FLIRT POLE
Flirt pole is a great interactive game you can play with your dog with huge benefits for fitness and if you have limited mobility as a handler is perfect to give them a good workout. As with everything it’s important not to overdo it and notice signs of fatigue and tiredness
A short game with the flirt pole of 10 minutes or less can tire your dog quicker than going on a long walk
I start low and also give warning when we are going to turn.
I let my dog catch it and release and start again
If you’re going to do Lure coursing I then move up to more sudden movements. I don’t do it straight away to give my dog understanding of what will happen and prevent injury from sharp sudden turns
** It is important to warm your dog up first before jumping straight into strenuous exercise
*** I would not use a flirt pole with high intensity on a pup due to the turning and at times jumping
Benefits
👉 Flirt poles give a great cardio workout but also strengthens muscles. Change of direction works the whole body and the core.
👉 Improves co ordination
👉 Engage with your dog builds a bond with them
👉 Teach your dog self control and wait
👉 Requires minimal effort of movement from handler so great for those with limited mobility
👉 great training for sports such as lure coursing
My dogs love the flirt pole coming out, I’m never quick enough for a longer session. But they love it and when lure coursing starts I am going to see how Archie goes.
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PIVOTTING
This for me is One of the foundations that you need to build on for many many exercises. There’s so many exercises once a dog learns how to pivot that they can do not only in conditioning but also body awareness for heeling and dog training.
This exercise not only is a strengthening exercise but it also is for body awareness and coordination and proprioception.
Aim: The aim of this exercise is for a dog to pivot around the object. To start with it’s easy to have a circular object no higher than the wrist/carpus of the dog. I did this exercise with my puppy in and built-up to lateral stepping.
As the front legs are elevated most of the weight is shifted to the rear legs and as the dog is walking sideways it works the abductors and adductors of the rear legs. But it’s also working the front legs in an isometric contraction as they are stabilising the body and doing small little circles on the object that they are standing on.
As I was doing it with a puppy it is very important to do short intervals, I tossed the food and reset and I also mark and reward every little step in the beginning.
Pre Requisites
👉 Front feet target
👉 Elevated front feet
👉 Stillness
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FRONT LEG WEIGHT SHIFTING
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
This is the next level up from Weight shifting which is done on a flat surface. Once an exercise is executed properly you need to then make an exercise more difficult or harder, keeping it at the same level will not help strengthen the muscles and dogs can get bored doing the same thing. Making an exercise more difficult can happen in various ways, raising the height, making an unstable surface in the world are two examples. When you raise the rear legs it shifts more weight to the front. The unstable surface add even more weight and also works the stabiliser muscles.
This is mainly a front leg exercise where you are pushing on the dog shoulder to shift weight to the other side. But it also work core muscles as they are engaging to help stop the dog from falling over. The stabiliser muscles in rear and front legs are engaging against the Push to stop the dog from falling over.
Isometric contractions, the legs aren’t moving in flexion or extension but still a muscle contraction
Pre requisites
👉 Use to a stable surface
👉 Rear feet targeting
👉 Forward focus
👉 Stillness
👉 Beginner weight shifting
Weight shifting is a great exercise to get weight onto other legs by gently pushing on the opposite leg. With your hand Pushing gently against the shoulder the dog resists the movement and weight goes onto the other leg.
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UPHILL SPRINTS
One thing after Kobies lung operation and wanting to get back to do agility with him as he loves the sport was we had to work on his aerobic and anaerobic fitness. The anaerobic part was actually the easiest while their Robeck part was actually harder in getting him to trot and run for 10 to 15 minutes with me and a sore ankle. At least living where I’m surrounded by hills had a benefit for once in my dogs recoveries
👉 The sprints are to last for 10 seconds these were actually shorter at times
👉 I used a pod where you put in food and then they can open it as he actually had to have a two minute rest between each sprint, that went to a lesser time over time
👉 I also used a flirt pole where we had to run up the hill after it, this resulted in me having to run to and she could have a little break playing with it.
👉 you can throw a ball up the hill, I did not want that, I wanted something that would stop and he could get two rather than something that would continue going and he might have to do a sudden stop which could then affect his thoracic limb they had to cut through.
