Silvia Lavallee BMR, PT, AFCI, C.H.A.P.
Puppies and Exercise
Puppies normally have small bouts of activity followed by small rest periods.
Those prevented from exercise do not grow as large and are not as physically developed or coordinated. This lack of balance and coordination can continue into adulthood. Lack of normal movement can result in bone weakness and deformity. Crating for safety and giving the puppy a safe haven to rest is great. Crating for long periods of time puts the puppy at a disadvantage. (I have seen serious growth deformity in the limbs from not being able to straighten out for long periods). Large dogs kenneled on concrete or asphalt tends to develop flat feet/splayed during growth. (Gravel is ideal for outside dogs.)
Exercising Puppies
Growth plates are very susceptible to injuries, reduced or uneven bone growth leads to deformities. Even after the growth plates have closed young dogs shouldn’t be exercised strenuously until the muscles have been able to develop over months. Even afterwards bone remodels and develops strength depending on the muscle forces put on it, so over several months as the muscles get stronger the bone will also get stronger. They shouldn’t be jumped over wrist height for a minimum of 12-18 months. Elbows are one of the last growth plates to close.(up to 3 years for large breed) A normal front limb carries 30% of body weight. Now put that limb in a trot and it goes up to 150% body weight – on a single front limb. Adding a jump profoundly adds to the shear and compression forces. Puppies also are at risk to injury as they have lack of coordination, the muscles are not fully developed and the bones are soft. You do not want to put the force of landing on growth plates or strain the developing rear with push off activity. However 5 minutes of training moments will be beneficial to introduce the puppy to the desired sport, and neurologically ingrain the activity pattern. Normal growth is somewhat irregular; the hind may pop up followed by front limb. Anytime you see a downhill posture avoid a lot of circle/turning work.
Limit obstacle training for at least a year in small dogs, more for large dogs.
You can prepare the puppy for real obstacle training, work on rear end awareness and strength, exposure to the sport -train for speedy recall in an agility dog, retrieve stuffed duck for retrieving dog, puppy playground of tires, planks, child tunnel for agility dog. Hind end strength cannot be emphasized enough for performance dogs.
Puppy Tippy plank – place a plank on a small board. Have puppy walk on it. You can block the drop initially, gradually add so he gets used to balancing, and the noise.
Puppy playground – run through tires, plays in child tunnel, hide under lawn chair, different surfaces, different environmental factors.
Puppy bump jump – having a relatively flat object on the ground that the pup can jump over can help prepare for later agility.
Pivot on a small board – having front feet on a board and puppy walks around the square board using hind feet will give great hind strength and awareness and teach him to rock back.
Supervise play with older dogs so puppies learn how to be polite, how to respect other dogs, and to learn canine communication skills. Puppies can sustain injuries rough housing, but my concern would be more with making sure the puppies have a safe environment to play. Nothing high they could fall off off, nothing that would fall on them if bumped it, no where they could get stuck, sharp corners, things they could chew such as cords. Usually puppies will withdraw when they’ve had enough playing. If a puppy is used to frequent play with other puppies his size he should be fine. But taking an inactive puppy and suddenly putting him with a bunch of wildly playing pups can cause unaccustomed activity and potential to injure.
Minor strains in pups usually has no serious effects, they have very elastic healthy tissue. However more serious injuries can cause early arthritis. Some reports indicate that 100 % racing greyhounds have sustained injury by the second race. Any old injury or dysfunctional joint benefits from continual care. Daily consistent moderate exercise will keep the muscles strong around the joint. Gentle stretching to maintain available range of motion and prevent further stiffening up and to keep the other joints fit enough to compensate for the extra work they may do to handle a limb in dysfunction. Ice new strains for 42 hours after injury and for old strains or sore/stiff joints heat gently. Never ask your dog to do more than he can comfortably and safely do with his conformation and level of fitness. Do not use his enthusiasm as a guide; they very often will do whatever you ask regardless of the long term consequences of their actions.
Remember not all pups are the same even of same breed so respect their responses to activity. Keep everything low repetitions, quit as soon as there is any sign of fatigue, and modify to make it a positive experience always. Remember the conformation of the dog does affect potential to long term ramifications, every breed has a purpose to their structure, and likely they perform that purpose best. Leanness is also an important factor in the orthopedic health of your performance dog. Galloping dogs have faster twitch muscle fibers to allow them to run; greyhounds have an amazing cardiac capacity, able to get up to 300 beats a minute without being pathological. This brings lots of blood and oxygen to the muscles to continue to work. They are bred to run. Although capable of performance large breed dogs will impact their joints heavily, and the potential for early arthritis is there. Add to this straight conformation (such as mastiff’s, whose conformation was designed to stand and guard, thus is straight) you have poor shock absorption. Straight shoulders will cause a shorter stride thus the dog has to take more steps and will wear quicker, plus also has a poorer conformation for shock absorption. My biggest concern is dogs that are chondromorphic (long body short legs i.e. dachsie) these dogs bones begin to degenerate shortly after birth, by age 4 there is virtually no shock absorption left. These dogs also have a body that even normal activity stresses their spine. Jumping should be avoided. So they are likely capable and willing to do agility or fly ball, but they absolutely cannot safely perform it. The long term ramifications will catch up to them. Certain sports are extremely tough on the bodies, the slamming of shoulders in fly ball, or the shear stress of weave poles in agility. Therefore it is extremely essential to condition the dogs superiorly to do these activities, and be constantly monitoring them for signs of injury.
Lastly an opinion on entry ages for sorts. I would like to remind people that we no longer allow children under 12/14 to run marathons as we were causing too many injuries including bone problems. Now we are seeing kids with sports injuries and having surgeries for ligament injuries sustained in organized sports. We recognize that they definitely will be in trouble in their older years. In the horse world there were 2 year futurities for the cutting horses (competition). It had to be stopped as they had no horses available for 3 year old futurities as they had all suffered injury. Let’s not do that to our dogs. Several of the big agility trainers in the stats do not ever enter their dogs until after age 3. They spend time developing bone strength, muscle strength, coordination and maturity before beginning an extensive training regime for athletic performance sports.
I hope this answers most of the questions.
Silvia Lavallee BMR PT, AFCI, C.H.A.P.
2:What is the optimum method to get a Show Dog in peak condition?
Treadmill, running? Please advise.