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

On

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

2 responses

What to do if your agility dog is scared of the high dog walk?

On

Is your dog’s dog walk performance less than perfect? And you have no idea about why that is or how to fix it?

Could it be that your dog is scared of heights, leaving him uncomfortable on the dog walk and not performing at her best?

In today’s blog post I talk about the fear of heights, why this happens, how it affects your dog’s performance and how to recognize it in your own dog.

Leave a comment

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

On

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?

Read more in this blog post!

2 responses

Discover the top 3 things missing from most canine fitness routines

On

“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!

Leave a comment

Don’t miss out on these bonuses coordination training has!

On

Your dog needs coordination skills in every activity he’s engaged in. Yet it’s one of the most overlooked areas of dog sports training. We often see the word “coordination” in a fitness program or puppy school program. But the reality is often just a couple of exercises for body awareness. It’s because coordination can be a bit tricky to train, especially when we don’t know it’s even a thing! Time to change that. Coordination training has some HUGE benefits. Find out what they are in this blog post.

Leave a comment

Linking physical skills to poisoned cues

On

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.

Leave a comment

Could doing things fast limit your dog’s potential? 

On

Slow movement exercises allow the nervous system to sense even the smallest differences in muscle effort or if the correct muscles are working and firing at the right times. During slow movements the nervous system is able to work on any inefficiencies in the movement pattern and is able to correct the movement so that it becomes more efficient and better coordinated.

Leave a comment

What is coordination and can we train it?

On

In order to link our dog’s fitness program to real life situations, we need to have movement exercises in there. Exercises where our dogs develop movement skills that carry over to sports and work. And that teach our dogs to really use the power and strength they have. We need coordination exercises for our dogs!

Leave a comment