👉 I did increase the distance he had to run when going out placed and they had hills
Until I had to do this I really never thought of it but it is a great exercise especially for flyball and agility dogs moving up to longer sprints with less recovery time
*** if your dog is recovering from an injury, surgery or has a heart condition please ensure you check with your vet or whoever you are seeing first. As with every exercise they are suitable at set times in recovery or suitable for fit and healthy dogs****
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PISTOL SQUAT
This exercise is one of the newer exercises that I have learnt over the past couple of years. I had a list of exercises that I’ve done for so long and then started finding more and more exercises to do when I started learning canine conditioning and rehab. Once my dogs got it, it was great.
Pre Requisite
👉 Front feet targeting
👉 Rear target
👉 Stillness
👉 Pivot step up and down
The main leg working in this exercise is the stationary leg. This leg is to be kept still and not too abducted. Jaxon had a bit of trouble keeping that leg still as he was never taught stillness and got overly excited.
Foot Touching the floor should touch as close to the target as possible. When Kobie does this you will notice the Stary isn’t abducted as much.
The muscles engaged in the stationary leg are the hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteals, abductors and the stabilises of the hip, stifle and tarsus.
The foot which is being lowered down, should have minimal muscle engagement, at times in the video there is more muscle engagement than there should be as more weight is put on that leg when the stationary leg is more abducted
This was an interesting exercise to do, as my dogs do Pivot step up and step down, they were wanting to do that at first. But my hand movements we got the desired result.
*** as with all exercises if your doggies injured, recovering from surgery or compromised, please don’t attempt these exercises with Vet clearance***
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BALL FUN
The so many fun ways, if you have a bald obsessed dog that even when they’re injured and need to be kept quite Ish, but they can still have a bit of fun. It also depends how obsessed your dog is and if they can play with the ball without getting overly stimulated ,
This was one of the fun games Jaxon and I used to play a lot where he would sit or lie down and catch the ball, but instead of catching it, he would throw it back to me and then he would catch it and the game would start again. It was one of his tricks, that when he was a therapy dog, they just loved watching him do it. As a result, the others have learnt from watching him except for she was never into balls except if another dog had it.
Another fun game which I didn’t put here was we would be opposite each other and I’ll draw the ball and he would try and catch the ball before it got to his chest. If it got there, I got another go.
Another one was hide and seek. I would hide the ball and he would have to find it, he was very good at that. So is Kobie
We would make up a few ball games during wet weather, when he wasn’t allowed to chase a ball or in the evening when he was excited which was often.
These games also had another benefit that it helped with their coordination, their eyes had to follow the ball to be able to play with it
This video, though is of Kobie during his recovery.
Anyone have any other fun games they play with their dogs with balls when they can’t chase
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THERABANDS
Therabands are a great tool for rehab and recovery and has so many uses. They can also be used in conditioning to provide resistance to. Therabands come in various strengths and it’s important to get the correct strength to start with and progress. Are use human ones as they are the only ones around.
They actually target set muscles and groups depending when you position them.
It is very important to be shown how to use them and the correct way and resistance provided. Too much resistance especially in rehab can cause issues. You DO NOT want the dog to lose balance, push weight to the other leg
Pre Requisites
👉 Square Stand
👉 Stillness
👉 Forward Focus
*** if your dog is recovering from surgery or an injury you need to get Vet clearance to start any exercise. Was this is a great exercise for rehab it is to be done under guidance and at set healing times***
SIDE STEPPING
ADVANCE LEVEL
This exercise was taught to me at a canine conditioning seminar from an overseas presenter. It was for mainly people who do agility and this was one of the weaving exercises to help strengthen the adductors and abductors Of the shoulders. And this is a great exercise for any dog competing in sports like agility, frisbee, flyball Not just the proper all good weaving performance but for turns in flyball as it helps by having proper muscle strength and stability in the medial and lateral shoulder muscles.
This is an advanced level as you now have the unstable surface that is used. Adding an unstable surface you now just don’t have the adductors and abductus of the shoulders but you also have the stabilising muscles of the core and spine and also the stabilises of the hips.
Pre Requisites
👉 Front feet target
👉 Rear feet target
👉 Beginning side stepping
This is an exercise are use often leading up to big competitions and is one are use later in my dogs recovery from his lung operation when he had months and months of agility
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ARTHRITIS AND OLDER DOGS
Arthritis is painful for us and for our dogs.
Arthritis causes chronic pain and is a problem for many dogs as they get older and some when they are younger. Arthritis major cause in dogs is from a secondary issue such as hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, patella luxation, cruciate ligament or trauma.
