Most dogs don't do enough targeted strength training for most of our sports.

When we talk about sports or I'm talking about IGP, PSA, agility, flyball, fast cat, dog jumping, dock diving etc, most sports, especially those requiring speed.

Where ever speed or power is needed, there is also a great need for strength on soft tissue i.e. muscle, tendons and ligaments and most dogs are not engaged in targeted strengthening of these soft tissues.

Some dogs are going out for long hikes, treadmill runs or sprints, swimming etc. That's great for some cardio, or the dogs are doing the odd jump here and there on their hike, but it isn't dedicated, targeted strength training and you are not looking at proper muscle engagement through the full range of movement. Most of the time, these are nice all round fitness exercises and not targeted or sport specific which are essential for sporting dogs.As stated earlier, you can't become excellent at your sport if you're only doing sport and you can't become excellent at your sport, if you're just doing general fitness. For example, if you are a hurdle jumper and you're not going to be doing targeted exercises to correct those muscle imbalances created through constant hurdle jumps, you're going to remain unbalanced if you simply go jogging to keep yourself fit. Muscle compensation will set in and you'll remain unbalanced.

If we are going to be doing particular sports with dog the speed, strength, power, control must be trained for the safety of the dog. Strengthened speed, power and control is trained.

You train the muscle to get the muscle strong and fit in order for the muscle to engage properly in order to complete the exercises for our sport.

Then there's open and closed chain training. Closed chain training engages more of the muscle and so promotes strength. The more muscle a dogs can engage, the more power they have for their straining and their sport.

Closed chain movements, give the dog much stronger control. Open chain movements require a lot of core strength and a lot of core control.

Strength and Control

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