Sporting dogs need to be more than “fit”

But if your dog competes in a sport (AS, IGP, PSA, agility, flyball, etc.), cardio fitness alone is not hitting the mark when it comes to:

• Targeting weaker muscles (in fact, many times these weaker muscles become even worse if they are not targeted specifically).
• Sports-specific exercise – specialised exercise that exactly and precisely enhances the sport you are competing in with your dog.

Most sports (if not all) by default of repetitive actions, create muscle imbalances, which create weaker, or shorted or tighter, or overstretched muscles, which leads to increased risks of injury and limited power expressed on the competition fields.

Being cardio-fit is not enough to reduce injury risk in sport dogs.

Every sport has them—repetitive activities and actions.

Injuries can occur by accident (even at home), or they can occur as a result of the sport you participate in due to the speed or power required to compete, the equipment used during trials.

Various factors increase the injury risk of our dogs and may include:

• external factors such as weather, environment, and running surfaces, among others; 
• training factors such as repetition, equipment used and so on
• even the high drive dog itself that has no idea of self preservation.

With these thoughts in mind, can we really say that general hiking or swimming is enough "fitness" to make our dogs more resilient to these injury risk factors?

So what should our approach be?

In professional human athletes, we know that stronger athletes have improved performance and lowered risk of injury.

When you make your dog’s body physically stronger:

By strengthening your dog’s body through proper strength training exercises and protocols, you help prevent injuries by:

Improving Joint Stability

Through strengthening the muscles and tendons that surround the joint, which helps reduce the risk of joint injuries, such as strains and tears, particularly in the ligaments such as the CCL, which is a common injury among sporting dogs.  By strengthening the muscles that surround the joint, the likelihood of ligament injuries inside the joints (e.g., CCL) is reduced due to the increased protection of stronger muscles stabilizing the joint.

Increasing Flexibility

Yes, strength training, when performed with the correct form, technique, and posture, does a very good job of increasing muscle flexibility and improving the range of motion of the muscles and joints. Injuries are prevented because flexible muscles are able to absorb not only the forces and stresses of sport, but also unexpected environmental factors, such as slipping on wet grass, more easily while the body moves more freely and is able to recover quickly. Joints work through less stress when strong muscles help support and stabilise them during impact and unexpected movement.

Improving Balance and Coordination

The risk of slips, sliding and falling on damp fields while taking tight turns at high speed, and other types of injuries is reduced by strength training exercises, which improve proprioception, balance and coordination by training the body to move in a controlled and coordinated manner. 

Strengthening Bones 

When training for strength and overloading muscles, we apply controlled stress and compression to bones and joints, which stimulates the body to increase bone density and cartilage strength. In this way the incidence of bone fractures and joint damage is is lowered allowing for more robust sporting execution. 

Improving Injury Recovery Time 

With a stronger baseline in muscle strength and flexibility, stronger dogs experience less downtime from training due to lowered injury risks, but they also experience a far quicker rehabilitation period and recovery from injury which translates into lowered veterinary costs.

Boosting Endurance and Stamina

Strength training lowers the risk of fatigue-related injuries. Physically stronger muscles can perform better, contracting and stabilizing the entire body. This makes it possible for canine athletes to engage in demanding, hard physical activities for longer durations without tiring and provides them with increased stamina. Pushing through muscle fatigue is one of the easiest ways to increase the risk of injury, because a tired muscle cannot contract correctly to protect the body and results in loss of balance, control, and coordination which can be dangerous when a dog is moving a high speed.

Strength Training Protects the Spine

To a far greater extent than with other types of joint protection, strength training can assist keep the spine healthy by increasing the flexibility and strength of the ligaments, muscles, and tendons that surround and support the spine. Joint and spinal health can be improved by strength training.

Here are some ways in which strength training can protect the spine:

Strengthening the Core Muscles:

Core muscles include the muscles of the abdomen, lumbar (lower) back into the thoracic back, and hips. All these muscles along with the muscles surrounding the thoracic and cervical spine work together and play a critical role in supporting the spine as a whole. When we strengthen these muscles tin these areas, we help improve spinal stability and support and reduce the risk of injury as well and wear and tear type of injuries that plague the spine if it is not well supported by muscle.

Improving Posture: 

All strength training exercises need to be executed with proper posture, form, and technique in place in order to target muscles effectively. This automatically improves posture, which reduces the strain on the spine. Poor posture places excessive stress on the spine, which inevitably leads to pain, compensations and injury.

Building Spinal Endurance and Stamina:

Similar to how strength training increases stamina and endurance, building stronger core muscles and muscles surrounding the spine allows dogs to operate more efficiently and for longer periods without becoming fatigued early. This allows us  to train and compete with our dogs for longer and with superior spinal support.

Supporting Spinal Health:

By improving bone density, strength training can help protect the spine and other bones from injury. It improves overall spinal health by increasing blood flow and nutrient delivery to the spine. This can help reduce inflammation, enhance healing, and lower the risk of degenerative diseases such as arthritis.

Overall, strength training can be an effective strategy to protect the spine and an excellent way to prevent injuries and improve fitness and performance on the competition fields, providing your dog with a competitive edge.

Strength training benefits such as reduced injury risk are, only available if strength training is done effectively and with proper form and technique designed to target the correct muscles.

It is essential to start your strength training journey gradually, with proper technique. Progress and overload the body progressively and slowly to avoid the risk of injury during strength training itself. Increase the intensity and amount of strength training exercises gradually to avoid overuse injuries.

A qualified fitness professional can help develop a safe and effective strength training program that is tailored to the sporting needs of your dog. It is best to ensure that your strength training coach is knowledgeable in the sport that you partake in with your dog so that exercises may be tailored for the types of injuries or weak areas that each sport is known for. Not all sports result in the same muscle imbalances, weak areas, or injuries. Injuries for each sport may result from the different training demands and these demands should they be addressed as such.

Happy Training with a Dog that is nor only Fit, but Strong too!