Osteo arthritis it’s a disease that affects all age groups it’s not just for older dogs but it can affect young dogs and even puppies. So don’t make them mistake of thinking that arthritis is a disease only for old dogs
When dogs reach an older age they can start to slow down and like us their joints can start to stiffen up and they don’t want to move as much.
There is a lot that you as an owner can do to help your dogs as they age and especially when they start to get arthritis. Many times we as owners don’t notice the subtle signs that our dog might be getting arthritis especially if they’re not old, it’s not until they can’t get up as well, they struggle to get onto the bed, they struggle to climb the stairs and sometimes they might start to be snappy with the pain there in if we want to touch them .The best way to manage arthritis is multi modal which is approaching it from many directions
🐶 It’s important to keep them active still and mobile and taking them for walks and doing some exercises.
🐶 Home environment and lifestyle is extremely important. Do they have to walk upstairs to get into the house, to get down to go to the toilet, to get to their bed. Are they reluctant to climb up the stairs or hesitant to go out and go to the toilet. Do they need help in getting onto the lounge you’re up onto the bed. It is important to make their life as easy as possible and this might include getting a ramp or small steps to help them get on and off the bed or the couch or encourage them to lay next to you on a bed
🐶 What is your car like, do you have a big four-wheel-drive. Is your dog struggling to get into t
PUPPY PUSH UPS
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
When doing exercises especially food conditioning the aim is to increase the degree of difficulty once the dog has mastered that level. This can be various ways one of which is to add unstable surfaces to either the front or rear legs
This is a great exercise for the shoulders and elbows with flexion and extension.
Rear legs remain stationary but as front feet are elevated weight is shifted to them and they are working to stabilise against the push ups plus with the unstable surface.
To make it harder you can put an unstable surface for them to push up against. This will be used in my rehabbing of my dog against a bicep injury at the moment but he isn’t up to this or beginner yet.
Pre Requisites
👉 beginner puppy push-ups
I love this front leg exercise but also works the core, spine and hind legs. I do front legs on a day, hindlegs another day, core strength another day so on my front leg days this is when I do use at times when I want to make it harder.
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Shake high 5 rear legs elevated
INTERMEDIATE EXERCISE
This exercise is an intermediate exercise as it has progressed from beginner.
This exercise is a front leg exercise, with the added height with the rear legs it’s put more weight on the front legs, which more affects the leg on the ground which is the stabilising leg. It also increases the core strength which is having to stabilise the body against the shake.
Lifting the front leg strengthens the whole elbow shoulder and upper thoracic part. It also requires small, fine muscles to activate, which is the flexors and extensions of the shoulder and the elbow. The leg that is stationary works the stabiliser muscles, so the body doesn’t collapse when the other leg is lifted up.
I have put the link in for the beginner exercise as I think I added it to YouTube but not here.
https://youtu.be/Vw4GiPMLYjA?si=Z1LgCBs-sikaD_X2
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Stable vs. unstable surfaces
Is unstable the way to go and more fancy like many people think. I often see many dogs well owners start on unstable surfaces first and that makes me cringe. Who doesn't love to watch all those cool workouts performed on various unstable surfaces? Are you really helping your dog and is it as beneficial as it is fancy-looking?
Here are some facts about unstable surfaces.
Working out on UNSTABLE equipment
Primarily engages core and postural muscles that help to keep the dog's body in balance, the stabilisers. This is especially useful for rehabilitation purposes where
we need to re-educate and facilitate neuromuscular activity. There is a but and downside as only working on unstable surfaces that these stabilizers override the work of large muscle groups responsible for generating the actual power, so the total speed and strength of your dog might
decrease.
Unstable surfaces make the exercises more difficult, but do not appear to increase the "over-load" sufficiently to increase the strength and power that are developed with performing actions on stable surfaces, as they don’t necessarily target the larger muscles.
So there are some shortcomings to working out exclusively on unstable/inflatable fitness equipment.
You still need to perform dynamic exercises on STABLE surfaces as this is where the dog engages large muscle groups (the ones that are responsible for producing powerful actions), and this provides sufficient "over-load" to the
muscles to increase in power and strength.
Are use both unstable and stable surfaces in my workout more often than not a lot of them are stable, but as I progress both are added in along with height. It is important before adding unstable surfaces that your dog can execute the exercise with good form and posture, this is done on unstable first before progressing, too often, I do see people going straight for the unstable surface first.
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