Health Considerations for Agility Training
Dog agility competition is an energetic and fast paced sport that can form a tremendous bond between you and your best friend. While the primary focus of the sport is on fun, there are several things that you need to consider before you decide to begin agility training with your dog.
Age
The first consideration bar none is the age of the animal. While puppies should begin obedience training as early as six weeks of age, under no circumstances should you begin any sort of agility training that involves jumping or hurdles before the age of twelve to eighteen months. To do so can cause irreparable damage to the joints and bones of the animal.
Health Screening
A visit to your dog's veterinarian is a must before beginning any sort of agility training regimen. Discuss your plans with the vet and ask for his or her input. Because agility is a fairly young sport, some vets may not know the extent of the requirements and will need to be educated. A short video or photographs of competitions and obstacles will help in these situations.
The veterinarian will need to do a thorough examination of your dog. Vision screening is the first step, as unencumbered vision is an absolute necessity if your dog is to compete in this sport. In addition, a radiograph will need to be performed to check for both hip and elbow displasia. Displasia is a malformation of the joint caused by abnormal development during the growth stages. An animal that exhibits signs of displasia that result in any rating less than "fair" should not be trained for agility competition.
Weight
Careful consideration should be paid to the competition dog's weight. What might be considered a normal and healthy weight for a standard pet may be too heavy for a dog that is being trained for agility competition. Excessive weight can lead to decreased performance, muscle strain and other injuries to the soft tissue.
Conditioning
While training on competition equipment is a vital part of keeping it competition ready, ongoing conditioning that is separate from competition altogether is just as important to peak performance and health. Cardiovascular training can be easily maintained with interspersing walking and short bursts of sprinting, fetch and Frisbee. In addition, swimming can help increase both the cardiovascular and muscle strength.
Training for jump events can be the most physically demanding part of agility competition. In order to condition your dog's bone growth properly, a steady regimen of six to nine months of jumping practice using low heights is the way to go. It is often during this period that the handler will teach the dog his command vocabulary - the language of dog agility competition.
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