Balance is one of my favorite components of dog fitness training; it’s fun to teach and to share with others! Most dogs enjoy the physical and mental challenge of balance training.  There are many variables involved in this component of fitness, but this is exactly what makes it so much fun!  Some of the many variables include:

• Your dog’s body position
• Number of feet on the equipment
• Height of the equipment versus height of your dog
• Inflation levels
• Whether your dog is standing or moving on the equipment
• The specific piece of balance equipment used
• Your dog’s prior exposure to the equipment
• Visual input

Balance is learned, and any dog can do it. For some dogs it will be easy and very natural, others will have to work harder at achieving better balance - but every dog, and dogs of all ages, can improve their balance.

One of the easiest variables to categorize in balance work is the type of equipment being used for the dog's exercise.  By categorizing the balance equipment we can provide a progression of increasing difficulty to continually increase the exercise challenge.

Each piece of equipment will challenge your dog’s body and dog's fitness in a different way, but for ease of categorizing the equipment into levels, we have grouped pieces together.  The grouping is based on how the equipment may affect the muscles, ligaments and joint capsules that need to strengthen when stabilizing your dog’s body during balance exercises.  While we group some equipment together to provide levels in our balance training, the equipment is not 100% interchangeable; even similar pieces of equipment will challenge your dog in slightly different ways. There is benefit to each and every piece of balance equipment. Exercises on a balance pad, a small disc and a giant disc may seem the same to you, but it is not the same to your dog’s body.

With balance equipment, the general progression is moving from the most stable to the least stable. Stability is created by the width and the shape of the equipment. We look at the amount of instability as well as the direction of the instability or movement on that piece of equipment. For example, the K9Fitbone moves side to side but will roll forward and backward as well. And the K9FitBone can be approached from all directions changing it from wide to narrow.

More directions or planes of movement will be harder than one direction or plane of movement. Instability is also affected by inflation levels, but if we use the standard recommended inflation levels provided from the manufacturer, we can limit the variable of inflation and so attempt to classify balance equipment from most stable to least stable. We didn’t say from easiest to hardest because balance is a learned behavior, so what is hard for one dog may not be as hard for another.  And those other variables such as previous exposure to the equipment may play a role in whether the equipment is easy or hard for your dog.  

We also did not mention anything about the height of the equipment. The height of the equipment as compared to the dog can pull in elements of resistance training. (We use resistance training using body weight when we are doing strength training for dogs.)

With so many variables, balance training is a never ending playground of fun and exercise for dogs!

Balance training is beneficial for any dog - old, young, performance or retired.  The fun part of balance training is that the dogs enjoy the challenge and you will see improvement quickly. In fact, with consistent training of 3-4 times a week, improvement can be seen in as a little as 2 weeks!

How is it that your dog's balance can improve so quickly?

It is a learned skill with a basis in your dog’s genetic predisposition. What that means is that some dogs innately seem to have good balance and some do not, but if your dog is not a natural, don’t worry. Your dog can learn to balance better- and learn it quickly!

Neuroplasticity refers to the moldable nature of the brain to form new, and reorganize, synaptic connections. This is the driving force behind the generation of functional neural pathways in learning and memory. Of particular interest to canine athletes, neuroplasticity is what allows for learning and maintaining new motor skills, like balancing.
Motor skill learning is defined as the process by which movements are executed more quickly and accurately with practice. Your dog’s motor skills are acquired over multiple training sessions until performance then reaches a plateau.
There are 3 stages of motor learning that are identified.

The first stage is the cognitive stage. In this initial stage of learning, the goal is for your dog to gain an overall understanding of what is involved. Your dog must determine what the objective is, for instance, balancing on a wobble board, and then process environmental factors that affect your dog's ability to achieve it. The fitness coach must do everything possible to ensure the environment is ideal for learning. This stage is heavy in visual input and trial and error on your dog’s part. This is the fast phase of learning and it occurs during the training session itself.

The second stage is the associative stage. In this stage, your dog’s movements become more refined through practice. This is the slow phase in which the crude movements are refined through practice with small, steady gains developing over many training sessions. Your dog transfers from a “what to do” (what is the goal) to “how to do it.” Visual cues will become less important as proprioceptive cues become more important in that your dog will begin to focus more on how their body is moving and what input is being felt in joints and muscles. The more practice, the more proprioceptive input and the better the movement until your dog reaches a stable peak, the third stage.

This final stage is the autonomous stage in which the movements become nearly automatic. It is at this level that your dog can now perform the movement in nearly any environment with very little cognitive effort, as compared to the first stage.

Another way to look at learning a new motor skill, like balancing on a wobble board, is to break it down into neural processes. The first step is encoding. Encoding overlaps with the fast learning phase (or the cognitive stage) and refers to the process by which a motor skill is converted from an experience to a construct that is stored in the brain. The majority of encoding will occur during actual training sessions.

The second process is consolidation. Consolidation occurs in between training sessions. In consolidation, sleep is the critical time period when the majority of skill learning is consolidated in the brain. Consolidation is an intermediate phase between the fast phase of the cognitive stage and the slow phase of the associative stage.

The third process is retention. This occurs during the slow, associative stage, both during training sessions and in between. This is the commitment of the learned skill to muscle memory and the ability to retrieve this memory then at will. Muscle memory refers to the ability to perform the balance skill without conscious effort.

It is important to remember that the learning of motor skills is not linear. Instead, motor performance, like balancing on a wobble board, shows large improvements during the initial practice and smaller rates of improvement as practice continues. It’s also common to see periods of significant improvement followed by plateaus. During these periods, it is possible that learning is still occurring. Evidence suggests that memory consolidation for long-term storage continues during performance plateaus. These plateaus can be followed by new periods of improvement again.
With such fast improvement in balance skills, your dog can be balancing like a champ in no time!

Dr. William Buchan, an 18th century Scottish physician, wrote “of all the causes which conspire to render the life of a man short and miserable, none have the greater influence than the want of proper exercise.”

In people, the aging process typically begins around age 40. Strength begins to decrease and worsens as we age. Aging is the impact of time on the body and happens at different levels - cellular, hormonal, and metabolic.

Almost any type of exercise will slow the aging process, deep within the cells.
Aging, at the cellular level, is based on the number of times a cell has replicated. The more free radical damage there is to a cell, the more often it must replicate. After approximately 50 times of replicating, the genetic material in the cell can no longer be replicated accurately. This is due to shortened telomeres. So cellular aging is determined by the length of the telomeres.

But what’s a telomere?
The telomeres are the caps that sit on the ends of the DNA strands. They protect the DNA from damage during cell division and replication. As the cell ages, the telomeres naturally shorten and fray. This can be accelerated by various things such as obesity and other lifestyle management choices. But studies have shown that exercise slows the fraying process.

In a study published in October of 2015, in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers from the University of Mississippi and California examined these telomeres and their relationship to exercise. What they discovered was that the more active the person was, the longer the telomeres. Even walking was better than no exercise. Increased activity meant even longer telomeres.

And shorter telomeres were predictive of a shorter life.
If we extrapolate this study to dogs, whose biochemical and cellular make-up is like ours, then we can probably surmise that increased activity will be linked to longer telomeres in them as well - longer telomeres and thus a longer life.

Since any exercise was of benefit in the study, then even the simplest movements, the easiest of fitness programs should increase the longevity of our canine family. And low impact exercise like balance training will slow the cellular aging process within our dogs.

Balance training also strengthens the muscles that stabilize our dogs and help prevent falls. As your dog loses strength due to aging, the slow, methodical movements of balance training work can be used to counter the aging process.  

Balance training strengthens the core muscles and increases your dog’s ability to stabilize. Balance training with exercises like standing on three legs increases strength in the postural muscles and the legs as well.
In our younger dogs, particularly those doing performance activities, balance training prepares your dog’s body for more advanced exercises and the opportunity to strengthen major muscle groups.

This helps your dog develop speed, endurance, and produce power.
Balance training is a crucial part of your dog’s foundation in fitness, leading to a longer life and providing a basis for good health and better performance in all activities.

Your dog is an athlete and you are your dog's coach and trainer. But do you really know what happens to your dog’s body during a workout? Just exactly how does exercise  make your dog stronger? Having a functional understanding of the process helps tremendously in learning how to build your dog’s workout.

Your dog’s muscles get bigger and stronger in 2 main ways. One way is through improved neuromuscular efficiency and the other is an actual increase in muscle fiber size. The first way consists of the brain calling upon more motor units, which consists of one motor nerve cell and all the muscle fibers it connects to, to participate in a movement. Each muscle has multiple motor units in it, although the exact number varies. The more motor units that are activated the stronger the muscle contraction is.  The second way is through muscle cell hypertrophy, or enlargement of the muscle fibers. This is an increase in the cross sectional area, not the length of the muscle cell.

Let’s take a look at the first way that strengthening occurs - through increased efficiency in the neuromuscular system. For every action and movement you or your dog performs, the central nervous system controls it. The  brain will decide which muscles to contract, how many muscle fibers to contract, with what intensity to contract at and how often to contract. This is done through the motor units. In essence the brain decides how many motor units in the muscles to activate in order to accomplish the task at hand. If I am trying to lift a gallon jug of milk for example, my brain will determine whether the job will take x number or y number of motor units in my biceps muscle.  Ideally, the nervous system tries to recruit just enough to do the job without wasting energy by contracting too many muscle fibers. Most of the time our nervous system does an accurate job but sometimes we are tricked into thinking something is heavy when it is not or vice versa. (Have you ever thought something was heavy and put a lot of effort into moving it only to realize it was actually quite light and then you nearly flung it across the room?) But too little recruitment and we are not able to do the task.

When your dog first begins a formal strength training program, you will see improvements in strength in about 2 weeks mainly because the brain is activating more muscle fibers to participate in the exercises. This is called increased neural recruitment. Eventually the nervous system doesn’t have any more motor units to recruit however and gains in strength will have to come from muscle cell hypertrophy.

Additional strengthening past neural recruitment levels rely on muscle cell hypertrophy, in which the muscle cells actually become larger. How does this happen? It is a complicated process but it starts with a workout. The physiologic stress of resistance training causes micro damage to the contractile proteins in the muscle fibers. Satellite cells that are hanging out near the membranes of the muscle cells are called into action. These satellite cells multiply and fuse into new protein strands or repair the damaged protein strands. The nucleus in these satellite cells then becomes part of the muscle fiber and can now make additional muscle proteins (which are needed for muscle contraction). Production of more contractile proteins within the muscle cells enlarges the overall size of the cell and the increased ability to contract means more strength.  So essentially, microtrauma is repaired and protein production is upregulated resulting in a bigger, stronger cell. Additionally, because of the stress of the workout, increased bloodflow to the muscles occurs. This happens by the body actually creating new capillaries to the tissue to support the muscle cells’ needs.

Note that all this repair and rebuild occurs in the recovery phase AFTER the workout. Many factors affect the ability of an individual’s muscles to hypertrophy, including genetics, hormones, and nutrition. But the basic process is the same in everyone.

This process begins when your dog first starts the program but takes time to complete the process and actually see the results of larger muscles. It usually takes several months to see and be able to measure this muscle enlargement. If your dog’s training program is appropriate your dog should experience both forms of strengthening.

Focus - something that we always seem to want to work on in our K9 partners.  To improve our performance, we frequently strive to improve and maintain our dog’s focus - for us and for the game we are playing together.  Body awareness is another path to engaging and building your dog’s focus.

Athletes use visualization as a warm up technique to help them prepare their mind and body for the physical challenge to come. Visualization increases mental awareness as well as confidence, and helps connect the body and mind. Studies show over and over again how visualization - the act of going through each movement, each swing, each run, each jump mentally first - helps elite athletes perform better. Many agility handlers have incorporated visualization into their preparation for running a course. Immersing yourself in the feeling of the moment, the connection with your dog, is also visualization. We know that visualization actually trains the nerves and muscles to perform the visualized movement. So how can we bring some of the benefits we obtain from visualization to our dog? How can we get our dog’s mind connected to her body, especially in performance sports like agility, dock diving, and flyball?

While we aren’t able to get our dogs to go through the visualization process prior to a run in their favorite dog sport (or show), we can help them connect their mind and body. And we can enhance the connection to their human teammate as well. This is done through pre-performance focus drills which are comprised of certain types of body awareness movements. Pre-performance focus drills are designed to warm up the mind.  And the mind controls the muscles.
But what are these pre-performance focus drills? They are exercises that require your dog to use her mind to engage her body in demonstrations of control and body awareness. They are exercises that ask your dog to think about how she is using her body. (Sounds a bit like visualization in that aspect, only you are asking your dog to actually do the movements rather than just think about them.) And no equipment is needed to get your dog thinking and connected to her body!

These exercises will warm up the connection with your dog as well. Pre-performance focus drills and body awareness exercises should never become routine. When used as a focus drill, the exercises must be varied every single time to avoid memorization and just going through the movements. The goal is to establish a better connection from you to your dog, and then from your dog’s mind to your dog’s body. Your dog should watch and listen for physical and verbal cues from you as to what to do, and then your dog should execute them with accuracy and precision. This precision demonstrates a solid connection between the mind and body, and between you and your dog.  

The focus drills do not replace a physical warm-up, but should be done after a 5-10 minute general warm-up such as brisk walking or trotting. Once your dog’s muscles, tendons and ligaments have warmed up, it's time to warm up and connect the brain.  Without the focus component of a warm-up, we are losing out on very real benefits - mental awareness of the body, confidence, and the ability to accurately control the body.

The benefits of a proper warm-up are numerous and indisputable. As a canine sports competitor, we understand that we need to warm up our dogs before we ask them to run, jump, twist, turn, pivot, pull, catch, swim, or leap. While there are many approaches to a warm-up, we wanted to comment on the components that are vital to include in a warm up every single time.

• What’s the most important part of our dog’s body to warm up?
• What are the best things to do to prevent injury and give our dogs the best chance for a peak performance?
• What exactly are the components of a proper warm-up?

When we look at what the warm-up is designed to do we can then determine how to do this. The warm-up should prepare the dog’s body for the work about to be done. The warm up involves both a general warm-up and a specific warm-up. So the exact routine will vary somewhat with agility, flyball, dock diving, protection work, conformation, or whatever the dog sport is. The general warm up is done to increase blood flow and raise the temperature of the muscles, skin, and other support structures to prepare for movement in general. A general warm up usually involves brisk walking and/or trotting for 5-10 minutes or until the dog develops a light pant.

After the general warm up, a specific warm up is done to prepare the body for specific movements that will be used in the activity. If the work or activity includes any twisting or turning at all then this is crucial to include in the warm-up. (This is the part of the warm up that is fun!) This part includes your dog moving in different planes as well as moving the major joints through the different ways they move: flexing, extending, rotating, sidebending, abducting and adducting. If your dog has had a previous injury in a particular muscle or joint then it is even more important to specifically warm up that area.

For the specific warm up, the body can be divided into a few different areas to focus on. There is the core, which includes the muscles of the back and the spinal stabilizers, and the abdominal muscles. Do not forget that the neck is part of the core too. Then we have the major joints: the hips and shoulders, and the elbows and stifles. Each hip joint moves in 6 different ways: flexing and extending, internally and externally rotating, adducting and abducting, as does each shoulder joint. As we travel down the legs, there are the hocks, carpal joints, and the toes of front and back feet. Each joint on the legs is important in movement and should not be overlooked in the warm-up.

And the final part of the body to warm up is the brain. This component of the warm-up is to mentally prepare our dogs for the activity to come. This is the part that is similar to the visualization technique used in people and our topic for our last blog (If you missed it, click here to read it). This is where our dogs connect their mind and body together. This is also where we connect to our canine teammate.
So, while it may seem like a lot to do, much of this can be accomplished in a series of simple  exercises, that can be done without equipment anywhere and anytime.

Sooner or later, it happens to everyone’s performance dog - Retirement. While it is the end of your canine athlete's competitive career, it  doesn't have to be the end of your dog’s life as a partner in training. And it certainly shouldn't mean that your former athlete should be relegated to the couch to sleep away her remaining days while you and the younger dogs enjoy the sports she once enjoyed. In fact, it's just the opposite! Your retired athlete should hit the “gym” regularly to stay fit and enjoy her retirement. Read on to understand how exercise helps slow the overall aging process and keep your dog young.
Brain powerWorking out, balance exercises in particular, help your dog’s brain continue to function at peak levels and slows the onset of canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome, or signs of senility. Balance work is like a crossword puzzle for the brain and body to figure out.
Stay happyIs your K9 retiree bored or depressed because you and the young “pups” are out there and she’s just watching or stuck at home? Exercise for your dog is a proven mood booster! Staying active causes the release of “feel good” hormones to help keep your K9 athlete happy and feel confident in life.  
Slow/stop muscle wastingJust as in people, as part of the aging process, your retiree will gradually lose muscle mass and strength. This sarcopenia is a generalized muscle wasting that occurs in nearly every dog but will be more evident in a former athlete. Unless you actively fight against it.
Improve mobilityConsistent exercise, that is low impact, can help reduce mild achiness and discomfort. Flexibility exercises can help reduce stiffness and maintain full movement in joints and muscles.
Stay ConnectedThe single best reason to exercise with your former athlete, though, is to maintain the level of interaction with your dog. When the time comes for your younger dog to be the primary working partner, your retired athlete will miss the frequent training and close interaction that the two of you enjoyed together. The partnership and level of communication you shared doesn't have to end. You can enjoy each other and still train together in canine fitness!

High drive canine athletes are at risk for suffering the effects of heat stress during training and competition. Studies show that some working dogs and k9 athletes can have body temperatures that are extremely high during strenuous activity (reported temperature values include Greyhounds 104 F - 106 F, Labradors 102 F - 107 F, Pointers 103 F - 106 F, and Sled Dogs 104 F - 108 F.) Interestingly, these dogs do not necessarily show any clinical signs of heatstroke or heat exhaustion. But other k9 athletes remain susceptible. Although the incidence of heat stress and heat stroke in K9 athletes has not been determined, we do know that several factors can increase your dog's risk. And we know that intervening during the early signs of heat stress can prevent heat stroke completely.

How hot is too hot?It is not just extremely high temperatures that puts your dog at risk but also combinations of high temperatures and high humidity. A handy reference is to add the ambient temperature with the humidity percentage to get an idea of whether or not it is safe for your dog. For example, if the afternoon temperature is 95 F and the humidity is at 70%, you get a combined number of 165. Any number over 150 indicates you should pay close attention to your dog as there is a danger of heat stress. Any number over 180 and your dog is at high risk for heat stroke. Monitor your dog closely when conditions are prime for heat stress.

What are my dog’s Risk factors?- Prior incidence of heat stress or heat stroke
- Stress
- Dehydration
- Improper athletic conditioning

What should I watch for? The earliest signs of heat stress are:
- Excessive Panting
- Thick Saliva with a dry tacky mouth
- Dark pink/red tongue lolling out of mouth
- Decreased performance
And if I miss the early signs?  As heat stress progresses to heat exhaustion, you will see:
- Increased heart rate
- Excessive panting continues
- Body temperature continued rising above 102 F.
- Disorientation (no longer responding to cues, appearing anxious, or staring)
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea

What can I do to prepare my k9 athlete to compete in excessive heat?While we are still determining what normal is for many k9 athletes during activity, we do know that a properly conditioned and fit k9 athlete has physiologic and metabolic differences from the companion dog. Conditioning should occur months prior to competition in strenuous sports to ensure that your dog’s body is at its peak ability to accommodate the environment during the exercise.

Key points to remember:
- Stay hydrated (but avoid drinking too much) - rule of thumb 1.5 oz per 10 pounds of body weight before and after strenuous exercise.
- Reduce stress.
- Begin Fitness and conditioning months prior to competition.
- Monitor your dog closely when conditions are prime for heat stress.
- Seek veterinary care for heat exhaustion immediately.

References:
Conditioning and Training in the Canine Athlete
Robert L. Gillette, DVM, MSE, DACVSMR
Animal Health & Performance Program, Auburn University, AL
Heat stroke: diagnosis and treatment
Quick response, proper cool-down techniques essential to favorable outcome
Melissa Marshall, DVM, Dipl. ACVECC   Aug 01, 2008
Heat Stress in Hunting Dogs
by Delores E. Gockowski, DVM