Conditioning the K9 Athlete - Page 1

A recent/current topic, "HOW TO ADD REAL MUSCLE MASS THE RIGHT WAY" got me thinking about our K9 Athlete's and PROVEN ways to keep them in shape or even at high performance levels. One of the strengths of PDB is the diverse make up we have here and even though we fight and fuss about things we all agree on the importance of health, diet and exercise. 

So i am curious, what are some of the activities you do with your dog(s) that have proven positive benefits when it comes to conditioning? For me, I routinely ask my dog to do sprints up a hill (chasing a Frisbee); i have them run flat (again while chasing something); i swim him in the pool, kind of... But i have to be honest, i really don't know if these activities actually have any specific benefit??? 

What is this board's experience with "rigorous" activity vs just a dog being generally active? Is there really any additional benefit to what you do vs just allowing a dog to be active??? Is all of the additional activity just a placebo??? 

Not a placebo. Keeping the dog active and also asking them to do current, specific conditioning activities keeps them in a good/better shape so they don't have a plateau effect where they're neither gaining nor losing muscles.

I also think swimming is good for joints(?).

I take my dogs hiking at local mountains or to the 4,000 acre state park if I'm feeling lazy. They have a large off leash area at the state park, so I can sit around while my dogs run.

Swimming is the best over-all exercise there is...It conditions the animal without too much stress on their joints...
I wish I had someplace to swim my dogs...but in Florida there's not much place to swim them without worries...
I have them do sprints for toys...and I increase them as they gain stamina...But it's pretty hot here and you have to be careful...you have to know your dogs and know when they've had enough...
In cold weather places you have more of a need for treadmills and the such...but here I'd rather have my dogs outside where I'd rather be too...

~Bob~

An Agility "professional" and Obedience Trainer rather put me off swimming the dogs I used to work with, in lakes on the property, by pointing out that getting into cold water was probably NOT good for their joints in the long term. This IS England, not Florida, ... and he did subsequently run a heated canine aquatherapy pool... so that could be irrelevant to US posters.

Swimming aside, I have always used whatever the dog likes - so if they are ball-crazy, they get 2-balled to the extreme while we are out, if they prefer dashing up and down hills then I make sure they do plenty of that, and so on. I find the most important thing is to get them out and WALKING regularly; I get sick of hearing about dogs whose owners think they only need a life where they run their own yard all week, and get a hike (or more likely a car trip to a dog park) at weekends.

Any sport/PP training or other hobby pursuits, IMO, should form 'the icing on the cake' over and above enough regular walking-out exercise, hopefully to interesting, smelly, variable terrain, locations.

Floridian here too, and not much chance to swim due to the gators, and currently sewage in the bay. :P
So i mostly do indoor stuff, like agility, obedience and play at the park. It's too hot now to work the dog during the day. Hoping to be back to training here soon. but my dog is currently FAT!

For conditioning I rode bicycle, and I used a sled with weights regularly ( 12 months + only ).
Contrary to most people I teach my dogs to pull on leash when walking ( at least 1 hour/day ), so it´s almost always "training time", but they don´t realize it. Starting with pups, the older, the longer.
Show training once a week the whole year, even if I didn´t show them. All of that, if possible, not on concrete.
IPO training 3 times/week, that´s a lot of short sprints and physically fight.
And naturally a lot of playing, running, just having fun...

I swim my dogs for 20 min 3 days a week when the snow comes I start the tyre pulling all that with the usual ball stuff bite work

Everything is relative to where you live and what's available...Like I said...Swimming is the best exercise for us and our dogs...Here in Florida it's not possible to swim in the lakes...Too many things that can hurt them...If you have a pool and don't mind the hair in the filters then that's great...But I use natural conditioning such as playing 2-Ball in the evenings when it's cooler and after I work my dogs in Obedience...When I've done Protection I don't exercise them...they get enough from running on the field...

~Bob~

Chase the sprinklers... loves it...believe me he gets a workout. Found a deserted golf course and we are usually alone he can run off lead with freesbie; a few sprints for the kong seems to keep my guy in good shape. Very lean foods also, mostly meat and not a bunch of other crap, so far works well. I also would love to find someplace to swim him but to no avail so far. He loves the water... Good days, nan