How we, as responsible dog owners, can reduce the risk of injury and ensure that our dogs have a long, happy dog sporting career?
Daniel, a professional canine training specialist will tell you all about it.
"Hi, I’m Daniel! Having been flyball competitors for a number of years, my own dogs strength and condition became increasingly important to me, which eventually lead to myself qualifying as a CPCFT and the beginning of @CanineApex, which now offers canine conditioning coaching and tailored plans to likeminded dog owners."
Canine Apex, Daniels company, aims to encourage awareness of the sport related injuries that could be on the horizon for our canine athletes in their relevant sport. While “rehab” is a commonly known term across the dog community, “prehab” tends to be overlooked, which we’d love to change!
Rehabilitation is the process post injury or surgery which sees an individual dog completing exercises to resume regular function, strengthening those injured or now weakened areas within the body.
“Prehab” or prehabilitation is a preventative process, implementing exercises to keep your dog fit and healthy, and strengthen any weaker areas to create a stronger and well balanced dog, reducing the risk of injury before it happens.
Canine conditioning is a branch of prehab which aims to improve overall muscle mass, strength, balance, flexibility and coordination, through a set of specific exercises for healthy dogs.
While this is important for sports dogs, pet dogs also benefit endlessly from regular conditioning exercises- not only in a physical sense for injury prevention, but through the mental stimulation and strengthening to the the cardiovascular system it also provides! Imagine you could provide your dog with mental stimulation and reduce the risk of common conditions like osteoarthritis at the same time. Guess what, you can!
Dog sports in particular come with the challenge of obstacles, impact and speed which can increase the dog’s risk of injury.
Seeking professional help to isolate your dog’s weakness and build a specific programme to strengthen the area in need, simulating better performance from your dog.
So, let’s compare a 4-6 month rehab duration with limited exercise and crate rest, and a 2 minute daily prehab exercise – it’s obvious what you’d rather right?
Take an iliopsoas (hip flexor) injury, where you could be looking at a 4-6 month duration of rehab. Between crate rest, strict lead walks and tedious exercises, you’re thinking “what could we have done differently?”
Easy – it starts with prehab! Conditioning exercises can be easily adapted into a daily lifestyle without taking much time at all.
Starting now while your dog is in good physical health, with the right guidance from a professional, could extend their active life by years.
Hopefully I’ve been able to open your eyes to the canine conditioning world, and we hope to see you out there acing your sport with your balanced canine athlete!
Come and say hi at @CanineApex and @TheCanineCommand, we’d love to follow your journey too!:)
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