‘Aerobic’ and ‘anaerobic’ are terms used to describe how the cells within your dogs body produce energy and refer to energy systems. But what is the difference?

Every movement your dog makes requires energy to be created and there are three main ways that this is done, one with oxygen and two without oxygen.

Aerobic means ‘with air’ and refers to your dogs body producing energy with the use of oxygen. This involves any exercise that lasts longer than two minutes in duration. Continuous ‘steady state’ exercise is performed aerobically.

Examples include:

• Long distances Dog Walks
• Long Distances Runs / Jogs
• Long distance, light weight dragging
• Slatmill Conditioning
• Games of Fetch

Anaerobic means ‘without air’ and refers to dogs body producing energy without oxygen. This is exercise that is performed at a higher intensity. There are two ways that the body can produce energy anaerobically.

Energy bursts and slow release

One anaerobic energy system is known as the ATP-CP system and provides immediate energy for instant bursts of exercise such as for a  sprint, heavy weight pull or jump and can last from 0 – 10 seconds.

The other anaerobic system, known as the lactic acid system, provides energy for very hard efforts lasting roughly 10 – 120 seconds such as a longer distance sprint, flirt pole or a games of fetch.

What are the two training types good for?

Aerobic training is good for building endurance and improving your dogs cardiovascular and respiratory system. This means that their heart and lungs become stronger and more efficient, enabling them to train harder and longer as their fitness levels improve.

Anaerobic training is performed at a harder intensity than aerobic exercise and is an effective way of improving your dogs lean muscle mass, increasing strength and burning fat.

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If your dog is making steady gains but you just know there’s still more room for improvement then make sure you read this article carefully because we are going to share Three Tips for More Gains with your Fitdog.

TIP 1: Add MORE Fat!

Yes you’re probably wondering if you read correctly?! Why add fat when you want a leaner dog? Well unlike humans a dogs primary energy source is not carbohydrates, its fat! But not just any fat. High quality animal fat. You see, fats have many important functions…Not only do they provide energy, but they’re also necessary for the normal development and function of your dogs cells, nerves, muscles, and body tissues.  Fats help to regulate your dogs normal bodily functions, reduce inflammation, and help with nutrient absorption. Fats are an optimal source of energy for canines since: 

1. Dogs get 2.5 times as much energy from fat as they do from carbs. 

2. Dogs metabolize 90-95% of fat they eat 

HOW MUCH FAT SHOULD YOU FEED YOUR DOG?

It’s important to remember that all dogs are individuals and vary based on their breed, age, gender, health and activity levels. However, Dr Ben Holding a greyhound nutrition expert recommends a daily fat intake of at least 40% Fats for elite performance dogs such as greyhounds. 

SO, WHAT ARE GOOD SOURCES OF FAT?

Good sources of fat for dogs are all animal based fatty meats. The highest animal fat can be found in Beef, Lamb, Pork and Fish. Some of the best cuts of Fat are Organ Meat – examples include liver, tripe, spleen, sweetbreads, brain, intestines, Testicles, and kidneys.

TIP 2: INCREASE INTENSITY

Most people think a 1 or 2 hour walk is enough to keep your dog healthy and fit. The truth is walking is not enough to maintain your dogs cardiovascular health and certainly not enough to stimulate muscle growth or burn excess fat. The reason is walking is just not intense enough. It might be for you, but the average dog has two more extra legs than you and walking is just not a challenge for them! The harder you make the exercise the more their heart has to work to pump blood around their body which increases their metabolism and put them into a fat burning, muscle growth state. 

