On Saturday 23rd March on behalf of The Hovawart Club of GB Iain Macdonald CCFT and Veterinary Physiotherapist of Superfly Animal Physio near Worcester ran an Introduction to Fitness and Conditioning Workshop. There were 7 Hovawarts and their owners in attendance with the day being a mixture of theory and practical elements along with questions and discussion. The idea of the day was to help prevent injury’s especially for sporting dogs where they are being asked to put extra strain on themselves physically especially if it is something that can be repetitive. The day started with the theory and why it is so important to warm up the dog’s muscles before any exercise. We have all seen the person that turns up in a carpark opens the boot of their car and the dogs just jump out and run around. We talked about the importance of just starting with the first 10 minutes of the walk being on a lead and gradually picking up your pace, so their muscles have warmed up before they go and have a zoomies!! Then we went onto flexibility exercises and discussed the fact that all dogs have a preference and be either right or left pawed!
Iain demonstrated 7 different flexibility exercises with his wonderful Mini Australian Shepherd Nami. Then we all did each exercise with our Hovies to make sure we were understanding what was required and what to look for and see firsthand how our dogs could or could not perform each exercise. Iain gave us guidance on what we were doing right or wrong and a way forward and how to progress. We discussed not just about the importance of the dogs being flexible to help prevent injury but also the fact that doing the exercises regularly can show up a minor discrepancy in how a dog usually performs an exercise so you can do something about it before it becomes a more serious injury. Following on from this was Canine Conditioning. Iain explained that the difference between Fitness and Conditioning is as follows.
Fitness: The body’s ability to undertake a specific task.
Conditioning: Preparation of the body for a specific task.
The importance of fitness and conditioning are to help reduce the risk of Injury, improve performance, reduce the likelihood of fatigue and most importantly improve the dogs quality of life. Helping to create a balance healthy dog, and to have all 5 elements that give us a balanced dog, Mental Fitness, Balance fitness, Strength fitness, Cardio fitness and flexibility.
We went through the life stages of a dog from puppy, adolescent, adult & senior. Interestingly the way we do the exercises and treat a puppy is the same as for a senior. Too much physical exercise can be so detrimental until after the growth plates have closed, but the only way to know if this has happened is via an x ray!!! Closure will depend on the size and breed so it can be anywhere between 12 – 24 months. The importance for puppies and seniors of proprioception walking on or over different surfaces for body awareness and keeping the nerves in their paws to keep firing which will also help with their mental fitness. We all left ( 2 hours later than scheduled) with lots to think about and much to do to help keep our Hovawarts as healthy and active as possible.
If anyone would be interested in attending this type of workshop or have any other ideas for one, please let me know.
Paula Foakes
01483 200877 or [email protected]