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What Is a Canine Athlete?

Chris Zink, DVM, PhD, DACVP, DACVSMR, CCRT, CVSMT, CVA, and Brittany Jean Carr, DVM, CCRT

Summary

Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation is one of the newest specialties in veterinary medicine. It encompasses and integrates a variety of fields, including orthopedics, exercise physiology, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, nutrition, and others. Rehabilitation, which includes regaining and maintaining fitness as well as conditioning targeted toward prevention of future injury, is a critical partner to canine sports medicine. Canine athletes include dogs that compete in performance events as varied as agility trials, obedience trials, and disc dog competitions, as well as working dogs such as police/military dogs, search and rescue dogs, and assistance dogs for the disabled. Principles of canine sports medicine and rehabilitation apply to all active dogs, regardless of whether they train or compete; this comprises a large proportion of the canine population. Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals play a pivotal role in helping canine athletes and working dogs recover after injury or illness. They work to prevent re-injury while moving the patient back to a state of muscular ability, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility that optimizes their physical abilities. Understanding the physical activities that are involved in different performance events and the jobs that working dogs perform is critical to devising targeted rehabilitation for sports/working dogs after injury or illness, and for retraining them to perform their specific duties. This is best accomplished by attending athletic/working dog training sessions and competitions.

Introduction to canine sports medicine

Humans and dogs have been partners for at least 33,000 years (Galibert et al., 2011; Ovodov et al., 2011; Thalmann et al., 2013; Shannon et al., 2015; Frantz et al., 2016). As working companions, dogs have assisted in hunting food, guarding family and property, gathering and moving livestock, patrolling with soldiers, detecting drugs and explosives, and searching for lost humans.

With increases in disposable income and a change in attitudes toward work/life balance beginning after World War II, there has been an exponential growth in the number of sporting events devised by people to challenge their abilities to train their dogs for competition. The field of canine sports medicine began with veterinarians working predominantly with racing Greyhounds. Veterinarians now work with dogs that participate in dozens, if not hundreds, of different canine sports and working roles.

Canine sports medicine is the branch of veterinary medicine concerned with injuries sustained by canine athletes, including their prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The field of canine sports medicine comprises many different aspects of traditional and integrative veterinary medicine as well as nonclinical ancillary roles in canine care such as exercise physiology, athletic training, and others (Box 1.1), and encourages significant collaboration between individuals with different areas of expertise. In addition, canine sports medicine is intimately linked to canine rehabilitation, where veterinarians, physical therapists, and veterinary technicians have an opportunity to work together to return injured canine athletes and working dogs not only to health but to full performance.

Box 1.1 Fields included in canine sports medicine

• Anatomy and biomechanics
• Exercise physiology
• Sports conditioning
• Rehabilitation
• Orthopedics
• Internal medicine
• Pulmonology
• Cardiology
• Neurology
• Gerontology
• Nutrition
• Integrative medicine

There are many advantages for veterinarians and rehabilitation professionals working with canine athletes and working dogs (Box 1.2). The field involves assisting clients who have invested significant time, emotion, effort, and finances into raising, training, and competing/working with their canine partners. These clients want the best care and the best outcomes for their dogs, so there is substantial opportunity to practice state-of-the-art sports and rehabilitation medicine.

Box 1.2 Advantages of working with clients with canine athletes and working dogs

• Opportunity to practice state-of-the-art rehabilitation medicine
• Highly educated clients with significant financial, time and emotional investment in their dogs
• High client compliance
• Healthier dogs than in general practice
• Higher success rate due to dogs' better plane of fitness
• Measurable success returning dog to training and competition
• Abundant research opportunities

Human athletes have teams consisting of health professionals with diverse expertise who work on maintaining and regaining the athletes' health and fitness. Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals likewise play a pivotal role in helping the clients with canine athletes and working dogs to keep their dogs in athletic condition, prevent injury, and recover after injury or illness. They help move dogs back to a state of muscular ability, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility that allows them to optimize their physical condition.

Clients with canine athletes and working dogs are generally highly compliant. Once given detailed individualized conditioning programs, clients will work with their dogs to perform those exercises diligently. This is a key to success for the canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professional, and brings significant job satisfaction, allowing the professional to develop relationships with clients that last through generations of dogs.

Canine athletes and working dogs often enter the rehabilitation program at a much healthier level and a higher fitness plane than most inactive pet dogs. This provides the canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professional with the advantage and enjoyment of working with health more than with illness.

There is significant opportunity for research in the field of canine sports medicine and rehabilitation. Opportunities abound for retrospective studies of outcomes as well as prospective studies that formulate specific hypotheses and design test and control groups to address those hypotheses. Clients with canine athletes and working dogs are generally enthusiastic about participating in studies that will help provide information that they can use to become more efficient in training and more successful in competition and that will result in greater health and longevity.

As an example of the investments that clients have in their dogs, an average annual cost to campaign a show dog in conformation shows is between $80,000 and $100,000 for a dog that had a single Best in Show win, and $250,000-500,000 for a dog that has won more than 100 Best in Show awards (Dugan & Dugan, 2011). This typically includes the costs of entries, travel to shows, advertising, and fees for professional handlers. Many clients with competitive field trial dogs will spend $25,000-50,000 per year to have professional handlers train and compete with their dogs. Most agility competitors spend less than that because they generally train and compete with their own dogs. However, they do have significant costs for lessons, entries, and traveling, and many avid agility competitors will spend $10,000-25,000 per year on their chosen canine sport (Chris Zink, personal communication). This is concrete evidence of the significant temporal, financial, and emotional investment on the part of clients with canine athletes and working dogs. As a result, they are interested in obtaining the best possible care for their canine teammates. They look to canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals to help their dogs recover quickly and completely from injuries and to be able to once again compete to their fullest potential.

To be most effective, canine sports medicine and rehabilitation professionals must become as familiar as possible with the requirements for canine athletes' and working dogs' activities. It is also important that they are familiar with terminology and training techniques used with these dogs. Training and practice methods can significantly contribute to the types of injuries that performance and working dogs experience, sometimes more than competition itself.

In addition, an understanding of the functions of each dog breed is critical to devising targeted rehabilitation for sports/working dogs after injury or illness, and for retraining them to perform their specific duties. This is best accomplished by attending athletic/working dog training sessions and competitions. Local competitions can readily be found by searching the Internet. The sports medicine/rehabilitation professional is strongly encouraged to attend local training and practice sessions for a variety of sports and working functions. Clients' videos and photos of their dogs working or training often capture evidence of potential tissue stresses that can lead to injury.

The ability to communicate effectively with performance and working dog clients cannot be overemphasized. Often, these clients are as driven as their dogs so that both handler and dog might ignore a physical problem, working through it until it becomes a major injury. This can result in critical...