There’s many ways you can increase the intensity of your dogs exercise. Some of the easy ways are as follows:

• Add a weighted collar – For as little as $70 you can add a weighted collar to your dog walk,  game of fetch or spring pole session to make it more challenging. The extra resistance from the collar stimulates your dogs testosterone levels (yes even bitches) and puts them in an anabolic state to burn excess fat and grow lean muscle.
• Use a weighted harness – This is one of the best ways to add strength and lean muscle to your dog. It not only increases your dogs gains but it’s also fun and improves the dog – handler bond.
• Track your dogs work to rest ratio – The harder you make your dog work followed by short rest intervals the more they will burn fat. Don’t believe us? Give it a go yourself! Try doing a round of 30 second sprints followed by a 30 second rest repeated 5 times. That would give you a 5 minute workout. Compare that to a 10 minute walk and you would have burned more energy in 5 minutes than the 10 minute walk. The same is true for dogs! We have actually created the Ultimate 12 week canine Ball workout using this philosophy. >>>>>Try it Now.
• Slatmill sprinting – One of the ultimate intense workouts a dog can do is Slatmill sprinting. The reason being you can fully control the rest period of the dogs workout as they cannot get distracted. Plus its a workout you can do rain or shine!

TIP 3: do ENDURANCE LAST, ALWAYS!

One of the biggest mistakes we see is when people start their dogs workout session with endurance based activities. Wrong! Why? Well, Endurance is defined by moderate intensity, steady state activity. Examples include spring pole, bike work, jogging / running, tug of war,  regular fetch and swimming. 

The problem is, this kind of exercise uses up your dogs phosphagen and glycolytic energy system. When this happens your dog goes into a catabolic state and won’t be able to burn fat and grow lean muscle effectively. That’s why you should always leave this types of workouts to the end of the workout session. To understand the canine energy system better read the full article here >>>>canine energy systems

That’s it for today! Comment below and ask us any question you like!

Keep Them Fit!

FITDOG NATION

P.S.

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The Belgian Malinois currently sits in 2nd place on our list of ‘Top Four FITDOG Breeds’. Possibly the most universal working dog on the planet, the malinois is commonly referred to as the ‘maligator’ and rightfully so. This multifunctional breed is as serious as they come with a drive thats through the roof which allows them to be employed by military special forces and police departments worldwide.

In todays blog article we are going to review the specific exercise considerations when it comes to helping your Malinois perform to the highest level possible! 

To understand the Malinois requirements it’s essential that we know how and why the breed originally started. The Malinois is one of four varieties of Belgian Shepherd, which is part of the Sheepdog / herding family of dog breeds. This family of dogs is the result of selective breeding between the Bouvier des Ardennes , Dutch Shepherd  and  German Shepherd.

Being a herder by default, these breeds were originally created to herd livestock and guard their flock which means they needed to be very agile, fast, highly driven and possess incredible stamina. Today the Belgian Malinois is actually best known for being the ultimate police dog. The breed is used as a  working dog  for tasks including  detection  of odors such as explosives,  accelerants  (for arson investigation), and narcotics;  tracking  humans for suspect apprehension in police work; and  search and rescue  missions. 

As a result the Malinois is a medium to large sized breed best suited to agility and endurance based activities. They generally have a light frame which allow them to move quickly with great speed while also being able to maintain their workload for extended periods of time. 

AGILITY

Canine agility is defined by a dogs ability  to rapidly change body direction, accelerate, or decelerate.  This is a canine fitness component that was not only crucial for herding and shepherding but is also vital to be a successful police dog.

When being used for detection work a police dog is required to move quickly in physically challenging environments often in spaces that are not accessible to humans. During apprehension of a suspect police dogs need to be agile especially if the suspect needs to be chased through challenging environments and stopped.

One of the best ways to not only maintain good agility but to also boost your dogs agility is flirt pole conditioning. The flirt pole  is one of the most dynamic conditioning tools because it works not only agility but also power and muscular endurance. However, like most tools, it’s not what you do its how you do it and so many dog folks use the flirt poleincorrectly. Use the following tips to flirt for agility:

• Keep your dogs feet on the ground
• No air time, jumping or landing (It’s impressive to look at but not needed and the risk out weights the reward)
• Only circular movements to begin with until your dog is at least a ‘3’ on the Canine Body Assessment Scale.
• Progress from circular movements to back and forth movements
• Make sure you add in a rest period of at least 1:1 work to rest ration. So for example if they work for 1 minute then rest for 1 minute and continue is sets. Most people get this wrong and they get the dog too tired to the point where they are not increasing agility anaerobically but rather doing an aerobic exercise. This is a big error as aerobic exercise is proven to reduce strength and decrease agility.
• As your dog gets more agile and is at least ‘3’ on the Canine Body Assessment Scale you can make the flirt pole sessions more challenging by adding resistance to the flirt pole session using a 4lb Weighted dog Collar. When used properly the Weighted dog collar is an ideal tool to help increase agility as it increases the speed of the Type IIB muscle fibres.

