Clean Run - March 2020 - 7

For athletic success to evolve, it is imperative that muscle and tendon maturity is achieved through slow and
systematic conditioning and strength
training. In general, muscles have very
good blood supply allowing them to
often heal quickly from strenuous activity and microtrauma. Alternatively,
tendons lack blood supply and therefore heal very slowly and often with
scar tissue, creating weaknesses that
eventually will break the foundation
you have worked so hard to obtain.

Raising My Next Sport Puppy
Susan Garrett
"When you know better, do better." -
Maya Angelou
When I was a child, my father's arm was
my seatbelt; the brakes were hit, and
his arm came across my chest. That was
the way it was done in the sixties. Then
data confirmed that seat belts saved
lives. Changes were made.
Back in 1989, I ran in my first agility
match with a then ten-month-old Jack
Russell Terrier puppy. Agility was both
slower and the courses simpler; however, as the late Maya Angelou stated,
"When you know better, do better."
As I sit here and work out my training
plan for my next agility dog, I will (as I
normally do) make changes to his or
her foundation skills.
Here's why.
Today's agility injuries seem to be both
more frequent and more serious in nature. Surgery and long rehabilitation
away from the sport seem more commonplace than ever. I see the influence
of following intersecting factors:
*

People are starting puppies on agility equipment long before muscles
are developed enough to support
those critical joint ligaments.

Good science-based dog training is
more commonplace, so dogs have
an understanding of "how to be successful" sooner. This clarity means
dogs can be fast before their body is
ready to handle that speed.

Handling advancements mean handlers can stay ahead of their dogs,
encouraging even more speed.

March 20 | Clean Run

Today's agility courses are more complex than in the past. It is rare that the next
obstacle is the correct obstacle for the dog; therefore, these dogs are required to
change direction quickly at speed.

The introduction, and now common use, of physically demanding backside approaches to jumps and sharp turns after slices on jumps puts even more physical
demands on our agility dogs.

Running contacts are more commonplace and adding even more speed off contacts into these complex sequences.

These contributing factors have been creating a "perfect storm" for injuries to happen. Throw in slippery surfaces for training and competing, and the odds are stacking against our agility dogs to stay healthy.
As Dr. Canapp stated, let's take our focus away from "growth plate closure" and put
it on preserving the integrity of our dog's ligaments: Muscles tear and heal, but ligaments do not have the blood supply of muscles; therefore, they do not repair the way
muscles do. Ligaments scar over, reducing both the joint's range of motion and functionality.
So, my next puppy will be raised with a focus on preserving ligaments. And not just
to be able to play sports for a long time, but more importantly to allow that dog to
enjoy geriatric years filled with long hikes and enriching activities they learned to
love when they were younger.
I have no timeline; however, with my last puppy, I waited until she was fourteen
months old before I did sequencing with her. That means no "bars on the ground" to
get her used to being handled. My next puppy, I will wait until she is closer to eighteen months before I start sequencing. This means that she won't likely be ready to
go into the ring until she is closer to two years of age.
I look at that as an investment both in the dog's confidence and in her health and
longevity.
So, what do we do while we are "waiting" for our puppies to grow up? There is so
much foundation that will help that puppy when we eventually get to dog agility.
Foundation Brilliance: A Formula for Great Success
Here is a list of seven areas of focus you can work on over the first eighteen months
of your dog's life. Each will contribute to a phenomenal family pet as you lay down
a brilliant foundation for a phenomenal agility dog.
1. Relationship games: In my "Recallers" program (Recallers.com), we have forty
games that teach your dog everything from having focus for work, to coming
when called, to ignoring distractions while working, and being as fast driving
away from their handler as they are driving toward their handler.
2. Life is good everywhere! Actively desensitize your dog to as many stimuli as
possible while training in good "life skills" and manners. Yes, we want a great
agility dog, but that begins with a confident, focused puppy or dog. This means
growing confidence around other dogs, around all descriptions of people, including children, working simple behaviors on as many surfaces as you can think
for the puppy to walk over, exposure to sounds, sights, and movements. The key
is to do this without your puppy losing confidence.
Sadly, too many people do this in reverse. They teach fifty agility skills, then take
the dog to an agility trial and see how it goes in a new environment. This backward approach leaves it up to the dog to figure out what is important to notice
and what isn't, erodes confidence, and over faces the dog.
All animals need to have a few brilliant skills that you can take on the road, so the
dog can generalize that brilliance in all environments.

http://www.Recallers.com

Clean Run - March 2020

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