Agility

[jeff77]

Is agility hard on your dog???

 

I have a 20 mo. old bc. She has been injured 3 time in agility and once in flyball.

Thinking of taking her out of agility.

 

 

 

 

 

[SS Cressa]

How is she getting injured?

 

Injuries can come when:

 

Dog isn't performing obstacle right.

 

Dog wasn't trained to perform obstacle right.

 

Dog isn't under control.

 

Dog isn't fit.

 

Poor structure.

 

Bad condition(but that is when humans steps in and stop dog).

 

or faulty equipment.

 

Sorry you are having a bad time in agility. Neither of my dogs have ever injured themselve because of agility. Not even a torn pad. SO can't be of much help. The worst I have seen happen is a dog falling off the dogwalk.

 

So how is your dog(s) injuring itself at agility or flyball? Are you warming them up before you play?

[rushdoggie]

I haven't had that experience either, with several dogs. My Golden started agility at age 8 and competed (on some level) until age 13, and died at 17 from heart failure. I have a 12 year old pair of boys here who have never been injured in agility.

 

Does your maybe dog have an underlying injury that's not fully healed that are causing her injuries?

[SecretBC]

My big dog, Luke, has struggled with injuries since we began agility. The first three years of his life (prior to agility) were spent around horses and he was occasionally stepped on or kicked, but was otherwise an incredibly sound & healthy dog.

 

His first injury was a combination of frisbee & agility -- He got bicepital tendinitis in his left shoulder. That was a fun one to come back from -- and actually, I started him back too soon and then we went through it all over again. The next issue was when he started to yelp going over jumps or jumping up to get the frisbee, combined with holding up his left hind leg. Regular chiropractic visits and Adequan helped solve that one. Last year he came up with an unexplainable front end lameness. We threw the book at him with that one because Championships was looming in front of us. We got through Champs and were home two weeks before he was diagnosed with Addison's Disease (not agility related and may have been the cause for the lameness, who knows!).

 

I keep Luke as skinny as possible to reduce the stress on his large body (he's 27" tall and 78/80 lbs now). The switch to 24" weaves has helped his back issues a lot. We compete in NADAC, so we don't see the teeter or tire (obstacles known to cause injuries in several dogs). He's only six months away from Vet status, where I'll be able to drop him to only jumping 16".

 

I manage his entire life based on his soundness. He doesn't get to play frisbee much at all anymore because of the toll it takes on his body (sad for him). Fetch sessions are monitored and ended as soon as he starts to show the slightest sign of fatigue, since a tired dog is more likely to get injured. I have to be careful with swimming to not let him overdo it -- He's a Lab mix, he'll go on forever if you let him!

 

Bottom line -- Luke LOVES agility. He adores it. So I keep him together with Duct tape best I can so that he can keep doing what he loves.

 

Kaiser, knock on wood, has not suffered any injuries to date. I keep a close eye on Secret and really pull her back when she's showed signs of "growing pains." I come from the horse world where it seems like monitoring for injuries was a daily occurrence, so it is pretty much impossible not to constantly be monitoring gait on my dogs.

 

To answer your question about your own dog -- I'd want to know WHY and HOW she's been injuring herself.

[Pat W.]

After 16 years agility and 3 dogs none have suffered an injury due to agilty Ashe ran from age 2 - 13- retired due to age, Rush 3 -12 - retired due to hips, Riley 2-9- retired due to cataracts, Meg 2 - 10 continues to compete, Whim started at 1 yr training is currently 3.5, Why? approx 2 yrs old just started training. All dogs weights were carefully monitored to keep them trim and were warmed up with massage and stretching, as well as a good cool down

[Root Beer]

Is agility hard on your dog???

 

Actually, I would say that Agility has helped keep my older dog fit and flexible.

 

We train smart, not excessive. I do conditioning with her outside of Agility.

 

She's not a highly driven dog, so she doesn't tend to shoot first and ask questions later and I think that has helped her over the years.

 

What does your instructor say about the injuries? If your instructor is not able to help you with a plan to help you and your dog avoid injury, it might be time to shop around for an instructor who can.

