How to warm-up a dog for agility?
Ramon Grady
2025-07-14 08:26:39
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As we warm our dogs up we are increasing their body temperature, this means that all their muscles and soft tissues such as tendons and ligaments are warmer and can stretch further. The best place to start with any physical warm-up is with your dog walking on the lead. This allows your dog’s body temperature to rise enough before anything more strenuous. Once your dog’s body temperature has increased you can start including some faster work, but refrain from ball throwing not only does this increase your dog’s risk of injury but it will also encourage them to run flat and risks more knocked poles. You can also use a gentle massage to begin to warm your dog’s muscles before any physical activity. If your dog has a short coat you may choose to complete their warm-up with a fleece or coat on, especially in winter to give them a head start. Your dog’s joints need to be able to move through a full range of motion in order for them to be successful. A great way to ensure this is to use tricks to warm up your dog’s joints. My favourites are paw to lift up each limb, beg and spin.
Oscar Hammes
2025-07-02 19:40:12
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A warm up plan including exercise, massage and stretching is a great way to help your dog. It is widely accepted that warming up reduces the risk of injury to muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. Warming up with a 5-10 minute controlled walk can help warm the muscles and connective tissue to help prevent strains and ruptures of muscles and connective tissue. Queuing Exercises are easily achievable in a confined space. SIT TO STAND helps your dog use both legs evenly and to increase blood flow and hind end strength. SIT TO DOWN helps strengthen and warm up the front limbs. DOWN DOG is a great flexibility exercise to increase circulation. Try to keep the warm up calm but effective, we are aiming to warm up not heat up. Some benefits of an effective warm-up are: Raises heart rate in preparation for exercise, Warmed muscles utilise oxygen and nutrients more effectively and can contract and relax more quickly, Reduces risk of injury and stiffness, Mentally prepares dog and handler for exercise.
Xzavier Powlowski
2025-06-23 08:27:52
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We start with small stretching exercises like down to stand, leg raises, backing up, bending her nose to her hip side to side, and light walking. Sports medicine and rehabilitation veterinary specialists recommend taking 10 to 15 minutes to warm up a dog’s muscles before exercise. An activity such as trotting, jogging up a hill or doing small jumps helps to warm up the tissues and actively stretch a dog’s muscles. Ultimately, this prepares a dog for work and reduces the risk of injury. I walk Firefly around for starters, then we hit the warm-up area to practice jumps. It is so important to make sure a dog’s body is warmed up and ready to run, you want to activate the muscles.