STAMINA

Aerobic endurance otherwise known as stamina is also a key fitness component for the Malinois. Herding dogs are known for their gruelling levels of stamina helping farmers sort sheep over distances covering 25miles+ of rough terrain a day. As a police dog the Malinois doesn’t require as much stamina as their sheep herding ancestors but stamina is still important. A police dog can generally work 8 hours a day performing a variety of tasks ranging from drug sweeps, suspect chase downs, and patrol shifts and they need to be able to maintain their workload. As a result aerobic endurance is important, especially the ability to maintain a high level of aerobic capacity.

One of the best ways to boost Aerobic endurance is through running related activities. Specialised  Fetch training  is perfect because it uses the Malinois natural high prey drive to develop endurance through our specific 12 Week Ball endurance program. Treadmill running is also highly beneficial, especially for those days when weather is poor. Our specialist Slatmill provides you with the ability to also track your dogs workout via our speed computer.

STRENGTH & POWER

As we’ve seen, the malinois is a naturally agile dog with great stamina due to its shepherding history. However, the Malinois is evolving now into a more specialised police dog and more specifically used as a protection dog around the world. Although their drive and agility make them top choice for close quarter combat style protection work they generally lack in strength and power making them more vulnerable against intoxicated, armed suspects who are not afraid to fight a dog. As such the Malinois needs to increase their physical ability and stopping power by increasing their strength and power. This will help them strike the bad guy with more impact on the takedown and allow them to wrestle stronger while in a grip.

Strength and power are two very distinct canine fitness components. Strength is your dogs ability to generate high force independent of time. Power is the amount of force your dog can produce in the quickest time possible. Both are high intensity activities but very beneficial for a Malinois.

STRENGTH

Weight pulling is a great example of strength based activities for the Malinois not only because it will help them become stronger without the added heavy excess body weight but also  because weight pulling itself has so many benefits such as:

• Increasing the handler – dog bond
• Reducing hyperactivity
• Increase lean muscle
• Reduces risk of hip and knee injuries
• Great for socialisation 

For more information on how to start weight pulling read our ”Weight Pulling”Article

POWER

As we have seen already, power is related to strength but the key difference is speed. Increasing your Malinois’ power will help them jump higher, launch and strike harder and build an impressive lean physique that can withstand more punishment from a suspect. Some good examples of power training involve:

• Weight Drag Sprints
• Sprints with a Weighted Dog Collar
• Slatmill Sprints 

FINAL THOUGHTS

The conclude the Belgian Malinois is a dynamic and versatile breed who is naturally agile, highly driven with great stamina. Due to its recent transformation from a sheep dog into a police / protection dog its important that emphasis is placed on improving strength and power capabilities. The next generation of Malinois require more physical resilience and strength to withstand punishment in altercations. 

That’s it for today! Comment below and ask us any question you like!

Keep Them Fit!

FITDOG NATION

P.S.

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The American Bully is one of the fastest growing breeds  and currently sits in 3rd place of our ‘Top Four FITDOG Breeds’.

In todays blog we are going to review the specific exercise and conditioning considerations when it comes to getting your American Bully in the best shape possible.

To understand the American Bully’s health and fitness requirements it’s important to know the breed’s origin, make up and ideal application. Despite its popularity no one really knows for certain the exact breeds and percentages that were used to create the American Bully.  Originally started in the USA in the 1980s as a companion dog it’s said the main breeds used include the American Staffordshire Terrier and American Pit Bull Terrier with strong influences from English & French Bulldog including a variety of Mastiff related breeds such as the Cane Corso and Dogue de bordeaux.

Initially the American Bully had no breed standard until recently, and although there are now officially four main types of American Bully, it’s important to note that there is great variation even within the four types and many breeders still do not agree to the standards.