[MrSnappy]

I don't know what venue you compete in, but in the AAC a dog has to be 18 months old before it can even start to compete, and I think this is similar across the board. If your dog is only 20 months old, that's an awful lot of injuries for a dog two months out of the gate. Either you're doing something wrong, or your dog is not structurally sound / not in condition and injuring herself in other ways that are manifesting themselves when she doing agility. Agility is not a particularly dangerous sport, especially if you've put the foundation work into your dog.

 

Tweed has injured himself in agility, but only stupidly ... like the time he crashed into a jump standard because he was running around barking with his head in the air instead of looking where he was going (he has also run face first into weave poles and bounced off the dogwalk for the EXACT SAME REASON - he's a slow learner). From that he had a soft tissue injury of the shoulder that cleared up with rest and drugs. That's the only sport-related injury we've experienced, and I'm on dog #5 We've had other injuries or issues from other things (daily life and/or structure) and it has caused us issues in the sport, but it wasn't agility's fault.

 

The sport is *technically* hard on the dog because they are performing some pretty herculean tasks at a somewhat alarming speed, but a young dog with good foundation work and in good physical condition shouldn't be suffering injuries from it. If your dog, you need to examine how you're running and maybe go back and revisit some of your foundation work to reteach some skills more safely. But that's just an assumption on my part, since you haven't said what kind of injuries she's experiencing or how she's getting them.

 

RDM

[gcv-border]

Gorgeous dog. It looks like she loves agility. Please do not quit agility without a good reason.

 

I concur with the general consensus of the replies so far. I do not believe that agility causes as many injuries as some people believe, but that the injuries can be from lack of conditioning, lack of correct performance on the obstacles, lack of control, sometimes bad luck, etc. OR the dog could be injured while engaging in some other activity, but the injury does not show up until they run an agility course since that is a more strenuous activity. OR if the injuries are similar and sequential, perhaps the dog did not have enough time to completely heal from a previous injury.

 

I went through an injury time-out with my dog starting when he was about 17-18 months old. A long story, but I learned a lot:

 

BCs can be so focused (catching a ball or frisbee, jumping, etc.) that they do not consider the consequences of their actions. (I like to think that my dog will 'smarten up' as he matures, but it is a slow process. He will still gyrate into crazy positions when trying to catch a ball - particularly if it has taken an unexpected bounce.)

 

As a consequence of the above - DO NOT throw a ball or frisbee down a hill. (on advice from my rehab vet) I confess that I did that since the ball went farther and I thought that the dog would get more exercise by running farther. WRONG! He strained his groin muscle with his frantic runs down the hill. Throw ball UP the hill. Your dog will get just a much exercise (and in fact, will really strengthen the hind end) and will not take tumbles or over-extend as they frequently do when chasing balls downhill.

 

Jovi

[pammyd]

LOL Ben faceplants the weaves when he is shouting at them too

I watch my pair doing full on zoomies in rough undergrowth leaping tree roots, taking crazy turns and puppy high speed smackdowns - compair that to a couple of times a week agility - jumps all the same hight, sensible gaps between jumps, even ground, (hopefully) good intructions where you are going next, no drilling obsticles for repetative train injury, no other dogs on course to dodge/pounce

I would say my dogs real life is much harder on them than agility

[jeff77]

Emma Hyperextended her leg going over a jump. Then she ran into the dog walk with the same leg. During her

first trial she injured her leg again in the tunnel.

[jeff77]

Gorgeous dog. It looks like she loves agility. Please do not quit agility without a good reason.

 

I concur with the general consensus of the replies so far. I do not believe that agility causes as many injuries as some people believe, but that the injuries can be from lack of conditioning, lack of correct performance on the obstacles, lack of control, sometimes bad luck, etc. OR the dog could be injured while engaging in some other activity, but the injury does not show up until they run an agility course since that is a more strenuous activity. OR if the injuries are similar and sequential, perhaps the dog did not have enough time to completely heal from a previous injury.

 

I went through an injury time-out with my dog starting when he was about 17-18 months old. A long story, but I learned a lot:

 

BCs can be so focused (catching a ball or frisbee, jumping, etc.) that they do not consider the consequences of their actions. (I like to think that my dog will 'smarten up' as he matures, but it is a slow process. He will still gyrate into crazy positions when trying to catch a ball - particularly if it has taken an unexpected bounce.)

