balance - The Moving Canine

Want to train new behaviors faster? With fewer reps? Here’s what you need!

On May 13, 2022

AgiNotes recently published an overview of an international survey about the changes in agility over the past few years and where agility enthusiasts see the sport heading.

One of the (many) things standing out was that the higher demands of the sport require you to train more and more repetitions with your dog, extending the training time and also raising the concern of overuse injuries resulting from all the reps.

While it’s true that as agility becomes more demanding, it also needs more training. But maybe there’s a way to change the way we look at training, be smarter about what we train… and even reduce the number of actual sport exercises?

I have my own approach to keep the training repetitions under control. Want to know what it is? Check out the newest blog post at The Moving Canine

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How to make sure that your warm up routines ACTUALLY improve your dog’s performance?

On April 8, 2022

Are you already doing warm ups with your dog before training sessions? Great! Then you probably already know the benefits of warming up muscles and other soft tissues, preparing the body for work and thus reducing the risk of injuries.

However, focusing on general warm up may not actually prepare your dog for the training session ahead. Especially if the upcoming session needs precision – like most dog sport exercises do!

What kind of warm up exercises should you be really focusing on to improve your dog’s performance and make sure that the warm up ACTUALLY prepares your dog for the training session?

Discover the top 3 things missing from most canine fitness routines

On April 1, 2022

“Hang on! So you are saying I can fix my dog’s dog walk performance with body awareness and balance exercises? But I’m already doing canine fitness training with my dog! And he’s still struggling on the dog walk!”

As you already know, doing fitness training with your dog builds a perfect foundation for sports!

But here’s the secret: most canine fitness routines are missing the key elements that would help to improve your dog’s performance on the dog walk… and many other real life challenges!

These 3 elements are absolutely essential for transfering skills from your dog’s “gym workouts” to actual sports exercises. Like running on the dog walk without misplacing paws, losing balance or falling off.

And if you are missing any of these elements in your training routines, then you can do as much fitness training as you want, you simply won’t see improvement in your dog’s dog walk performance.

Find out what these 3 missing elements are in the newest The Moving Canine blop post!

Balance. Surprisingly way less static than you thought!

On January 6, 2021

Balance really is a very complex topic, encompassing so many different elements and areas of physical training. In dog physical skill/fitness training we often see the term “balance” being used mostly in the context of working on unstable surfaces. Where the dog has to put some effort into maintaining his body position while the surface underneath him is wobbling. But this just a tiny little part of balance. The reality is way more complex. Most of the time our dogs need to have good balance during movement! And, as it comes out, not only to stay upright and not fall over…

Linking physical skills to poisoned cues

On December 16, 2020

Imagine giving your dog a cue during training, a cue that should indicate a well known behavior to your dog. Instead of happily following that cue with lightning speed and wagging tail, your dog delays responding to the cue. He may turn his head away, go sniffing or scratching, show lip licking and then, finally, slowly follows the cue… That’s the kind of effect poisoned cues tend to have.