Prancing Heeling and the Age of Amazing Trainers

Is it injuring our sport dogs?

This article is coming to be due to the overwhelming amount of sport dog injuries I am seeing or hearing about in the IGP or Schutzhund World. There can only be more in other sport avenues, but I will speak in this sport venue. Iliopsoas, groin injuries, and CCL tears (like the ACL in the knee) abound. Now we can attribute the uprising of these injuries due to more awareness of the injuries and better diagnosis of these injuries, however, the type of training of these dogs can often predispose them for these injuries.

Let us start with what the function of some of the anatomy is. The iliopsoas muscle actually consists of the psoas muscle and the iliacus — thus, iliopsoas. The iliopsoas lies underneath the spine and attaches at the end of the ribcage and first few lumbar vertebra and extends back to attach to the sacrum/pelvis and internal femur at the hip joint. The purpose of the muscle is to rotate the pelvis, stabilize the lumbar spine, and first action of flexing or bringing the femur forward. It stabilizes when the limb is touching the ground and it moves the body parts when the limb is in the air.

The groin muscles are a network of many muscles that stabilize the legs inward so as to not allow “the splits” motion, as well as move the legs inward, such as tucking the butt into the handler when making left turns or flip finishes. Same principles apply — when the leg is in the air it moves the limb and when the leg is on the ground it stabilizes the limb.

The CCL or cranial cruciate ligament — the same as the human ACL– is an important, if not the most important ligament in the stifle (knee) of the dog. The main purpose of the CCL is to be the last hold of the stifle joint that does not allow the lower leg (Tibia) to slide forward away from the upper leg (femur). This ligament takes the most stress due to the dog’s angulated hind limb conformation. If the muscles of the quads and hamstrings and gastrocnemius (calf muscle) are not appropriately balanced of strength then the CCL will be forced to maintain the structure of the knee on its own. It cannot do this for long and under repetitive actions of sport training.

Now what is it about training that leads to the predisposition to these injuries in our IGP dogs? The number one cause for strain of these anatomical areas is carrying more weight on the hind leg or using the hind leg for propulsion. For IGP this is prancy heeling (regular heeling as well but much more mild), and bark and hold, jumping the 1m, and climbing the A-frame. These injuries are often overuse-injuries that lead into “catastrophic failures” or “the final stick that broke the camel’s back”. So, how is training involved in these injuries?

Trainers these days are amazing and have brought so much out of a dog through free-shaping. These dogs start young– Problem 1 for injuries but essential for great sport results. These dogs repeat exercises many many times in order to connect the dots in shaping — Problem 2 for injuries but essential for great sport results. These dogs train primarily in certain behaviors and tasks — Problem 3 for injuries but essential for great sport results. These dogs are having higher drive brought out and used for training — Problem 4 for injuries but essential for great sport results.

• Problem 1 — these dogs start at a young age putting much emphasis on learning to carry weight on their hind legs. Their total length of heeling is greatly increased by the time the first BH is done compared to “back in the day”. This means the young dog will have more “wear and tear” because the sport starts younger. This can start the imbalance younger. If that is combined with the handler who is not diligent in muscle strength balance or can see early signs of fatigue, that could spell for impossible doom later on.
• Problem 2 — repeating the exercises many times. This is the classic cause of any overuse injury. It is simply that, overuse. Repetition after repetition of the same thing brings clarity and learning but brings wear and tear and fatigue in the body. Although the mind may handle it the body may not.
• Problem 3 — We have the dog that starts young and does many repetitions, now that dog is doing the repetitions and starting young in specific behaviors that often are using the same muscles and structures. This compounds problem 1 and problem 2 thus wear-and-tear has not become exponential in our “new age” training programs.
• Problem 4 — We are asking for higher drive in our dogs as they work. This is also a compounding factor and its own problem. Higher drive in the young dog doing many repetitions doing specific behaviors exponentially increases wear and tear even more. The next detriment to higher drive is that the dog often hides or does not even recognize their own pain. Thus its the handlers diligence that must spot subtle signs of possible issues arising.

How does the tasks of prancy heeling and hold and bark/guarding cause increase of injury risk. Simply put, those tasks are like someone doing squats all day and never dead lifts. The dogs have to use their iliopsoas constantly both in stabilization and in movement, must use the groin muscles in stabilization and movement, and the CCL becomes the detriment and suffers greater load during training. This creates an imbalance in the musculature and balance of muscles of the body. This can be added onto the natural tendency of some breeds or conformation types to be imbalanced in their musculature.

German shepherds and other rectangular (longer back to leg proportion) and dogs with more limb angulation both in shoulder and hind leg will have a propensity to have weaker back muscles and tight abdominal muscles. They will have tendencies to have strong tight quads and weak hamstrings. These dogs that are being trained for prancy focused heeling are at more risk of further imbalance and thus CCL, groin, and iliopsoas muscle wear and tear. These same dogs that are put through many reps of guardian and bark & hold have further wear and tear and imbalance.

People may think, well we rest them for periods so they have enough down time to recover. This does not work. The rest may allow those overuse areas to calm down but the imbalance of the dog is still there. As soon as work begins again, the wear and tear will start again where it left off. So the solution? — proper balanced training of the dog especially if certain behaviors are favored in the training program such as prancing heeling and the “sitting on haunches” bark and hold.

It may look cool to heel the dog around because it is fun and the dog looks great but think about their body. Do enough to teach and then stop. It may look cool to have the dog get all these bark and hold and guarding videos and let the dog show his “power” but do only as much to teach the dog.

Condition the dog appropriately. Balance the dog. Rest the dog appropriately. Cross train the dog. Provide appropriate health care for the dog like massages, frequent “sports checks”, and chiropractic. Learn to see the small signals that point to an impending large problem. These dogs always show a change in something when there is pain or imbalance. A sit or down that isn’t square, a jump that is slightly touching, resistance to do a task, less effort in a task, avoidance, movement changes, etc. Don’t do the fun stuff because it’s fun and not the good stuff because it isn’t.

An amazing trainer is only as good as his best dog and the dog’s ability to show the results. Do not let your abilities and your dog’s abilities be cut short because of an injury that could possibly be avoided.