How often do you train?

[dmadrid]

This came up in a recent conversation with a friend, and I was wondering what the rest of the world does... She is in the process of rehabbing a dog from an injury and is working on her new training schedule. During the conversation, I cautioned her to consider training jumps/contacts less often in the future. Prior to the injury, she was jumping her dog every day, and training contacts (primarily a low a-frame) every day. Every day probably equals about 5 days out of 7.

 

I felt like this was a bit much... when I cautioned her against doing jump/contact training every day, though, she started to get angry with me because she thinks spacing out her training will delay her return to agility. (ok, so that's another issue...)

 

So, the question is: How often do you train jumps and contacts in a week? What are you reasons for training as much or as little as you do?

 

Best,

Danielle

 

P.S. - With my own dogs, we train at our training facility probably 1-2 times per week. Penny may do a jump or two in the yard with my husband other times, but it's pretty minimal. The rest of the week is spent on cross-training (jogs, hikes, tricks for balance & strength).

[mum24dog]

This came up in a recent conversation with a friend, and I was wondering what the rest of the world does... She is in the process of rehabbing a dog from an injury and is working on her new training schedule. During the conversation, I cautioned her to consider training jumps/contacts less often in the future. Prior to the injury, she was jumping her dog every day, and training contacts (primarily a low a-frame) every day. Every day probably equals about 5 days out of 7.

 

How long each day?

 

5 mins isn't too bad, 50 mins definitely not IMO.

 

Could the injury have been caused by over use? Dogs that train hard often do seem prone to physical and/or mental burn out quicker than the ones with less intense training regimes. Contacts are the very worst for traumatic and chronic injuries.

 

We've never bothered with a fitness programme for ours - normal life involving running around and just being a dog has been enough to keep them fit and healthy and we have never had an injured dog, or even one that is noticeably arthritic. One first started competing 11 years ago this month and is still going strong and putting up a good show against the youngsters in competition. She hasn't done any training for a long time.

 

When we were starting out with my daughter's BC he would maybe have one hour long class with 8-10 other dogs and a half hour session on our own equipment a week, with a few minutes now and again in the garden. She's at uni now and he gets virtually no training but is still competing a top level.

 

We care about our dogs more than we care about agility and want them to have a long, happy and healthy life. Bodies only have so much repetitive stress they can take without deteriorating and pacing training with a view to a long career rather than short term gain is one way of making them last longer.

[dmadrid]

I'm not there for most of these sessions, but when I meet her down at the practice field, she does at least 30 minutes of training. Not sure exactly what she does in her yard, but from her descriptions of what she's working on, I think it's about the same.

 

Overuse could have contributed to the original injury. It was a soft tissue injury in a knee. The fatal blow was dealt one day when the dog took off after some deer. She came back very tired and was three-legged by the end of the night.

 

 

 

When I lived in the country, I never had a fitness program for my dogs, either... but now that I'm in the suburbs, I find that it makes a pretty dramatic difference. My older (6-7 yrs old) girl has seen a striking increase in speed since we started jogging (we're doing one of those couch to 5k programs). She's gone from barely making elite times to consistently running 5-10 seconds under course time. She's always been lean and fit, but this kicked her up a notch. If that's not incentive to keep jogging, I don't know what is! =)

[gcv-border]

I agree with mum24dog^^

 

Unless your friend is having jumping issues (i.e. her dog is dropping bars - which could be addressed separately), I often will train any handling strategies on the flat (using only jump standards) or a very low height bar (8" or so; my dog normally jumps 20"). I like to believe that using this training strategy will reduce repetitive stress. Saying that, I don't train more than once a day (often only 2-3 times per week) for only 5-10 minutes -- and my trial results reflect that.

 

What type of contact behavior is being used? Running? 2O2O? Four on the floor? The type of contact behavior, and how the dog performs it, can lead to different stresses on the body so I would take that into consideration for training repetitions. As for jumping, I believe that once the dog knows the behavior, it's not necessary to drill it repeatedly. If a certain obstacle performance begins to degrade at trials, I would brush up on it at home, but wouldn't drill it to death.

 

Jovi

[alligande]

I also don't have a fixed training schedule, in the summer we train more as its fun to play outside... this summer we worked on weave pole entrances at speed... which was just poles and a tunnel and sometimes a low jump. We also worked Aframe contacts as I realized our contact problem in USDAA was the steepness, as we have to borrow an Aframe this was an intensive 3 weeks so he learned that no matter what the angle you drove and held the stay. I was concerned about this as the Aframe is very steep.

 

We try to train at least once a week and are currently doing Daisy Peels handling class as an auditor when the New England weather allows, I do jump him at full height as I think for the handling exercises and especially the tight turns he needs to understand what his body has to do.... I certainly would not jump him at 26" everyday, nor do Aframe contacts ... I think it is just to much wear and tear. I think if you train everyday you should vary the exercises, one day weaves, another jumps etc.

 

The rest of the time he is a dog, we run together when the weather allows normally 3-4 times a week, we go on walks and sometimes we just play ball, and on days like this with horrid wet snow outside and pouring rain I try and come up with something that will amuse him but not get him over excited.

 

We had not seen all the equipment in months, and went to run-thrus a couple of weeks and I was really surprised by how good his contacts were, and even weaves.

 

I also think the personality of the dog plays a huge role, mine will play agility till he collapses we have taken 2 hour private lessons due to travel time and in the heat he just keeps going and giving me everything he has. My late dog and a friend I train withs spaniel would give you the finger if you tried such madness with them. Both those dogs think once or twice a week is more than enough. Anything more and you have lost their interest.

[TrulyReady]

I prefer to train 5 days per week when possible, we do two classes per week with our instructor (these are group classes so her actual feild time isn't long), and try to do at least three sessions at home in the yard in a week, but we keep them short (usually 15-20 mins) and work different skills at different intensity levels depedning on the weather, if we trialed the weekend prior etc. Sometimes my whole session maybe startline stays where I may only call her over a low jump 2-3 times in the whole session. I am currently working on Nancy Gyse Alphabet drills book so will be doing more jumping than usual in the next few weeks, and when teaching running A-frames we did many repetative A-frames due to training, it just depends on what we are focusing on at the time. If we have back to back trial weekends I may only go to class and skip all home training, or just plain take the week off. My dog is young and super high energy/ pushy dog and if we only train once a week it is a one step foreward and two step back game. I find that training shorter sessions throughout the week works best for us. I've slacked some during the winter and can tell a regression in her performance so I know I have to get back on the ball.

[Kassidy]

We usually train agility 3-5 days a week, but for only about 10 minutes each day. I think that 5 days a week and for 30 minutes is a bit much though.

[ChantalB]

I train a lot. I also do a lot of body awareness and conditioning work. All dogs are different, you have to be able to read their subtle signs of when is enough.