Christine Zink Seminar

Just received final details on this, SO looking forward to it.

Day 1: 8:30am to 4:30pm

• Canine Anatomy and Biomechanics (Lecture/Videos/Lab) 3hrs

• Canine Functional Locomotion, Gait Training & Lameness (Lecture/Lab) 3hrs

• Conditioning the Canine Athlete (Lecture/Lab) 2hrs

Day 2: 8:30am to 4:30pm
• Canine Sports Injuries: Causes, Prevention, Rehabilitation 4hrs

• How Dogs Jump: Jump Training, Problem Solving 4hrs

What a day, just brilliant.

MoonsMum I might have another answer for your pacing issue!

Funny you should mention that, I was just watching him pacing again on our walk.

Glad you enjoyed it. Sounds fascinating!

There was an Akita there which apparently paced in preference to trotting and this is what Chris said.

Once you have dismissed any underlying medical condition then she believed that 80/90% of pacers were trained that way by the owner.

By not using the correct speed and also never actually training the dog to trot. So pacing has become a habit.

We can teach a dog to trot, by using trotting poles help dogs to trot, they have to lift legs to trot whereas in pacing they move their feet very close to ground.

Pacing is also a method by which dogs of poor conformation avoid overreaching ie if they are over angulated in the rear and upright in the front.

Lifting the dog's head causes the weight to move to the rear and the front feet to reach out further.

She said you can retrain the neural pathways for trotting as follows.

Set up a grid of poles on the ground and start close to the poles and move over them at a suitable speed, continue for another 20 paces before turning, stopping and doing the same in reverse.

This should occur 10 times a day for 3 weeks.

Then you can start asking for more effort by increasing the distance of the poles so that the dog has to extend its trot, again repeat the same number of times over same period.

Do the same by asking for a collected trot over poles closer to gether.

This way a dog will trot at whatever speed you walk rather than move from an "amble" into a pace.

If the dog finds a wider distance too much ie he wants to take two steps rather than one, reduce to the previous distance and again repeat as before.

Several dogs demonstrated how their gait was improved using trotting poles including a BC which did not move with reach and drive, a dog which trotted with the front and skipped with the rear.

HTH

Ooh thanks for that very informative. I sometimes wonder if the extensive time spent on a lead has affected his pacing, I don't walk as fast as him so he rarely gets to trot at his natural pace as he's restricted by the lead? What are the implications of a dog pacing for prolonged periods, can it affect joints later in life etc?

Do you have any diagrams of the method? I'm struggling to picture the set up.

Some dogs pace as I said before because they have an unsoundness which means they cannot hold their weight unsupported (which is what a trot essentially is) unlike the pace where both legs on the same side support them.

There would not necessarily be any detrimental side effects to joints.

This is why teaching your dog to trot on command is useful as your dog can taught to trot at your walking pace

Look here for what I mean, but you would start with poles on the ground.

I am sure Dave would know what I mean.

http://www.agilitynet.co.uk/reviews/...ks_review.html

Oh I see. Looks easy enough to set up. We've done something similar to that when doing Ttouch ground work...although Cain just ploughed through them and kicked them over work on this would help his general co-ordination too. Thanks SB, appreciated. Will give it a go. Another thing to add to Cain's ever growing lost of things to work on

Thats interesting---thanks for sharing.

rune

this sounded really interesting

where do you find out about all these seminars and things SB?

I am thinking of writing a book.

Memoirs of a serial seminar attendee

I am on a lot of mailing lists, I also trawl various sites for info.

Today was also very good as we looked at the pros and cons of collars and harnesses, exercise for endurance, strength, skills, speed;

Supplements and neutraceuticals and then a lot of practical work by the working handlers whilst we observed closely the jumping and movement problems of dogs and then were given examples of how to fix issues.

I am totally SHATTERED!