmill for winter conditioning. I do not work my dogs downhill, I allow them to trot down.
As for stretching. I do stretch my dogs prior to each race at tournaments, however I give them a little trot around and some rubbing on the muscles first to warm them up prior to stretching them out. Sometimes of course this gets overlooked…slap on my hand….
I have used Go Dog - I did not see much difference in my dogs so switched to Power Chow 2. I’ve only had them on the power chow 2 for a month and no tournaments in that month so nothing to compare it to yet.
I tend to take this to extreme, some would think.
I am fortunate that my dog gets to go to a daycare two to three times a week for some cardio work. When he doesn’t get to play with his buddies I take him to a park and run 100 yard recalls over jumps and up one kick butt hill for his strength and speed training several times with breaks in between runs. At home we do short burst work, which is the distance of a Flyball lane. Again, I only do a few runs with breaks in between. When all else fails, he goes swimming for two to three hours, to the point that I usually have to go get him.
It’s my opinion that “rest” does not mean sit around and be lazy on the couch. He has enough of that at bedtime, but at the same time I don’t wear him out to point of collapse, that would have a negative impact. Most human athletes define rest as a non-vigorous day of exercise, meaning some light exercise to keep the momentum of the training they do from. Total rest is for injuries and some might be prone to still work at what they can. So my advice is to keep them moving to maintain what you have.
Thanks for reading!
there is a great article this month in the WDJ that speaks about this topic.
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