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How to warm-up your dog before a walk?
Keith Legros
2025-07-06 16:48:41
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A warm up and cool down can prevent injury and stretch the muscles. For a warm up you should get your dog to do some walking and gentle trotting. You don’t want your dog to go from lounging in their bed to getting up and going full into running. Try a brisk walk for 1 -2 minutes and then move into a gentle trot. Rub your hands over the muscles of your dog to warm them up and stretch out their forearms. It’s important not to force your dog past where they feel comfortable so just really gently lift and stretch them out. Do the same for the back legs too. Tricks such as bow, twirl and spin are also great ways to warm up a dog.
Jeanne Mante
2025-06-23 08:39:21
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To perform a good warm-up, you need to be able to control your dog permanently. A good warm-up should be progressive. You can start with a bit of walking and then add some playful exercises such as slaloming, climbing stairs, or following you when you change direction. Always calmly, you will gently engage their joints and muscles. Slightly increase the speeds so that your dog trots in a controlled manner off-leash or on a leash for a few kilometers. Monitor your speed to not exceed 10-12 km/h, even for very trained dogs. Maintain a low speed for 10-15 minutes. Before an intense workout session or before a competition round, you can finish your warm-up with a few minutes at a higher speed, but still without traction. You can also let your dog play in free a few minutes to finish your warm-up in a fun way. The warm-up should last from 15 to 30 minutes. Start the warm-up at a walking pace and gradually increase the speed.
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Veda Smith
2025-06-23 07:52:11
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: 17
To warm up your dog before a walk, start with light cardio, such as walking and trotting, to gradually increase their heart rate and warm up main muscle groups. Start on a loose lead at a slow walk, then walk loose 3-meter circles, S shapes or figure of eights, and gradually increase the pace – walk, brisk walk, jog. Aim to complete 2 circles on the right and 2 on the left, reducing size to approximately 1 meter, and spiral the circle in and back out again, completing on both sides.
Next, move on to global movements, such as sit, down, stand, backing up, sidesteps, and pivots, to work the dog’s entire body in different planes of motion. Pick 3 exercises that target the 3 different planes of motion and do 1-2 sets of 5 reps each.
Then, do active range of motion exercises, such as bow, paw/shake, leg lifts, and elevated stretch, to promote full range of motion and joint mobility. Select 2 types of stretches and aim to do 2 sets of 5 reps each.
Finally, finish with exercise-specific drills, such as tuggy play, wing wraps, and leg weaves, to mimic movements that your dog will be doing during exercise, and end with an overall body shake to loosen fascia.
Tiara Donnelly
2025-06-23 04:17:38
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A routine of warm up, stretch and cool down before and after exercise will reduce the risk of injury while you are working to keep your pet fit and is even more important if you are competing. We now have two active senior dogs, so warming up and preventing injury is even more important that ever. Quick Warm Up 5 - 15 minutes of light walking gradually increasing our pace. For me, this is one loop around our block, (and a chance for the dogs to sniff and check their neighborhood mail!) Once our muscles are warm, these Active Stretching exercise do double duty by stretching your dog, and getting him focused on you. Make sure you do these AFTER your warm up walk.
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