# warm up exercises



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

The other day someone whose dog got injured in obedience (of all things) was talking about taking her dog to the chiropractor. She commented that the chiropractor (DVM) told her that he sees a lot of dogs injured in agility. He commented that not only the jumps, but also the weave poles, can cause muscle injuries. I was surprised by that.
So I got to thinking, what does everyone do to warm their dogs up and get blood flowing to their muscles before starting them out running the course?
Thanks!


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I get Quiz out and walk him around before we're ready to run. If there's room, I do a little retrieveing to get him moving. I also try to take the time to do some stretching on him both before and after runs. I'm not as good at that as I'd like to be... but I know it helps and I want to keep him in good running form for as long as I can.


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## forthelovefomax (Dec 22, 2008)

I am very new to training dogs and to the forum. How do you get a dog to stretch? Just can't get my brain wrapped around it.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

One of the things our trainer suggests is having the dog do figure 8's in front of you, or around the poles of a jump (without the jump bar in place) it's hard to explain, but it wakes up a lot of the muscles they use in agility.




forthelovefomax said:


> I am very new to training dogs and to the forum. How do you get a dog to stretch? Just can't get my brain wrapped around it.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I actually stretch him. I'll manually stretch the front and rear legs and ask him to hold a duration bow behavior to stretch the back. I do some massage as part of the stretching, too. All stuff I got from our animal chiropractor.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I've seen a few people in agility manually stretch their dogs, too, but I was under the impression (at least I know this in people) that you should never stretch cold muscles, they need to be warmed up, first. Do you know if that's true of dogs, too?



FlyingQuizini said:


> I actually stretch him. I'll manually stretch the front and rear legs and ask him to hold a duration bow behavior to stretch the back. I do some massage as part of the stretching, too. All stuff I got from our animal chiropractor.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

My dogs have regular VOM adjustments, and I manually stretch all of them before they enter a ring.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

hotel4dogs said:


> I've seen a few people in agility manually stretch their dogs, too, but I was under the impression (at least I know this in people) that you should never stretch cold muscles, they need to be warmed up, first. Do you know if that's true of dogs, too?


I'm not positive, but I suspect that's where the massage comes into play...I was told to massage and *then* stretch, so I think the massage is serving to warm up the muscle before the stretching.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

makes sense to me.




FlyingQuizini said:


> I'm not positive, but I suspect that's where the massage comes into play...I was told to massage and *then* stretch, so I think the massage is serving to warm up the muscle before the stretching.


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## MaddieMagoo (Aug 14, 2007)

To get Maddie warmed up..I take her out to potty..play a little tug with her braided thingy...haha...and then I strech her out...and do some "ready, get its!" and some spins and twirls...I do this about 10-15 minutes before we go in...then I get ready for whatever we're going to do that day..agility or obedience..and it gets more in depth with each thing...


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

I don't compete, but I run my dogs all the time on a practice course- I've never really thought about this... but I don't do anything precise, and they're very very fit and they swim a lot. I would always at least walk the dog before practicing jumping or agility.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

I start by walking/trotting with them. Then with Barley I do tugging and bows. With Sammy we do heeling and left and right spins. They each seem to like to warm up in their own way. But yes, I do think warming up is important. Also after we run I try to walk them around a bit too as a cool down instead of right back into the pen.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

geez, hadn't even thought of the cool down, I am a bad dog mommy



sammydog said:


> I start by walking/trotting with them. Then with Barley I do tugging and bows. With Sammy we do heeling and left and right spins. They each seem to like to warm up in their own way. But yes, I do think warming up is important. Also after we run I try to walk them around a bit too as a cool down instead of right back into the pen.


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