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Think about your morning routine when you start your day. Brush your teeth, fix your hair, put on your makeup, shower, get dressed, coffee, feed the dog, feed yourself, take your vitamins, etc.
Think about your dog's routine before they enter the ring or start a fitness session. Did they get dressed and go potty? Can you imagine leaving home without your coffee?
Skipping a warm up routine for your dog is like leaving the house without your coffee.
Why do we do it?
Warming up your dog before any activity helps improve sport performance and reduces injury.
Muscle contractions become more efficient. Nerve impulses are faster. Soft tissues are more flexible. This means your dog moves faster with less effort, takes longer to fatigue, and their reflexes are better.
Warm Up Exercises for Dogs:
Your dog's warm up should be similar to the activity they are about to do, only a lot less intense. The warm up will vary depending on what activity they are getting ready to do.
First thing we want to do is to slowly increase the dog's heart rate. This delivers oxygen and nutrients to the dog's muscles through the bloodstream.
Here's a list of my favorite warm up exercises, with a short description below.
A basic warm up, which I recommend before any sport, roadwork and fitness training or activity:
Walk to trot
Sit, stand, down
Sidesteps
Backing up
Spins, leg weaves or cone wraps (pick one, the movement is similar)
Low tugging (optional, based on the dog and activity) I like a low tug for my agility dog to increase her drive and warm up her spine, shoulders, abs and hips. This may not be appropriate for your dog.
High 5 (optional) is a great shoulder and upper back warm-up activity.
Plus, the following exercises, based on the activity/sport:
Walk to trot to gallop for high intensity activity (flyball, agility, coursing, IPO)
Practice jump, if your dog is jumping, set to about 1/2 - 3/4 competition jump height, for lower intensity
Rear foot to hand target, or rear leg lift if your dog is jumping or running. This targets the iliopsoas muscle, which is a common injury in sport dogs. Warming it up reduces the risk and severity of injury
Pop ups for obedience
Cookie scatter for scentwork
Fetch or retrieves for bite sports, flyball, and other high intensity activities
Walk to trot (to gallop) warms up the cardiovascular system and delivers blood, oxygen and energy to the dog's muscles. If you can't keep up with your dog, let them walk, trot, gallop in a circle on a long line or do mat to mat sprints (where the dog runs from one mat or platform to another). Do this for about 5 minutes.
Add the gallop for high intensity activity, such as agility, flyball, IPO/bite sports, or coursing/FastCAT.
Warm up routines are somewhat sport specific. For example, I wouldn't ask a scentwork dog for a gallop before a container search.
Sit, stand, down position changes warm up the dog's abs, hips and shoulders. Do 5 repetitions.
Sidesteps warm up the nervous system, hips and shoulders. This has a body awareness and strength component. Do 5 repetitions.
Back ups warm up the nervous system and hamstrings. The hamstrings are responsible for extending the rear legs and using the rear legs this way reminds the dog they have a rear end. This exercise has a body awareness and strength component. Do 5 repetitions, 5-7 consecutive steps backwards count as a rep.
High Fives are a great shoulder warm up exercise. Do 5 high fives on the right and left front paws.
Spins, leg weaves or cone sends warm up the muscles around the dog's shoulders, ribs, hips and activate the nervous system, in addition to providing a mild stretch through the ribs. This exercise also has a body awareness component. Do this exercise towards the end of your warm up. Do 5 spins in both directions.
If your dog is toy motivated, you can use a toy lure for fast spins or play a round or two of tug with your dog. Tug is a full body exercise and is great for engagement between you and your dog. My youngest dog Nike loves to play tug, but Echo and Dagon do not care about toys. This is optional and is dog dependent.
The practice jump is a good plyometric warm up to activate explosive muscle contractions. The jump height for the practice jump should be set to approximately half competition jump height. (For example, Nike's AKC agility jump height is 16", so her warmup jumps set at 8".) Do up to 5 jumps.
Rear foot to hand target warms up the iliopsoas muscle. The dog uses this muscle group when running in full extension and lifting the rear leg. Do 5 targets on each rear paw. I'm getting my dog to target an angled platform.
Pop ups for obedience/rally warms up the muscles used for going from a halt to forward and taking the first step of heel from a sit. It also helps build engagement. Do 5 pop ups.
For detailed written and video tutorials on how to train each exercise, please enroll in the Warm Up Routine Program.
Scentwork Warmups
A cookie scatter is my favorite warm up activity before entering a search area. It activates hunt drive, keeps the dog moving, and helps the human with leash handling skills. It's really easy to do in the staging area if there's room. Usually about 5-10 treats is good for my scentwork dog.
You'll want to read your dog, as this will vary a lot by dog and by search element. For example, container searches are a very boring element for Dagon. I want him to start with more enthusiasm, so he gets a few more scatters to increase his arousal level. He loves vehicles and exteriors, since the hunt is arousing for him, he gets less scatters before those elements.
Including fetch in your warmup
Fetch is great for cardio! But there's some things we need to be aware of.
For fetch, make sure the ball has stopped before you send your dog. This prevents your dog from making a sudden change of direction at high speeds, which may cause injuries. Use a tug toy or a ball with a rope through it to prevent choking.
An effective warm up takes about 10 minutes and your dog should be lightly panting at the end. Your warm up should not tire the dog. You want your pup ready to go but not fatigued. Which is why the warm up is a lower intensity of the activity your dog is going to do.
Your dog's warm up doesn't last all day. If you finish your warm up and wait more than 30 minutes before your activity, your dog is not warmed up anymore and you'll need to repeat it.
When you and your dog are waiting on deck, in the staging area, or at the ring gate, try not to just stand around. This is a great time to engage with your dog. A few extra pop ups, spins or position changes in heel are ok.
Word of Warning about Temperature
If you are doing your warm up outside, keep the temperature in mind. If it's hot (above 85F) or humid, your dog will warm up faster. Your cardio warm up will take less time in warm weather.
If it's cooler (below 32F) your dog's muscles will take longer to warm up, so your cardio will take more time. Due to heat related illnesses and frostbite on paws and ears, I don't like working my dogs for prolonged times in extreme heat and cold.
I have a special gift for you deep learners and nerds!
The study below measures the muscle contraction in the triceps and glutes in 14 agility dogs.
Altered muscle activation in agility dogs performing warm-up exercises: an acoustic myography study (wageningenacademic.com)
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