 

As a consequence of the above - DO NOT throw a ball or frisbee down a hill. (on advice from my rehab vet) I confess that I did that since the ball went farther and I thought that the dog would get more exercise by running farther. WRONG! He strained his groin muscle with his frantic runs down the hill. Throw ball UP the hill. Your dog will get just a much exercise (and in fact, will really strengthen the hind end) and will not take tumbles or over-extend as they frequently do when chasing balls downhill.

 

Jovi

 

I always throw the ball and disc down the hill. I was thinking she would get more exercise running back up the hill to me. Emma always get this crazy look to her when she plays. She also does it in agility. Always go go go never stop.

[rushdoggie]

Emma Hyperextended her leg going over a jump. Then she ran into the dog walk with the same leg. During her

first trial she injured her leg again in the tunnel.

 

Poor girl...sounds like maybe that leg is not fully healing and she keeps reinjuring it. Do you have a sports vet in your area? Maybe she needs some specific plans to rest and re build that leg.

 

She is a beautiful dog.

[MrSnappy]

I'm agreeing with rushdoggie - it doesn't sound like the sport is the problem, it sounds like the leg is the problem and the dog isn't getting a chance to completely heal before you put her back in the game. I'd get another vet to look at it and give you a game plan for rest, recuperation and rehab before you reintroduce her to playing.

 

RDM

[gcv-border]

I always throw the ball and disc down the hill. I was thinking she would get more exercise running back up the hill to me. Emma always get this crazy look to her when she plays. She also does it in agility. Always go go go never stop.

 

Yep, that was somewhat similar to my logic - until I went through rehabbing a strained ileopsoas muscle (groin muscle) on Torque. (not sure if the downhill throwing caused the strain, but it certainly can easily cause injury). Observe how your dog runs uphill and downhill after a frisbee and when they are coming back to you. Torque runs like crazy after a frisbee or ball and then the scary stuff happens when he catches up to it. He so desperately wants to get it, that he has tumbled downhill, flipped, whipped his back end around uncontrollably, jammed his front legs and so forth. He does not do these crazy gyrations when he tries to catch a ball after an uphill run. It is a more controlled catch. And of course, they don't usually run as fast back to you - so running downhill towards you (a stationary object) usually will not cause the crazy motions of a downhill catch. In order to try and prevent his frenetic motions, I would roll the ball or frisbee downhill- with insignificant change in his behavior. He just wanted that toy soooo badly.

 

When he started rehab for his ileopsoas strain the rehab vet told me that he was using his front too much since his rear end was not as strong. After carefully observing him, I thought I could see what she was talking about. She gave us exercises to build up his rear muscles, and I do believe I can see a difference in how he uses his limbs.

 

I rehabbed Torque for about 4-5 months and he has been fine since - but I take care NOT to throw downhill and a couple times a week will work on back & rear strengthening exercises. Rehab consisted of things to do and not to do, walking on leash for a while, NO throwing of any objects, joint supplements - nothing really drastic. I learned how to be more aware of how Torque was using, and abusing, his body and how to modify his activities. Except for a couple of days of intermittent limping, which I had checked out by the vet and led to his diagnosis (another long story and learning experience), he never showed any pain or signs of injury to my eyes. Now I return to the rehab vet every 4-5 months for her to check him out since he has such a high pain tolerance, he may not show the signs of small injury(s) which could lead to chronic problems.

 

From this experience, I learned that not all dogs have the smarts to protect themselves - at least Torque doesn't. When they want something so badly that they can hurt themselves (very common in BCs), the human can modify their behavior for their own good. I don't think Torque is as prone to injury now (fingers crossed) because his body has matured, but as a younger dog (12-18 months old), there was a higher potential for injury when he did some of his crazy antics.

 

Good Luck with Emma.

 

Jovi

[Diana A]

It's quite possible that your dog originally over extended her leg running down hill (VERY easy to do when they're in mad scramble mode going down hill) but it showed up as an acute injury when she stressed it further jumping. Then it sounds like it's that same leg over and over again. I would say no more down hill chasing, and get her to a rehab vet to make sure the leg is fully healed before continuing. There are quite a few old dogs out there in agility who have been competing since a young age and are perfectly sound with no injuries, but it is a strenuous activity and any problems will very likely show up in agility before you'd notice them otherwise.