IDDC presents: Conditioning and fitness for your sports companion.
The time has come - for us to take our sport seriously and take great care of our dogs. No more crate : play : crate : sprint : crate : sprint : crate. I would challenge any of us to be able to run as fast as we can for 60 seconds and live to tell about it.
For those of you that know Skeeter, you’ve watched me struggle with her for 3 years. She LOVES to play and run but would shut down during freestyle - 100% of the time - but not during toss and catch. I never understood what it could be. No limping, no apparent source of pain, it never made sense to me. We treated everything - shoulders, hips, fear, stage fright, conditioning, weight, music, flags, different routines, animal communicators - you name it, we tried it. Vet after vet, from underwater treadmills to the dreaded crate rest. Not until I had a wild thought one evening and emailed Christine Zink, DVM after reading her book, The Agility Advantage.
I drove Skeeter to Chicago to meet with Dr. Zink while she was passing through. After a bunch of really cool thermal images and an in-depth physical examination, she dx’d Skeeter with a bilateral iliopsoas strain. After chatting with her, I can see issues that Skeeter was having since I first started with her, 3 years ago. Now it’s at a chronic stage with scar tissue. Not sure where we go from here but science is catching up with how many disc and agility dogs suffer from iliopsoas strains.
I was referred to a local veterinarian, Dr. Pechette, that had just completed training with Dr. Zink. Dr. Pechette, DVM is opening up a new office here in Indy that focuses on canine sports, rehabilitation and pain management. Several members of the Indy Dog and Disc Club met with Dr. Pechette last night and came up with a program that we are VERY excited about.
So, here’s the plan:
December 19th between 9 and 5 and 20th between 9 and 2 $125. Evaluations are 1 hour per dog.
Structural evaluation to include: endurance, strength, balance, proprioception, and flexibility
Musculature evaluation to include: shoulders, paraspinals, ventral abs, lateral abs, quads and hamstrings
1 hour slots available for an thorough evaluation of your dog. The evaluation will allow customization of the conditioning program for your dog as well as detect any underlying muscular or joint problems that could result in future injuries or decreased performance.
So - what good is an evaluation without an action plan? We have that covered too! Starting on January 6th and following every other Wednesday night for 5 sessions, various seminars covering the following topics and determining what YOUR individual dog needs to focus on.
Seminars:
- Rear end strength and conditioning: January 6th, 7pm
- Front end strength and conditioning: January 20, 7pm
- Core strength and conditioning: February 3rd, 7pm
- Stretching: February 17th, 7pm
- Nutrition: March 2nd, 7pm
Seminars are $25 / person, $20 if you had Dr. Pechette evaluate your dog. This is an awesome opportunity and until now has only been available online. Sending videos to someone that has never met you or your dog isn’t ideal in many cases.
If you are interested, please contact me at robin@indydoganddisc.com to get on the schedule. All events will happen in our training center at 5990 E. 71st Street, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46220.
If you are super interested, but live out of town and cannot make the seminars, we can video them and send them out to you.
References:
Dr. Arielle Pechette, DVM, cVMA, CVPP
Midwest Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
midwestvetsports.com
Dr. Arielle Pechette Markley graduated with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, cum laude with honors, from Colorado State University in 2010. She previously received a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology, with minors in biochemistry and molecular biology, from Colorado State University. She also completed master’s work in immunology. While in veterinary school, she completed an intensive Medical Acupuncture for Veterinarians program and is a Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist.
M. Christine "Chris" Zink DVM, PhD, ACVP
is the director of the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. caninesports.com
Chris is a board-certified specialist in Veterinary Pathology (DACVP) and Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (DACVSMR) and she has additional training in Canine Rehabilitation (CCRT), Veterinary Spinal Manipulation Therapy or Chiropractic (CVSMT) and Canine Acupuncture (CVA).
Save the dates for 2016!
