Laurie's Blogs.

Last week's questions & discussion about Dock Diving Dogs (and Puppies in particular) received a few different replies to the survey I created...  Here's what four of you had to offer for your thoughts about this topic!  (Thanks guys!)

Dock diving requires running / sprinting across a platform before jumping.  What concerns might you have with this?  (With a new-to-dock-diving Dog or Puppy... please specify which you commenting about) 

• I'm concerned with the drive of the rear for the jump. For dogs, encourage good core strength, general fitness, and endurance. For pups, no repetitive jumping and avoid forced movement or activity more than a few repetitions with moderate frequency. Monitor each dog and puppy closely .
• I think you need to consider the breed and size of dog its co ordination, bones, tendons and as you say spine. It would need to be skeletally mature before I would start to train the dog to dock dive.
• My only concern would be the slippery surface, and risk of injury especially with puppy’s with little hind end awareness.
• Strength / speed required, forces being put through muscles and muscle attachments to produce the speed along the platform. Stresses being applied to the soft tissues (and developing joints and bony structures in young dogs / puppies)

Dock diving requires a burst of power to jump off of the dog towards the water while trying to get a toy.  What concerns might you have with this?  (With a new-to-dock-diving Dog or Puppy... please specify which you commenting about)

• Uneven thrust from imbalanced use of the body especially hindquarters.
• Core stability to prevent the over use of Illiopsoas. Conditioning for this work is important and I would have concerns about neck injuries if the toy is suspended above the water.
• Since they don't have hind end awareness especially as a puppy, and they are doing maximal jumping to get distance, (on a wet surface as well).  Miss-stepping repeatedly could lead to potential injury of growth plates due to improper muscle development and/or targeted muscle conditioning.
• Similar to above. 

Dock diving involves hitting the water - think of body positioning.  What concerns might you have with this? (With a new-to-dock-diving Dog or Puppy... please specify which you commenting about) 

• Awkward landings especially when the dog's body is twisted or is in an extreme head up position with concave spine.
• Neck and spine in general
• With any dog, when they jump into the air, they tend to arch their neck, add to this the impact when hitting the water, i would be concerned about injuries to ribs and cervical 
• Concerns about the repeated impact being applied, particularly if the dog has poor landing / water entry technique. Especially to sternum and cartilage. I read (don't ask me where) that Chesapeakes and Labs were bred for / developed thicker sternum for jumping into water (back in the day when these breeds were developing). I worry about these really lean hunting breeds (Vizlas etc.) that seem to be favoured by a lot of people. These dogs are very fine boned, and I'd love to see imaging of these dogs’ chests in old age after years of dock diving. 

So...  What might you recommend in regards to training (i.e. what limitation would you place on the number of jumps per class or day?  How long should a class last?  Etc.?)

• That depends on the style and fitness of the dog. Each dog and puppy should be monitored closely and have an individual recommendation that's adjusted at each session.
• I think I would recommend cross training before attempting the first jump.  Learning something new is when you’re likely to get injuries.
• It would be imperative to have core conditioning 3 x per week, strength and endurance training. For training puppy (under 1 year) build sessions slowly from 5 min up.
• Oh my!  I'm thinking along the same lines as foundation agility where you slowly bound up the handling techniques and skills required before even considering using equipment. Then progress to low impact sport specific drills, building up to the full activity over time and with specific homework exercises to target skills / strengths etc. required. Build up endurance etc. Sorry, I know this is a bit vague!