# Conditioning Tips/Tricks?



## amjrchamberlain (Mar 8, 2005)

Care to share your conditioning tips/tricks?


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## Andaka (Jun 29, 2003)

I used to use a bicycle to roadwork my dogs. I lived in a quiet subdivision at the time, and would wait for the kids to go to school and parents to work so that I would have the roads to myself.

I have since graduated to a scooter.










Always start slow then build distance. Conditioning ddoesn't happen overnight, and you can hurt your dog if you try to go too fast.

Fetch games, and playing with other dogs are also good ways to improve conditioning. 

I usually roadwork 3 days a week, and play on the other days. Crosstraining helps to prevent boredom.


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## victoria_warfel (Nov 29, 2007)

Fetch and herding Saluki


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## trudy (Aug 25, 2008)

this is a great topic because I have wondered too. I have heard conflicting opinions and worry I will do too much or not enough. I have started agility but limit all jumps to 10" as he is 10 months and I want to teach him to go with my bike in the spring, but I haven't ridden in years and don't want to be pulled off. I also have heard to only go at a trot or fast walk and that he shouldn't be on pavement. I also play fetch in the yard with my uneven yard with steps and hills and also at the school yard with the same landscape issues. I worry about too much strain but he has to exercise.


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## Amaruq (Aug 29, 2001)

Swimming and Hiking. 

If your dog is reliable, off leash wood romping in the woods is EXCELLENT. We live "in the hills" of PA, not quite the mountains but.... My guys spend their summers in the river, pond or reservior and running/hiking in the woods. They also get to go herding a couple times each summer. 

Swimming will REALLY tone up a Shepherd in no time.


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## WinitheGSD (Sep 21, 2008)

I just let them run in the woods outside. and we have a few open grassy fields, not huge, but there nice for fetch and the occasional chipmunk or other rodent to hunt. Buddy isn't really a killer. she has chased chipmunks but never actually kills them, and a lot of times she has them trapped and could kill them but she just walkes away. she loses interest. but wini we had her for 1 week and she had already killed a mole or was it a groundhog?? Then she layed on the ground a procceded to eat it. I really think she is going to be a KILLER!!!! lol!! (we didn't really let her eat the entire groundhog or whatever it was.)


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