Unusual Fitness Regimes?

[Gaz_1989 9,539]

 

 

I don't know if it's considered "unusual" or not but I've been doing a bit of H.I.I.T with my dogs. Similar principe to what some humans do when training for an event or just to get fit.

 

Running them beside the bike at high intensity for short intervals, followed by the same period intervals at a steady state.

 

You can blitz relatively fit dogs in half an hour, or I can mine anyway, and it certainly improves their fitness. How much it helps them when it comes to lamping or coursing I don't know. But it can't be a bad thing as part of the fitness regime.

 

I've just done 5 mile, the first half a mile is fairly steady pace and takes about 6-7 minutes, the next mile is a fairly average cycling pace and takes about 5 minutes, the next mile is fast and is a good run for the dogs, it takes about 3 minutes so Approx 20mph. I then repeat the steady jog and the fast run, then the last half mile is walking pace back home to cool them down.

 

The whole thing takes less than half an hour and as said above it gives them a good workout.

 

Might be even better if the jog and sprint is broken down into 0.5 mile intervals.

Makes sense as the dog is working in bursts, Usually! I suppose as well as over all fitness we are really trying to improve recovery time and strength. So bursts of exercise of different intensity should be very beneficial.

 

Thanks for the input.

S2H

Yeh that's kind of my thinking behind it.

 

It's also very time-effective. You can give them a good workout in a relatively short space of time. Same as a lot of budding athletes who train HIIT only do 30 minute sessions as opposed to doing steady state cardio for 90 minutes or more.

[trenchfoot 4,243]

mine are usually knocking around and about on the farm for most of the day which keeps them ticking over in the off season. In the next few weeks or so we will start topping the rush beds around and about I start with one dog at a time trotting alongside for an hour-ish. let them run owt that gets up. A good few early starts and late evenings at that game, building up the time and the number of dogs seems to do the trick. Still have to watch the heat though.

[Bosun11 537]

The kid next door to me brought me round this mini rubber rugby ball for dogs.

If your dogs like mine and loves a bit of 'fetch' (as it used to be called!) Then these are bloody good. They bounce all over the place, constantly spinning and changing direction from a throw or a boot. Gets my mutt twisting and turning all over the field... Great stuff!

[Ross M 149]

Bike, motor, and if they'll chase a tennis ball or football think that's a good thing quick 30 blasts gets them paceing twisting turning and mouth going