Having attended a course in physiotherapy with regard to "Warming up" your dog before training and competing, I have discovered that this is an essential part of agility, athletes always warm up before they compete, and warm down afterwards. also they put on track suits so they warm down at the proper rate, otherwise they lose body heat too quickly, dogs are athletes and are no different, too often we just get them out of our vehicle, take them straight to the ring to run, this could mean more chance of injuries occurring, the same thing could occur if they warm down too quickly, so a brisk trot around and a massage before you compete, and a slower walk around after with the dog wearing a coat to warm down will be extremely beneficial to help prevent injury happening.

 

I also swim my dogs at my local hydrotherapy pool, Caroline Hill is a highly qualified hydro therapist and she monitors each of my dogs carefully whilst they swim, she checks the colour of their gums and monitors breathing to ensure each dog is not over exerted in any way, it is worth remembering that a one minute swim is equivalent to a mile run.  I used to take my old dog Benson who had loud heart murmur (sadly he is no longer with us) over swimming could have been potentially fatal, he used to benefit so much as his back legs had started to give way due to lack of muscle tone, swimming gave him a new lease of life. Without hesitation I would recommend dogs swimming in a hydro pool which is properly managed, I will never swim them in a freezing river, lake etc again.  

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