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Originally Posted by ironmike86  So what is a canine athlete? A Yorkie?? |
Any breed of dog, that does performance sports-and certainly Yorkies do lots of things. It covers a wide range of activities; some examples are; obedience training, rally-o, flyball, agility, shutzhund, dock diving, water rescue, search and rescue(on land); the list goes on a bit. Long distance runners, field working dogs, guard and protect dogs. Earth dog trials Yorkies are going to qualify for soon!
It is where you deliberately want and need to condition your dog for their work/event. You want to keep your dog in tip top shape; great muscle development, bright eyes, and active brain.
Some of us are very very passionate about the sport/events we do.
For example one of "our" sports is dock diving. Now the event is fast paced and involves letting your dog run along a dock and jump to retreive a water toy. There is both distance and height competitions. Slightly different muscular demands versus distance/height. But both requires well muscled rear end and thighs. A powerfull chest. But most of all, the drive to throw themselves into the activity. Needless to say they have to swim too
The best conditioning for this event is a) walking uphill then downhill at a nicely paced walk and b) long distance swimming.
Pre-event stretches to loosen up your dog, for the short explosive action.
If a dog is not structurally sound, with good knees, hips, elbows, and back, your dog will get injured very quickly, and truly shouldn't do many of the performance sports.
Any advantage that diet/nutrition, early puppy rearing, and appropriate timing for spay/neuter we will take.
But I say to you, and to all here. If you can give your puppy an advantage by timing the spay/neuter to insure good and appropriate boney development, why wouldn't you? Toy breeds are rife with luxating patellas, and now hip problems are also rearing their heads.