250 Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
require predominantly strength include flyball,
obedience, agility, weight‐pulling trials, and
other activities that require only short (less than
a minute) bursts of movement.
Most of the clients seen by rehabilitation pro
fessionals in a typical practice participate in
sports that involve predominantly strength.
Likewise, most working dogs perform activi
ties that require strength rather than endur
ance. Nonetheless, dogs that compete only in
strength‐type activities such as obedience or
flyball still benefit from some endurance train
ing—a minimum of three 20‐minute trots a
week is a good starting point.
Note: Endurance should not be mistaken for
stamina. Stamina is the ability to keep working at
an activity (whether it involves strength or endur
ance activities) for long periods of time. Endurance
implies increased oxidative capacity and muscu
lar adaptations for performing long‐term aerobic
activities. For example, a person who can work
out with weights for an hour might have excep
tional stamina, but might not have the aerobic
capacity to run for more than 40 seconds. From
that point of view, all performance and working
dogs should ideally have excellent stamina.
Certainly, there is significant overlap between
strength and endurance training, and athletes
benefit from experiencing both forms of exer
cise. For example, a study in human athletes
showed that strength training can lead to
enhanced long‐term (>30 minutes) and short‐
term (<15 minutes) endurance capacity in both
well‐trained individuals and highly trained
top‐level endurance athletes, especially with
the use of high‐volume, heavy‐resistance
strength training protocols. The enhancement
in endurance capacity appears to involve train
ing‐induced increases in the proportion of type
IIA muscle fibers as well as gains in maximal
muscle strength and rapid force characteristics
(rate of force development), while likely also
involving enhancements in neuromuscular
function (Aagaard & Andersen, 2010).
Proprioception and balance
Proprioception is the ability to sense the spatial
orientation of various parts of the body, including
the head, legs, and feet, and to make movement
adjustments accordingly. The proprioceptive
sense is thought to be provided by information
from sensory neurons located in the inner ear
(information on motion and orientation) and
stretch receptors located in the muscles and the
joint‐supporting ligaments (for information on
stance see Wodowski et al., 2016).
There are specific nerve receptors for this form
of perception called proprioceptors. Messages
from these receptors are sent up the spinal cord
and are read and interpreted by the brain, allow
ing the dog to make coordinated movements
such as landing from a jump, climbing over
debris, or grasping an object in the jaws. Just like
all nerves, those that govern proprioception can
be trained. In other words, connections between
neurons in those pathways can be strengthened
and their numbers of synapses increased. With
practice, dogs can improve their proprioceptive
abilities, making them less susceptible to injury
and able to work on complex tasks for longer
periods of time without tiring.
One of the best and most deceptively simple
body awareness exercises is to have the dog step
over the rungs of a ladder placed on the ground
(Figure 10.33). It is best for the dog to move quite
slowly, which gives it time to think about the
placement of the feet. Once the dog can walk for
ward without touching the edges or the rungs,
the dog can be moved forward then immedi
ately backward. Likewise, these exercises can be
performed on hills (with the dog moving in all
four directions) to increase the difficulty. Another
variation is to have the dog step sideways with
only the front feet or only the rear feet stepping
between the rungs. Search and rescue dogs can
benefit from practicing stepping on (rather than
between) the rungs of a ladder.
Other proprioceptive exercises include hav
ing a dog walk along a plank, step over PVC
poles scattered randomly over the ground
(Figure 10.34), and having dogs back up over
various terrain such as sand, wood chips, and
deep grass. The use of rocker boards and wob
ble boards to improve balance is discussed in
Chapter 8.Preparation and recovery (warm‐ups
and cool‐downs)Warming up prior to exercise improves perfor
mance (Fradkin et al., 2010; Huang et al., 2011),