by Cynde Leshin
All Dogs Should Use Balance Equipment
Over the past 14 years that I have been training performance dogs (Pulik and Border Collies) I have not only had injuries in all my performance dogs but everyone I know that has a performance dog or a very active companion dog has had some type of injury.
It is not surprising that we are beginning to hear more about these injuries in our sport dogs since we are asking more and more of them not only at very early ages but throughout their lives. AND, I have to wonder if our lack of knowledge about the importance of building core strength, body awareness and fitness in our dogs is contributing to their injuries.
We all have seen or been guilty of taking a dog right out of their crate for either agility exercises in a class or seminar and just before running our dog at a show. The warm-up might consist of a few jumps over a practice jump but in classes and seminars that does not even usually happen.
In the past there were people who wrote that dogs did not need to warm up like human athletes do since dogs were meant to just spring into action, running, jumping, chasing for food or whatever they do in the wild.
Those of us that have had injured dogs and experienced the long time it takes for rehabilitation know the importance of prevention. In some instances the dog never seems to perform at pre-injury level or in other instances, the injury re-occurs.
My background in medicine, education and sports has led me to research and read extensively about how to condition our dogs to not only help them be better in their sport, prevent injuries but also to help them be able to be physically and mentally active as they age. Thus, the “Top 5 Reasons that all Dogs Should Use Balance Equipment”…
The Top 5 Reasons That All Dogs Should Use Balance Equipment
REASON 5: Healthy mind, healthy body for your dog… esp. senior dogs.
REASON 4: Helps prevent injuries.
REASON 3: Helps to calm your dog with the mental stimulation.. don’t need to run and exercise your dog to help calm them for the day.
REASON 2: Helps their skills in dog sports like agility and obedience.
REASON 1: Dogs LOVE this interaction with their owners since it is FUN, HAPPY, AND HIGHLY REWARDED
Cynde Leshin lives in Sedona, Arizona with her husband and 3 dogs: Myst, Kaffee and Puli Ziggy. Cynde has worked in the health care field for over 10 years, and more recently as a faculty member in the College of Education at Western Governors University. Her field of expertise is instructional design and instructional technology. She is now retired and enjoying her free time hiking, training and competing in obedience. She also enjoys photography and applying her interest in instructional media and technology to provide educational writings, creative photographs and videos on her web site, “Two Cool Border Collies” (2coolbcs.com) to share her learning experiences with her dogs with others.
YouTube: youtube.com/2coolBorderCollies
Instragram: 2coolbordercollies
