Tips from our Members

Top 10 Dog Parks:
A list of the top 10 dog parks in SE Michigan.
www.metroparent.com
Recommended by Charlene Palmer
Fetch-it Style Bumpers:
Bumpers with rope on both ends.
www.gagetactical.com
Recommended by Suzanne Sparano
Hot Weather Collars:
Collars you can fill with ice:
fillmewithice.com
Submitted by Sue Kinyon
Ear Solution:
16 oz. bottle isopropyl alcohol (or witch hazel)
4 tablespoons Boric Acid Powder
16 drops Gentian Violet 1% Solution
Submitted by Karen Kline
Prong Collar Covers:
Sturdy nylon covers for prong collars are available through EliteK9Equipment.com
Submitted by Sue Kinyon

Injury Prevention

Many thanks to Lisa Blanchard from The Animal Rehabilitation Center of Michigan, who joined us for a short presentation in Feb. 2011, to discuss injury prevention and ways to help keep your dog "competition ready". Lisa is a licensed veterinary technician and has been working and training with dogs on rehabilitation for over 20 years. Her presentation included:

  1. The importance of a proper warm up and cool down.
  2. Why cardiovascular exercise is important for the performance dog.
  3. How core strength training can help with injury prevention.
  4. Examples of hind limb and propulsion exercises that can help improve your dog's performance.

Lisa stressed the importance of proper warm-ups to increase oxygen supply and stretch tissues. Stretching, walking, trotting, and low jumping were recommended. Don't forget cool-downs! This helps to eliminate excess waste products and reduce stiffness and soreness. After jumping, cool down by walking, stretching and massage.

Lisa also touched on the importance of cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and propulsion exercise.

Cardiovascular Exercizes: Swimming, treadmill, bicycling, and sprints help build endurance and stamina.

Strength Training: Playing on boards, with balls, walking up hills, and doin tricks help dogs build up the strength required for speed and acceleration, while helping to prevent injury and increase joint stability

Propulsion Exercises: Propulsion exercises like plyometrics (muscle specific exercizes that help target muscles for vertical leaps, reaction time, and explosiveness) and hill walking.

Swimmer's Tail: aka Limber Tail, Cold Tail, and Dead Tail, appears as a crooked, bent, stiff tail, and can be very painful. The best prevention is proper drying using plenty of towels, a chamois cloth, fans, or hair dryers, especially before going outdoors in cold weather.

What will you need?

Definitons

Information from UAD and UKC

Distance
Jumping
Also know or referred to as Ultimate air. This is the competition measuring the distance of a dog's jump. The dog's distance is measured from the end of the dock to where the base of the tail breaks the water's surface.
Catch It
a game invented by Milt Wilcox, founder of Ultimate Air Dogs. It runs the same way as Ultimate Air, where two jumps for each dog are judged by distance. However, the dog MUST catch the object thrown for the jump to count. And, as opposed to Ultimate Air jumping where only the best jump is the score, both jumps will count IF and ONLY IF the object is caught on each jump. Then, the jump distances are added together for the score.
Fetch It
A bumper is suspended over the pool with a rod. Each dog must complete the catch or fetch or knock off the bumper within two tries in order to move to the next level. The bumper is moved further out. If you want to watch and hear the most "oooo's" and "aaahhhhs" from the crowd, watch Catch It and Fetch It. But all dogs get applause. The dog who is having a hard time going off of the dock for the first time, and finally goes in, gets just as big a hand, as the dog who is a big jumper. The crowd appreciates the effort.

Other Definitons:

Splash
A splash is a series of two rounds (cycles) of distance jumping competition. A splash should be divided into groups of no more than 16 competitors. Each group will go through its running order with each dog taking one jump, and then start back at the top of that group for each dog to take its second jump. The higher jump for each dog will become its score.
Throw
object
An object may be used in order to ask the dog to jump, but is not a requirement. The object can be anything that does not sink, is not edible, does not dissolve in water, and is not a living or dead animal. Further, it is not required that the dog retrieve the object from the pool in order to achieve its score.

Divisions

Scores are sorted into divisions after dogs have jumped all splashes.

UAD Rules and Policies