Applying Isometrics and Manual Walks

The cheapest way you can begin applying strength training for your canine is by utilizing the leash you already have to train them! With a standard leash you can use your own strength as resistance for them. This may not be so easy for you if your dog is “well trained” and not apt to pull, but even if they are able to be taught to pull when you want them to as well. Your methods for this may vary, as but in general you can put something they are interested in slightly within reach and use the same voice you do during play as you hold them back from getting to it. When you are done, use your stern voice and however you signal “enough” or “easy” or “down”. Then make sure to reward them so they do not get mixed signals and think they are in trouble. Lots of encouragement during and lots of praise after. If your dog is not “well trained” persay, it should not be hard to put out a treat or walk them near a place they want to check out and resist it a bit. You should still encourage and praise it though. You want your pooch to still understand your communication about the time and place to pull and the time and place to just walk around.

You also want to make sure your dog has a comfortable harness and not a collar for this. A collar may rub your dog’s neck in a way that will iritate it, so although we want our dogs to have a strong neck too, pulling from a collar is not the way to do it. Also from a strength training perspective, it will limit the load on the areas we are trying to hit.

Using your existing standard leash you can perform isometrics with your dog, as well as manually resisted steps.

Isometrics refer to a contraction where the muscle does not change length. This is the first type of strength training one should perform after injury, and can be performed by letting your pup pull a bit trying to get to something without allowing them to take a step. Take care with this not to pull them backwards if you are in a rehab phase especially, and also if an isometric is a goal keep them locked in place not taking baby steps. Typically this should be performed for 2-3 sets of 3-5 seconds in several positions throughout the joint’s range of motion for max strength, and should be performed for 2-5 sets of 30-60 seconds in several positions throughout the joint’s range of motion for improving connective tissue health and joint stability. We must perform isometrics at several positions in order to get the most benefit, as they only strengthen ~15 degrees in each direction in humans, and although no literature examines this in canines we can assume that holding one position doesn’t strengthen the entire range. In humans you also see a decrease in coordination if the full movmement is not performed after the isometrics to improve neuromuscular coordination of the full movement, so likewise in canines we will utilize the isometrics near the beginning of a workout.

If your dog is new to training or rehabbing, then some isometrics before a normal walk may be enough to start. Once they are ready for more, you can go from the isometrics into slowly walking forwards and usually they will keep some tension and walk under resistance for some time. This is manually resisted walking. In general you will want to provide lots of encouragement during this as well, and it is also important not to pull so hard they feel discouraged. You have to make it fun and let them feel like they are winning the tug of war a little. Again, when you are done make sure to provide praise after you call for a reset and go back to walking normal, so they learn they did well and do not get confused about you having been encouraging moments before and then ordering a stop at some point.

Typically manually resisted walking can commence after 1-2 weeks of isometrics every other day preceding walks in healthy populations and for those rehabbing issues, it should commence after isometrics are tolerated well and improvement is seen. These two methods were critical in the ACL rehab of my dog because I could control the resistance by feeling how hard he was pulling. Down the road more agility and power work was added, and further down the road more advanced strength methods were applied. Check out the other articles to train my man, Zeus who is a 14 year old Pitbull-Mastiff mix who is living his best life and still playing like a pup.

Thanks for reading!

Josh