Dog Fitness Training

The Puppy

During a puppy’s development it is important not to exercise them too much or too vigorously. If you have ever seen an Xray of a puppy’s bones it would make sense why this is. Have you ever heard the song ‘The Skeleton Dance’ where the leg bone is connected to the knee bone? Well in a puppy it isn’t really until the bones are fully grown. This happens around 1 year old in small dogs and 18 months in large dogs. The general rule of thumb is that a puppy should not be exercised at one time for more that 5 minutes per month they are alive. So for example a 6 month old puppy can walk up to 30 minutes at one time. It is also generally recommended that you limit jumping down from a height for the same period. I have seen a number of injuries from puppies being repeatedly run after a ball especially with the ball throwers (known in the animal physio world as cruciate sticks). It is that repetitive loading and the stop and spin that is their undoing.

If you have got yourself an energetic dog you can tire them out with brain activity such as find it games or puzzle boards. I recommend a book called Brain Games by Claire Arrowsmith for some ideas. But there is also a great deal online. Just stick enrichment games into your search bar as it is also really important to teach a puppy how to self calm or have time out. A puppy needs about 16 hours sleep per day and a tired puppy is a living monster. The best thing I ever bought was a crate. It became my dog’s safe place and this lasted well into adulthood.

Fitness Training from 18 months old

Once full grown the real benefit of having an adventure loving dog can begin. However, you wouldn’t take your 12 year old self for a 10km run without some sort of training so why would you do the same thing to your dog. They get the same aches and pains as us they just don’t moan about it as much. They get a stiff back when they are running at a single speed pace for an extended length of time, they get aching joints when they have run on the pavement and their muscles ache when they run in the hills.

Humans have bred dogs for different jobs and this doesn’t just give them the different looks and size it also has created differences in their cellular makeup. There are many research papers out there exploring the differences in dogs bred for racing and those bred for fighting. Your dog may never have been in a dog fighting ring or ran around a race track but what their muscles look like under a microscope will be quite different. These days there are also cross breeds on cross breeds which adds to the genetic mishmash. This needs to be taken into account when planning a training program for a dog.

My dog Pip is an SPCA special. She is one of those dogs that when people see her they enquire what breed she is. At a best guess she is greyhound, husky, Staffordshire bull terrier and some sort of shepherd dog. If I put her face through Google Lens it says she is a wolf-dog. Huskies are bred for endurance and greyhounds are bred for speed. So immediately we have an issue. So I gave myself a general rule:

Age 1-2 no more than 10km/1 hour of running
Age 2-3 no more than 15km/1.5 hour of running
Age 3-4 no more than 21km/2 hours of running

But within that we did longer days and variety was key. If we did a longer run then she would have quieter walks for the rest of the week. We would do off lead walks/runs and on lead walks/runs. I have to admit we didn’t always get it right. Pip loves to run and doesn’t have an off button but the next day she might seem a bit stiff or want to sniff more on a walk (a sign of taking it easy). When you make the big mistake and over run your dog they get injured and that is a significant period of time off of running and none of us want that to happen.

The Training Program

Just like with us, dogs need a period of fitness training before any big adventure can begin. Dogs just love being with their people and you can almost see them smiling when they are out on walks with their pack. There is nothing sadder than seeing a dog sore after doing more than their body was ready for and nothing better than seeing a happy pup enjoying their time in the great outdoors.

The idea for starting these focussed training programs came after a search and rescue dog that I knew needed to get back into work from an extended period of relative rest. I put together a six week training program based on my combined knowledge of endurance sport and dogs. The training program also provided key strength and conditioning exercises and some cross training with swimming and underwater treadmill walking.

To start the program off we take baseline measurements of heart rate (Essner et al., 2013)
, 6 minute walk test (Swimmer and Rozanski, 2011) and your (the human’s) perception of how hard your dog seems to be working (Lupo et al., 2020). Then we look at your goals and the current limitations of your dog based on breed, previous injuries and age. Using this data we can put together a program with ideas for walks based on your location, intensity of training, intervals and rest days. You will also get a few key exercises that you can incorporate into your walks and ideas for cross training. For hands on treatment you will need to visit your nearest animal physio or massage therapist but for remote assessment there is telehealth and exercise programs available through us.