Do performace dogs get sore?

I think keeping things low impact is important, but if he has the energy I don't see any problem with working with him often. It's really no different than a rousing game of fetch when you get home from work.

Obviously keep an eye out for symptoms of tiredness, but more likely you'll see his mental game diminish far before physical stamina becomes an issue.
 
I wanted to add after working more with high performance sport horses and going back to physical therapy because of that, I'm paying more attention to Olive's symmetry and developing the support muscles. She doesn't display at visible signs of discomfort but she's very good about not showing pain in general (ex. when she split her tooth in half and barely reacted when the vet wiggled it.) If we really step up her activity level, I'd proably want some bodywork evaluation at some point.
 
Last edited:
Greenepony said:
I wanted to add after working more with high performance sport horses and going back into physical therapy because of that, I'm paying more attention to Olive's symmetry and developing the support muscles. She doesn't display at visible signs of discomfort but she's very good about not showing pain in general (ex. when she split her tooth in half and barely reacted when the vet wiggled it.) If we really step up her activity level, I'd proably want some bodywork evaluation at some point.
Click to expand...

Yes--that's a good point. Our dogs see a chiropractor who is also a vet once a month. She evaluates their bodies including muscle mass, soreness, stiffness, etc all while adjusting them.
 
corbinam said:
Yes--that's a good point. Our dogs see a chiropractor who is also a vet once a month. She evaluates their bodies including muscle mass, soreness, stiffness, etc all while adjusting them.
Click to expand...

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and just register. If he is unfocused and tired, I can always sit him out and practice the flatwork drills on my own - I am, after all, the one that needs practice!

We were actually thinking about starting chiro for Cruz. There is one close by who I have heard great things about. Maybe I will bring him in for a baseline evaluation right before we start the sports foundations and then 3-4 weeks later to see how his body is faring.
 
Couple of things about doing stuff after competing. I actually remember this issue coming up a while ago. It is risky to train or do higher level activities after competing, particularly with flyball. Doing no activity though isn't the solution - going for walks, and not running, is the best activity.

I say particularly with flyball because of the issue of adrenalin, which is pretty high at a flyball comp. One of the issues of not resting after a comp is you aren't allowing the dog's adrenalin level to drop naturally. Even though the dog may feel amped up and want to run, you shouldn't feed into that. Our dogs are not working dogs, if they were their levels would drop quicker. Although nothing is like the high level bursts of energy at a comp.

Then there's the issue of muscle fatique. This is something the specialist had told me with Tully. When the muscles are fatigued they are much more prone to small tears - particularly around the shoulder area. Agility and flyball both require the dogs to do unnatural twisting, so ball chasing is the absolutely, utterly worst thing you can do after a competition - because you are likely causing a lot of tearing around the medial shoulder area. In fact, ball chasing is a bad thing to do with any dog that trains in flyball or agility. And from the continuous lectures I would get from the dogs' physio - obsessively chasing balls (or Frisbees) - is not something you should do often because of the same risk with shoulder tears.

And it isn't because a dog is young - in fact as they get older their muscles become less elastic and more prone to injury. Although at least as they get older they (sometimes) are less silly about throwing their bodies around.

There was another reason you should only do walks after a comp, but the cleaner has arrived so will have to save it for later.

I must say, I think all performance dog owners should visit a physio for advice. Chiros may be vets but physios (well here anyway) are trained to deal with athletes so can give you a recovery routine for after comps which is really helpful.
 
We have an hour private lesson on Mondays. this week was the first time that Lacey really gave it her all and ran with all the jumps. We gave her lots of breaks, but she was worn out for the rest of the day. She started bugging me to "play" the next day. We do jumps and run after a toy, but only for under 10 minutes at a time. Then it's time to rest for a while. She wants to play like this several times a day. We are also doing a low height on the jumps. She sailes over the jumps and could easily go higher, but she is so young that I'm in no rush for that.
 
I am very cautious, as I am so paranoid about joints. Sparrow did not do even small jumps until she was 12 months old, except at our once monthly foundation agility class. She was 9 or 10 months when she first did jumps there. I did flat work, but only in five minute bursts. Now at 14 months I have signed her up for a second agility class, but that won't begin until August. She is very well muscled on her legs, so I feel happier she will cope with this fine.

I don't play ball with her much, as it can do a lot of damage to the wrist joints due to repetitive strain.

I go to hydrotherapy once a month and honestly think it is the best thing for an canine athlete, along with chiro and physio. Our dogs put a lot of strain on their bodies when they run and it is well worth investing in complementary therapies to prevent problems arising.
 
I honestly didn't even think too much about sore muscles and joints until I myself was sore after class on Monday! It is extremely difficult to keep him from running, jumping and playing - the more we restrict him, the crazier he gets. He is, after all, a puppy, and should be able to expend his energy and enjoy playtime. I have been very careful to protect his joints as much as I can and keep everything low impact, but he throws his little body around like a maniac sometimes and that is hard to stop :gaah We have our first chiro appointment on Tuesday, and will likely continue with maintenance appointments after that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top