Canine Cross Training

Dogs/Training/Health $19.95 Sasha Foster, MSPT, CCRT Condition Your Dog to be a Top Canine Competitor CANINE CROSS TRAINING What are the four conditioning components of top athletes? Most physical therapists agree that they include balance, strength, endurance and flexibility. The same characteristics Canine Cross Training apply to canine athletes as well and form the basis of this new book by Sasha Foster, co-author of the award winning The Healthy Way to Stretch Your Dog. When the four conditioning components are executed in a systematic approach using the key exercise Building Balance, Strength principles of frequency, intensity and duration, you can train your dog to reach his fullest potential in whatever canine sport or activity you choose to participate in—and help keep him fitter and more injury-free over a longer period of time. and Endurance in Your Dog You will learn: • How to test your dog to determine what level of exercise difficulty he should begin with when starting out a cross training program. • The role of core stabilization and whole-body awareness exercise during balance training. • The use of positive training and shaping techniques to help your dog acclimate himself to the training equipment used in the various exercises. • Recommended conditioning programs for various types of activities ranging from dock diving to agility to flyball to therapy dog work. What experts are saying about Canine Cross Training Sasha Forster combines science and real-life experience to provide the reader with practical guidelines for canine cross training. The book includes many illustrations, CCRT MSPT, Sasha Foster, pictures and case examples making it an easy, enjoyable read. Canine exercises and science will likely continue to evolve quickly over the coming years, in the meantime this book offers a solid outline of current concepts of canine conditioning. Felix Duerr, DVM and Diplomate, American and European College of Veterinary Surgeons Canine Cross Training is a tremendous resource rooted in the science of training and conditioning and executed through positive techniques to develop the brain as well as the body. The program is easy to follow and the steps for progression are well defined. We look forward to implementing and evaluating the age appropriate exercises in our puppies at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center and working dogs in the field. Cynthia M. Otto, DVM, PhD and Executive Director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center I love the process of shaping a dog’s behavior—watching the dog’s brain become actively engaged. Canine Cross Training uses the shaping process to provide physical as well as mental exercise in healthy, healthful, fun ways. It is so much fun training dogs for useful behavior—and Canine Cross Training makes it physically healthful, too. Gail Fisher, Owner, All Dogs Gym®, author of The Thinking Dog Sasha A. Foster is the founder of Canine Fitness Zone where she provides canine conditioning services and education to those people interested in becoming or improving their skills as canine rehabilitation therapists. She is the co-author of The Healthy Way to Stretch Your Dog. ISBN 978-1-61781-113-5 91995 > www.dogwise.com 1-800-776-2665 9 781617 811135 Publishing Canine Cross Training Building Balance, Strength and Endurance in Your Dog Sasha Foster, MSPT, CCRT Wenatchee, Washington U.S.A. Canine Cross training Building Balance, Strength and Endurance in Your Dog Sasha Foster, MSPT, CCRT Dogwise Publishing A Division of Direct Book Service, Inc. 403 South Mission Street, Wenatchee, Washington 98801 1-509-663-9115, 1-800-776-2665 www.dogwisepublishing.com / [email protected] © 2013 Sasha Foster Photos: Sasha Foster Graphic Design: Lindsay Peternell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. Limits of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty: The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnish- ing, performance, or use of the instructions and suggestions contained in this book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN: 978-1-61781-113-5 Printed in the U.S.A. More praise for Canine Cross Training This is a comprehensive, detailed source for targeted canine exercises. It’s thoughtfully conceived and well-written—an essential go- to guide. M. Christine Zink DVM, PhD, DipACVP, Professor and Direc- tor Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, author of The Agility Ad- vantage and Peak Performance. To Quin Black fur shining, running in the bending green reeds beside cool high mountain streams, you taught me to love with dedication so deep it rooted me to the world. May you always have smooth wet stones on which to rest your belly and fields of fresh bright snow. I miss you, Boo. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................... vii Introduction .................................................................................. 1 1. Conditioning Components and Principles ................................ 6 2. Motor Learning ....................................................................... 12 3. Balance .................................................................................... 18 4. Strength .................................................................................. 49 5. Endurance ............................................................................... 90 6. Activity Specific Cross Training Programs .............................. 105 The Cross Training Team .......................................................... 115 Training Calendars .................................................................... 122 Bibliography .............................................................................. 124 About the Author ...................................................................... 127 Index ......................................................................................... 128 Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the tremendous dedication and hard work of the following people: Ashley Foster, who works effortlessly by my side reminding me to see the world through the eyes of the dogs; Pam Foster and Jim Simos, my parents, for guiding me with your experience; Dr. Jana Dean, Dr. Greg Burns, Dr. Rainey Corbyn and the staff at South Mesa Veterinary Hospital and Come, Play, Stay in Fort Collins, Colorado, for your continued dedication to impeccable veterinary medicine, animal rehabilitation, and boarding and daycare services; all Canine Fitness Zone™ clients, for your wonderful feedback helping me better understand how to help you provide research-based care for your dogs; Sarah Strem- ming, for editing again and again and sharing ideas that made this book better; Craig Miles and staff, for your tremendous dedication to my business; Steve Carroll, for teaching me the language of numbers; to the Larimer County Small Business Administration including Jim McWilliams, for turning a book into a business; Monica Wilson, for being Quin and Mimzy’s friend and companion while I’m off sharing ideas with the world; Yvonne Hanning, mother of May, for editing and superb feedback on the original manuscript; Ashley Eike, for citation editing; Ellie Bennett, for prepping the manuscript; Corrine Glulick, for creating forms in the eleventh hour; and all the people who believe that dogs deserve the highest quality research-based care available. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. vii Introduction The brain of a physical therapist is an interesting place. Trained to see with our hands and calculate with our eyes, our observation skills become honed to the point where we can’t turn them off. The dog pacing in the park has back pain, that agility dog has limited hip range of motion and this old dog has a sore right knee. Of course, unless asked, we generally keep these constantly trolling thoughts to ourselves. But the point is that our senses are trained to see movement and our brains are trained to do something about it. Furthermore, when we make recommendations, be it a conditioning program for a healthy dog or a physical therapy treatment for an injured dog, we should always have a good physiological reason for choosing each little thing that we do. Making decisions based on the body’s natural processes is part of the art of physical therapy. Healing and wellness occur because we understand how to facilitate the body’s inherent wisdom. Knowing how best to use the body’s natural processes to promote wellness and healing is the basis of canine cross training. When I decided to start Canine Fitness Zone™ , the goal I set was to build a cross training program based on well-founded physiological principles and primary research. The result was a program I call the 4-Tiered Canine Athletic Conditioning Program which forms the basis of this book. Not only did I want to improve the physical performance of dogs through cross training, I also wanted to use only positive, reward-based training methods that would teach not 1 CANINE CROSS TRaiNING INTRODUctiON just exercises for dogs, but would modify their bodies so what they learned in our dog gym would carry over into life. I quickly learned that creating exercises

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