Thursday, November 6, 2014

Conditioning Exercises For The Agility Dog

By Cheng Bernhardt


Dogs have such as great time dashing around the agility course, but there's no arguing that the level of exercise can be quite high. To keep your furry guy fit and ready to hit the course at any time, you need to work on conditioning as well as practicing agility course obstacles and skills.

One way to keep a pet fit and healthy is to control their diet carefully. One look into those soulful eyes and it can be difficult to resist give your dog a nibble of this or that, but animals can gain weight quickly making it harder to exercise. Even an extra pound or two can make a big difference. Spend some time discussing food with your veterinarian and come up with good options for your dog to keep their weight on track and provide plenty of good nutrition.

Every dog is different individually as well as different by breed and size. All of this must be taken into consideration when choosing activities. For instance, while all dogs love a good walk, some also will enjoy a long run with their person. For instance, a Boxer or an English setter or Huskie might excel at running. On the other end of the spectrum, a small dog such as Shih Tzu or a Yorkshire terrier might wear out quickly from this type of vigorous exercise. For those who are just walkers, stick to local parks, flat beach trails and easy hikes for exercise.

Other fun exercises include tugging on toys, chasing after a ball and playing fetch. Dogs love these activities and they actually can be quite helpful for teaching your dog how to behave and follow commands. For instance you can throw a toy and signal your pet to bring it back to you. You can play tug, but also teach a command where your pet must release the tug toy immediately.

Of course, practicing your agility skills is another great exercise and you probably will spend quite a bit of time working with the obstacles. To get started, you will need to purchase a few pieces of agility equipment from an online retailer such as Carlson Agility. They sell all types of agility equipment, such as pause tables, weaves, teeters, a-frames, all types of jumps and many more items.

Setting up an agility course in your yard can be tricky if space is limited, so you also might consider purchasing some of Carlson Agility's mini agility obstacles. They sell everything from mini jumps to mini teeters and much more. These miniature obstacles are idea for puppy training and agility training for smaller dogs.




About the Author:



No comments: