 What do you think when you see this meme? It's ok if your immediate reaction is to chuckle, but the reality is that the rise in pet obesity is staggering and alarming; it is estimated that over 45 percent of dogs in Canada are overweight.
What do I mean when I ask if your dog is wearing a tank top or a parka? Think about it for a second, when you wear a tank top on a warm summer day, you look and feel lighter. But on the other hand, wearing a warm, thick parka in the winter makes you look and feel heavier due to that extra thick layer. So, in the context of our dogs, are they at an ideal weight (tank top)? Or are they carrying extra pounds (parka)? This blog is part one of a two-part series with facts and research about obesity in pets and, more importantly, what we can do to prevent and treat it. Whether your dog is a sport dog, an active dog, or a couch potato, extra weight is not suitable for them. Attending various agility events and seeing overweight dogs competing in a physically demanding sport is hard for me, so I wanted to write this blog series. Discussing weight management can be a touchy subject, but it's time that we normalize this conversation and not let it slip through the cracks.
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 Have you reassessed your fitness and training goals recently? The New Year is the perfect time to take a look at your goals and make changes for the year to come. Your fitness, training or even life goals you had in 2021 might not be the same goals you have for 2022!! Things change!
Now why should we even goal set in the first place? To put it simply, setting goals helps us to build motivation, stay on track, and make us accountable! Finding ways to build motivation can be difficult, especially when life throws us a curve ball (can you say global pandemic!?!) Learning how to alter your mindset and how that can influence your goals and your success level is key! In this week’s blog we’ll take a look at how to best set ourselves up for success and make our training goals achievable in the New Year.  Photo by Shelly Kurtz Dog agility has become the fastest growing dog sport in North American and this growing popularity has led to more research into the physical demands and potential injuries that can occur in the sport. Of all the sports our dogs can compete in, dog agility, is one of the most physically demanding. Dogs are moving at faster speeds than ever before and having to navigate more challenging courses, more complex jumping skills and difficult contact and weave approaches. With these faster speeds and varied physical challenges, the potential for injury can increase.
In this week’s blog we review some exciting and new research that has come to light about the sport of agility and discuss how this research applies to our dogs, our training, and competition. |
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September 2023
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