Warm Up Excercises

[sheena]

I would like my agility class to be doing some regular, without fail, warm up excercises before their training session. Unfortunately, some of them just want to get into the sexy stuff, so the pressure is always on, to "get on with it". I am going to put my foot down & I have the support of the head instructor. Does your club do regular flat work before a training session, & if so what do you do. My class is mixed with most being just intermediate (novice) but a couple are advanced they are the ones who want to skip the warm up session.

[megan_]

We're expected to do it before class. I try to get in a bit of circle work, targeting (help stretching and focus) and the some stretches. All of these things are good agility exercises amyway.

Maybe explain to them that their dog is an athlete. No one would do the 100m sprint just after getting out of the car. I'm more conscious now of cool downs too.

[paddles]

in sled dogging, we learn very quickly to "warm up" and cool down the dog, or you get injuries. a short 5-10 min walk is usually enough, this also gives the dog a chance to empty his bowels/bladder.

[sheena]

I am wanting to introduce it as a formal beginning to our training sessions each week. Thought we should start off with a bit of hand touching, spins & flatwork (running with the dog doing turns in & away from the dog in heel position)...maybe even some drops in a line then recalls. Wraps around cones or over low jumps...any more suggestions. And anyone who deliberatly comes late to class just because they only want to do the sexy stuff...well..watch out

[RubyStar]

maybe even some drops in a line then recalls.

This is one I'd leave out. While always useful for all dog sports, you're going to get people scoffing because they are there for agility, not obedience! And we all know the greater percentage of people find obedience "boring"! (not me )

[J...]

I use spins, back-ups and some good deep weight shift tugging to warm my guys up, on top of some circle walk and some wraps if I get sufficient space. I do very little specific stretching and I don't believe it should be done by anyone unless they've sought specific advice from a sports vet/other suitably qualified person on doing so.

What about restrained recalls - I don't think you can do enough of these, you want dogs to run as fast as they can on an agility course so let them practise it on the flat. Work on accel/decel type work on the flat as well if you're that way inclined handling wise.

[Kavik]

I do circle work, spins and backup as the warmup with my dog.

Restrained recalls are great (I get people to help me do them when I can!) but to make everyone in the class do them before you do any other exercises is going to take a lot of time. I would probably start with things that everybody can do at the same time.