By steve
We are so excited about this week’s FitDog Friday post. Today we will be sharing part one, of a two part interview we did with local agility trainers and competitors Lillian and Roy Carew, and their dog FloJo. Agility dogs are amazing athletes and we have always wondered what it takes to develop a dog to the level of physical and mental fitness that is required for this sport.
We sat down with “Lil” and Roy and learned about their approach to their canine athletes. You can watch the first part of the interview below. Some of the key points of this segment include:
The importance of a proper warm up for agility dogs
Make no mistake; this sport places a high demand on the dog’s body. Thus, warming up the body for the activity to come is very important both for performance as well as for injury prevention. Watching Flojo warm up made me think of an old Crossfit expression we used to use “our warm up is your workout”. How true! Check out how FloJo warms up in the “Warmup” video.
The importance of mental fitness as well as physical fitness for agility dogs
Yes, an agility dog needs to be fit in order to complete the course and competitions. This requires lots of exercise for sure. Yet, the mental aspect is equally important. Agility dogs need to understand their cues and must maintain a high level of concentration in order to navigate through the course speedily while ignoring potential distractions.
Specificity of training for agility dogs
We talk about this a lot in human sports and fitness. Specificity of training simply means that the training protocols used for any sport should be specific and consistent with the types of movements, intensities, and durations of the sport. For example, a marathon runner will train much differently from the 200 meter runner.
Lil and Roy abide by this concept. The majority of their dog’s fitness comes from work on the course. Short, intense sprints and obstacle training are used to build the fitness base and endurance training (e.g. long runs/walks) is not used at all. That said, if you are thinking about starting your dog in agility, I still would recommend using off course runs as a means to build a fitness base.
Warming up for agility
Check out FloJo doing some warm up drills. She starts with ball fetch and then moves to a functional warm up by jumping over the hurdle. I love hearing Lillian’s comment about using the hips when jumping. This is exactly what we are supposed to think about when we, as humans are jumping. (Yes, we like to jump – up bleachers, down the field, on top of chairs and benches.)
We will be posting the second half of the interview as well as a look at FloJo on the course next week.
Please enjoy our FitDog Friday Blog Hop brought to you by SlimDoggy and our co-hosts Peggy’s Pet Place and To …read more
From: Agility Dog Training, an Up Close Look: Part 1
