Dogs also benefit from a strong core

Strong abdominal, back and pelvic muscles are important for your balance, among other things, and they can prevent certain injuries. It turns out that this also applies to dogs.

One of the most common knee injuries in dogs can be compared to torn cruciate ligaments in humans. A study of over 1,200 agility dogs, you know, dogs that can weave and jump through hoops, shows that virtually any form of exercise reduces the risk of this injury in dogs. Also for dogs that compete at the highest level.

The best moves turned out to be balance exercises. Exercises that strengthen the abdominal, back and pelvic muscles. So the kernel. Running or short walks increased the risk of knee injury, especially in dogs with untrained abdominal muscles. The exercise with the highest risk was flyball: in which the dog jumps over four fences, then catches a ball from a device and flies back. Dogs playing this sport were twice as likely to sustain a knee injury.

Then there were breeds with higher ratings, like the Australian Shepherd, Labrador, Rottweiler, and Australian Cattle Dog. For the whole overview you should take a look at the site, there is a link to the research, but what we can at least learn from it: building muscle the right way is also extremely important for dogs sportsmen.

Read more: Core strength could help dogs avoid knee injuries†