For simplicity though,  this review will be referring to the non-extreme versions of the American Bully which would relate to the Standard / Classic types.

Although a companion / family breed, some American Bully’s have proven their ability in a variety of sporting and working applications ranging from Weight pulling, Athletic competitions, Personal protection and Therapy work. In general the breed is a bigger, bulkier and a more extreme version of its ancestor the Amercian Pit Bull Terrier but without the drive and dog aggression.

It’s fair to say the American Bully carries High amounts of muscle mass, heavy bone structure and is considerably shorter in height than their body length. This is both an advantage and disadvantage. 

Strength

The American Bully is one of the strongest breeds in the world. Especially when it comes to absolute strength which is defined as the most weight that can be moved by a dog in a single effort regardless of their size or weight (Relative strength is a  different type of strength). This is owed in part to the American Bullys significantly high type II muscle fibre composition and high bone density which is perfect for strength based activities such as Weight Pulling.

An added benefit is their long, low slung body which can be an advantage when doing weight pull as it gets them lower to the ground with more pulling traction. Weight pulling is a perfect sport for the american bully not only because they are genetically and physically suited to it but also because the sport itself has so many benefits such as:

• Increasing the handler – dog bond
• Reducing hyperactivity
• Increase lean muscle
• Reduces risk of hip and knee injuries
• Great for socialisation 

For more information on how to start weight pulling read our ”Weight Pulling” Article

AGILITY

Unlike their Pit Bull ancestor the American Bully generally lacks agility. Canine agility is defined by the dogs ability  to rapidly change body direction, accelerate, or decelerate.  This is mostly due to the heavy, exaggerated frames that they posses. Like a truck or a lorry which can pull or carry heavy loads in one direction, turning fast and rapidly like a formula 1 car can be a challenge  due to the excess structure that’s involved. 

One of the best way to boost your dogs agility is flirt pole conditioning. The  flirt pole  is one of the most dynamic conditioning tools because it works not only agility but also power and muscular endurance. However, like most tools, it’s not what you do its how you do it and so many dog folks use the flirt pole incorrectly. Use the following tips to flirt for agility:

• Keep your dogs feet on the ground
• No air time, jumping or landing.
• Only circular movements to begin with until your dog is at least a ‘3’ on the Canine Body Assessment Scale.
• Progress from circular movements to back and forth movements
• Make sure you add in a rest period of at least 1:1 work to rest ratio. So for example if they flirt for 1 minute then rest them for 1 minute and continue in sets. Most people get this wrong and they get the dog too tired to the point where they are not increasing agility anaerobically but rather doing an aerobic exercise. This is a big error as aerobic exercise is proven to reduce muscle mass and decrease agility.

Building Lean Mass

One of the most effective (and safest) ways to build lean mass is straight line sprinting. This is because sprinting in one direction ‘Straight line’ does not involve the risk of the high forces to the ACL ligament that multi directional free sprinting can add. Sprinting on a Slatmill or Carpetmill provides the most safety for your dogs ACL. 

ENDURANCE

The most common questions we get asked from Bully owners is how to increase their dogs stamina. Firstly, the Bully is not built for endurance. A dog of this size and mass is just not suited to long duration activities and events. Sure you can improve it but they will never be an endurance dog. That being said the way to improve endurance without the risk of injury is to slowly progress your dogs workouts with ample recovery. 

Overall the American Bully is best suited to strength based activities and should focus on improving agility in order to reduce the risk of injury. Though it is not best suited to endurance activities, the best form of weight management and lean mass production is straight line sprinting either on a Slatmill or Carpetmill or via Fetch training. Just make sure to progress all workouts slowly and do not incorporate any air time / jumping based exercises until your dog is at least a ‘3’ on the Canine Body Assessment Scale otherwise you run the risk of ACL injury. 

For more specific individual conditioning contact us at support@fitdognation.com

Stay tuned for our next blog article which will review specific conditioning considerations for the Belgian Malinois

Comment below and let us know of any other breed(s) you want to add to this list!

Keep Them Fit!

FITDOG NATION

P.S.

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