Round out your workout

Side stepping front feet on the DogTread Treadmill

Side stepping rear feet on the DogTread Treadmill

Side stepping with front feet elevated on the peanuts - both front and rear feet moving laterally

Side stepping around a circle over the FitPAWS Donut holders

Cross Training  =  train outside of your "main" sport to improve overall fitness, and to take advantage of other methods that address performance weaknesses.  

Human athletes participate in cross-training exercises to tone and condition muscles, joints and tendons that are neglected during their regular sports activity. This improves performance and strengthens weak areas becoming an integral part of a proper conditioning program for human and canine athletes. 

Clients and fellow competitors tell me how “well conditioned” their performance dog is because of off-leash hikes, runs, walks, and sport several days a week.  While these activities are all good, they will not address specific cross-training activities needed to strengthen under-used supporting muscle groups. These muscle groups and tendons help to support the joints in lateral motion (side to side). 

Lets look at a few scenarios in an agility dog:

1.    Lateral extension of the shoulder to move through the weaves poles.  

2.    Take off and turns tightly over a jump  - requires core and trunk strength as well as lateral strength in the forelimb joints.

3.    Deceleration and turn off the A-frame or Dogwalk into a tunnel  - requires core and trunk strength as well as lateral strength in the forelimb joints.

4.    Late hander call/direction that cause dogs to completely change a committed movement.  

All these scenarios require use of muscles that support lateral (side to side) movement.   This is the most under recognized muscle function needed in most performance sports today – not just Dog Agility.    Iliopsoas, shoulder and knee issues often occur from lateral instability.  

Some breeds have very clear muscle development that can be deceiving.  Well-muscled and athletic dogs often rely mainly on large muscle groups but are not engaging the smaller muscles that help to support the joints and assist in purposeful and powerful movement.    When a dog relies mostly on large muscles groups it causes muscle imbalance that lends to compensations, weakness and eventually to injury.

There are simple exercises you can do to challenge your dog’s smaller muscle groups that will improve:

·      Stability
·      Confidence in movement
·      Speed
·      Body awareness
·      Over-all strength and performance

Standing and finding balance

Slowly moving to a down position - look at the muscle engagement

Moving to a sit position

One exercise that can be used to assess stability is the use of two K9FITbones with a light-weight aerobic bench laid across the top.   Seems easy right? For your dog, it’s like asking them to stand on a bowl full of Jell-O.    Ask the dog to stand on the bench with front and rear legs a natural distance from one another.  Many dogs shake so uncontrollably they cannot stay standing without help.  Some high level agility dogs cannot stand with stability in this scenario.   Some dogs do not start shaking until asked for simple head movement side to side. This shaking indicates a lack of strength in the stabilizing muscle groups in the core and around the joints.  It doesn’t mean your dog isn’t strong but it shows a weakness that should be addressed with strength, balance and body awareness exercises. 

Using products such as peanuts, K9Fitbones, donuts, balance discs and other products while paying close attention to your dogs posture and weight distribution can help engage the smaller muscle groups used to stabilize the joints and encourage the dog to use those muscles in normal movement.   

Some dogs are powerful movers and very fast, but if proper cross training and strength exercises are performed the dog can increase power and speed by using more muscle groups to fuel movement.