Steve Ries, Top Gun Kennels and Native Dog Food (www.nativedogfood.com)
Health and More Birds
With the hunting season just around the corner, now is a good
time to start thinking about conditioning your canine athlete
for early season performance. We wouldn’t think about
going out and running ten miles one day without some prior
physical training, and it doesn’t
make any more sense to expect it from our dogs. By getting
our dogs in shape before the season, we
go
a long way toward ensuring a healthier
and more effective hunting companion.
A high level of physical
fitness contributes to a dog’s
mental fitness because a tired dog will focus less on commands
and finding birds. Risk of injury is also reduced during both
training and hunting when muscles and tendons
are strong and joints well lubricated.
Training the body to recover from a work out will prepare your
dog for longer hunts and more days hunting.
Before You Start
Before you get to work, it is important to consider three factors
that can have a tremendous impact on your dog’s ability
to function at a high level. We recommend you think of the
following before starting any conditioning program.
3 Steps To Fitness
Now we’ll get into the meat of the conditioning program.
We base our conditioning program around three basic areas
that complement one another for a complete workout of the entire
body and organs. You don’t
need to do everything every day but you should try to do
something each day.
Developing a solid conditioning program
is very important to the health and longevity of our canine
friends. Make sure that you work your dog into condition
over a 30-45 day period
before the start of the season. In the end,
