How do you condition your dog for the new season?

Who does what? Do you condition differently for one type of competition from another....say agility as opposed to SchH/IPO. Ring sports, dock diving etc.

What do you do?

I only did SchH/IPO & straight PPD work with my dogs. My conditioning was basically running my dogs out in an open field, retrieves, send outs, OB( sits, downs, backing up, turns in both directions(also using touch pads & a milk crate to increase hind end awareness), crawling, rolling over & walking up,down & across bleachers.) In fall thru spring, walking & running at the beach (swiming in the early fall before the water was too cold.). Hiking on the horse trails at my horse's barn. Using all the hill trails...climbing up & over large downed trees, rocks etc.

I also use a treadmill to increase stamina & for exercise when ground conditions are risky. Playing & retrieves in the snow in winter is fun & productive. My dogs also spend time out in my yard & make many trips up & down the deck steps during the course of their time in the yard.

This kept my dogs at a good weight with good muscle &

I never had any of my dogs get any injuries working. I also always made sure that only very experienced decoys worked my dogs...especially my female, as she was very fast & hit hard...I was very careful who I allowed to catch her due to that & did long bites with only 2 decoys that I really trusted to be able to handle her.

This is what worked for my dogs.

Well I'm currently back at one dog.
There is no "off" season for us.
Between running drags,hunting,retrieving, and the like. He puts on a LOT of miles each week. Lots of this is focusing on stamina and endurance. However the retrieve training I like to do on safe but fairly steep hills.
Then there is fetch,leashed walks,obedience,and a little bite work. We do lots of stairs while he is on lead. Also dabble in a little weight pulling, like skiijoring, bikejoring. He also has a pack with a couple pounds worth of water and food on doing most of this.
Never really had any exercise induced injuries except the odd cracked paw pad.
Doesnt really show that he is in shape. But its my first photo added to the board.
Hope it works.


Edited by Connie Sutherland (03/17/2015 08:45 PM)
Edit reason: fix extra brackets

Now that^ post is blank.... Cant get it to show if the photo or text worked...





MOD NOTE:

I fixed it.

P.S. Next time please link to the photo, though, rather than embedding it. Thanks!

I wish Mara's posts were in here .. but as I try them I will post in here.

Aric, what a darling looking guy you have there. Your post reminded me that I need to take more photos of my boy.

Anne, your dedication to your Shepherds really shows - I don't have half the trials people in the East have given the CA weather.

Bak needs to get into a routine (ahem I need to get into a routine) so he is muscled.

I start to raise the time spent on retrieving with Trooper.

Thunder's age/health has me wondering. His rear leg muscles prevent me from having him chase anything because he's gotten pretty unsteady on any sort of fast turns. He also is getting pretty slow on sits and downs so basically when he want to play with me I just have him fetch a short distance and then mark and reward the out with his Kong.

I "DO allow them both to "own" their individual kongs now because neither one bothers even picking up the other's Kong. It also keeps Trooper from trying (forever)to get Thunder to play with him....which Thunder never has since Trooper was 8-9 months old.

The wife and I walk quite a bit but set to fast a pace for Thunder. With spring/summer coming I'll be making slow, short walks in the many parks we have around her.

I can only hope to get another yr out of the old fart but the slide in the last 5-6 months has been steep.

I train for SAR work and actually focus more on conditioning work in the winter because there's so much I can work on inside! Here are some conditioning ideas that most people can do with their dogs with minimal space and equipment

http://pennvetwdc.org/2012/annoucements/fit-to-work-videos/

Here are a few things I've done -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj56PYhqQa0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dcDXdCvL8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4juO8POvjpw

I also do off leash runs with my dogs as I have access to a couple large pieces of property - hills to run up and down, and space for them to free run while I walk. Of course, the free running has been greatly limited for the past month and a half due to 2+ feet of snow on the ground. So they've had short romps in the snow up until this past week when it melted

The result? Here's a recent picture of my youngster (whose conditioning has consisted of most of the above) No high stress exercises, no huge distances covered, everything has been appropriate for a growing dog.

https://flic.kr/p/rn5HNd

I'll add short (less than a mile) biking to the routine by the end of summer when he'll be about 16 m/o and gradually increase the distance through the fall. I'll probably aim on biking 2-3 days a week when the weather is conducive.

Bob, I am sorry to hear Thunder is having some health issues. No getting around it as our dogs age is there?

Thunder is one lucky boy to have you and your wife to help him live as well as he can.

Your writing makes me smile as your love for dogs is so sincere, your knowledge base so wide and you have a wonderful knack for writing in an engaging manner.

Mara, great back end work .. I am going to start that with my boy. I appreciate the videos of you working with your gorgeous boy - Amazing engagement obvious - Right now I get Bak to touch an upside down cattle feed bowl with his front paws and rotate left and right - he's doing very well with that.

He loves to do this weird thing .. he has a futon and he puts his front paws on the floor and leaves his belly and hind quarters on the futon. He will do this for quite some time and it looks like he is practicing for cart racing. He stretches a lot in that position as well. God he cracks me up ... I will have to get a board like you did and teach him to back up on it.

Your videos really made it plain how simple things can be used to get our dogs into optimum shape. Thank you for that.

I think this would make a great contest (did ya hear me CONNIE?) Pick an exercise and train for it .. yep, ready for it.

I have help .. my son is here from Canada and my Bak has bonded with him big time. At this moment in my life, it sure is great to have someone to help me keep both my dogs learning and having fun.

Edited by Maggie MacDonald (03/18/2015 05:12 PM)
Edit reason: clarity

Thanks Maggie!

Sounds like your ready to mentor your son in dog training.

Very cool!

Thanks maggie, to be honest that photo is almost 3 months old.
Mara, i always love watching your videos.
Great looking dog, training at its finest!


Here is a picture recent as of today. Once again doesnt really show that he is in shape.
http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/Aucado/media/20150317_214754_zps3be94b58.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0