Tag Archives: dog swimming

10 Reasons Your Dog Doesn’t Lose Weight

The reality is clear  APOP’s 2017 clinical survey, showed that 56% of dogs were classified as clinically overweight (body condition score (BCS) 6-7) or obese (BCS 8-9) by their veterinary healthcare professional.

That equals an estimated 50.2 million dogs are too heavy, based on 2017 pet population projections provided by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). In 2016, APOP found 54% of dogs were overweight or obese. With all of the high quality foods on the market today, and pet owners expecting more for  the health of their pets why is the problem getting worse?HealthPetAssessmentCardNormal_Course

Though you might think it’s obvious, here’s another statistic from APOP. Even though we know that 56% of dogs are overweight, 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight. And even though 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight, 43% of dog owners actually admit that they don’t know what a normal weight dog looks like. We can’t help are dog lose weight if we don’t know they need to lose it. Above is a diagram of what a normal dog should look like, but it can vary slight from dog to dog.

So if you see that your dog is overweight and you’re trying to get your dog to slim down but you’re having trouble, here’s 10 reasons as to why that might be happening. Continue reading 10 Reasons Your Dog Doesn’t Lose Weight

Online Canine Conditioning, Health & Behavior Courses

Hi everyone. We are extremely excited to present an array of online courses for your canine athlete, working dog, or pet. Over the next few months we will be building our course library with self guided, instructor based, and/or custom programs to improve your competitive dog’s performance, your pet dog’s behavior, your senior dog’s vitality, or help get your previously injured dog back to top form.

Currently we have three classes beginning in January, and two more slated for February and March. We are offering discounts on early enrollment for the classes that are starting in January as well as pre-registration for notification about early enrollment saving for future classes.  Here is what’s available now: Continue reading Online Canine Conditioning, Health & Behavior Courses

The Problem With Canine Conditioning

Canine conditioning as it is generally practiced is not really geared toward canine athletic performance. There are a lot of great Journiexercises that ultimately will not translate to improved performance or injury prevention because the execution will never advance beyond a dog simply going through the motion of the exercises. That’s because the overwhelming majority of canine conditioning exercises never move beyond their canine rehabilitation roots. Continue reading The Problem With Canine Conditioning

8 Reasons To Exercise Your Dog In A Pool

At The Martial ARFS™ we use our pool for a variety of water based exercises that go well beyond swimming.  We call them Open Water Exercises (OWE) or Aquatic Conditioning, and you can have your dog perform them in a pool or any other open body of water. The purpose of Open Water Exercise is to incorporate a variety of exercises into a canine athlete or a companion dog’s conditioning program that use water to provide resistance, buoyancy, instability, challenge, and/or safety. Continue reading 8 Reasons To Exercise Your Dog In A Pool