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CC140: Aged to Perfection: Keeping Your Senior Fit in Mind and Body

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CC140: Aged to Perfection: Keeping Your Senior Fit in Mind and Body

Course Details

 

As the owner of 5 labs over the age of 11, each at various stages of ‘aged to perfection’, I understand the challenges that can come with having an older dog (or several!)  This class is all about celebrating our older dogs and working within their abilities to maintain or regain physical strength, mental health and a joyful outlook.  Let’s make the most of every day we share together! 

What is a senior dog anyway? 

I’m going to let you decide on that as it applies to this class.  Commonly, giant breeds are described as seniors starting at 5 or 6, years of age;  medium to large breeds at 7 or 8 and smaller dogs a little later in life. But this class doesn’t require that your dog fits into any particular age frame. If you feel like your dog is starting to show signs of aging or even if this is just something you are worried about for the future, this class will help you be proactive in their senior care.  If your dog is already deep into their retirement and teetering on becoming an antique, you are welcome here too. Anyone who is willing to really dive into the individual and changing needs of their dog will find this class useful. 

Concepts of enrichment, conditioning, and husbandry skills will be our focus as we look at a series of games and exercises that can be modified to suit seniors of all abilities. There will be an emphasis on promoting what your dog CAN do and focusing on the positive! Older dogs often find patterns and routines comforting, so we’ll examine how to provide the security of structure  - but without turning life into a bore. We’ll explore ways to add safe, interesting twists to their daily schedule that require little in the way of time or equipment, but add a lot in terms of joy and bonding and will bring a sense of purpose back to your training time together! And because older dogs often do require more veterinary and grooming care, but frequently grow less excited about these things with age,  we'll spend some time making sure the care tasks you'll use most often are fun and doable for your dog. 

This class is suitable for all levels of dogs and handlers. The conditioning exercises in this class are foundation level functional exercises which can be adapted to a wide range of dogs but are not meant  to replace veterinary care for dogs with active injuries or rehabilitation needs. 

 Teaching Approach

Lectures will be released at the beginning of each week. Each week's topics will be divided into 4 categories:

A) Concepts on Training and Aging relevant to the class homework

B) Brain Games

C) Body Conditioning Exercise

D) Husbandry Skills

Lectures will contain written material which include descriptions of all exercises in detail, supplemented by short demonstration videos- generally one minute or less in length- selected to highlight specific parts of the exercise that are most important or helpful to introducing your dog to the exercise, or progressing. 

In this class, the basic lesson plan and homework will begin the same for all students, but Gold students can expect to receive personalized modifications when suitable for their dog, which may be presented via written description or video example. Gold and Silver level student feedback is provided in a kind, supportive, and detailed format.  Students may or may not get through all Conditioning or Husbandry Skill exercises during the 6 weeks of the class- progress will depend on their individual dog's current fitness level, past training history, and their individual personality-  but all students who are able to practice short sessions two or 3 times a week should be able to participate in all of the Brain Games activities or a modification thereof. 

*** Outdoor exercise and activities will be discussed and explained but each week will have exercises that are meant to be completed indoors. Teams in all climates will be fully able to participate in this class regardless of weather. 

Erin LynesInstructor: Erin Lynes

Erin (she/her) is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, North America Diving Dogs judge, CWAGS scent judge,  and breeder of performance focused Labrador Retrievers under the “Eromit” kennel name. Erin’s journey in dog sports began as a junior handler, ...(Click here for full bio and to view Erin's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Week 1:

A) Enrichment

Marker words

Luring for Precision

Signs of Pain and Fatigue 

B) Brain  – Egg Carton Quick Search

C) Body – Front Paws Up

D) Husbandry - Middle Position/Assessment 

Week 2 

A) Feet and Posture

Schedules and Surprises

B) Brain- Cookie Trail

C) Body- Stand Still, Square Sit, Sphinx Down

D) Husbandry - Friendly Foot Care Tactics

Week 3

A) Aging and Mobility

B) Brain – Which One? 

C) Body – Back Up and Position Changes 

D) Husbandry - Happy Harnessing

Week 4 

A) Sensory Decline

B) Brain - Sensory Challenge and Cue Change

C) Pivots and Lateral Stepping 

D) Husbandry - Chin Rest

Week 5

A) Choice Vs No Choice

B) Brain – Nosey Roller 

C) Body- Barrel Racing and Cookie Stretches

D) Husbandry-  Relaxed Restraint

Week 6 

A) Behavioral Diversity

B) Brain – One Treat Two Treat

C) Body -  The Circuit Square

D) Husbandry - This one That one- trained eating game 

 

Prerequisites & Supplies

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No previous skills are required. Training is food based on food rewards so a reliable level of food motivation is required. 

Supplies: 

3-4 egg cartons

3 cones or toilet plungers (or objects of similar height)

Stable front foot target 

  • No wobble
  • Should be dewclaw height or lower
  • Wide enough that dog can place both front feet on it comfortably- so at least shoulder width. 
  • Grippy
    • Ideas: Phone book with yoga mat taped to top surface
    • Foam mats stacked to appropriate height and taped
    • Rubber Feed Bowl 

Nail Clippers, Dremel and/or Scratch Board (I use a home made scratchboard which has fine grit sandpaper taped to a cutting board). 

***A surface area with good traction for games and conditioning is a must (most can be done in a 5 foot x 5 foot space, but if you have more space with good traction, you'll be able to make use of it). Consider adding matting to slippery floors to create a training space if needed. 

Sample Lecture

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Brain Games: The Egg Carton Game

 

The purpose of the game this week is to have some fun in an easy to set up game that encourages searching and movement- and which you can really customize for your dog's current mobility level and attention span.  Before you get started on this game, I want you to watch an example of this game being played- then we are going to discuss how to personalize it for your dog along.  You can play this game whether  your dog is already an accomplished nosework dog, or if they have never search for anything before in their life! 

For this game, you will need a few egg cartons, a small space with good traction for flooring, and some treats. 

How the game is played: You will place a cookie in one of the open egg cartons. For dogs who are just learning, using a cookie that is a contrasting color to your egg carton will help so that they can easily see the cookie – but as they begin to understand the idea of the game, or for dogs who have some previous experience in searching, you'll use a cookie that is a similar color to your egg carton to encourage sniffing vs visual location.  When you dog locates the cookie in the egg carton, you will toss or place a 2nd cookie away from the cartons which provides time for you to hide the next egg carton cookie. 

  • In consideration of the tossed cookie, we want to be aware of two things:
    • We do not want our dog scrambling or slipping when they go for the cookie. So, figure out where you can throw it so that your dog has good traction for which to chase the cookie. For dogs who have significant mobility challenges, you might instead PLACE the 2nd cookie on a target away from your egg carton search area, so that there is less likelihood of an uncoordinated chase. I will show an example of this below. 
    • We don't want to lose the dog's interest or frustrate them by having difficulty finding this tossed reset cookie- it's not meant to be a second search. So, make sure your cookie toss isn't going to go under a couch or other obstacle and that it's not invisible against the flooring or target that you are working with. 

Counting calories? You can use a cookie that is low calorie or otherwise low value (veggie?) for your egg carton searching cookie, or for both cookies if your dog is well motivated to eat it. This exercise is not difficult, the search itself provides some fun and so you don't have to use rich, high value treats for this game. It does work best is you use treats that do not crumble and aren't too greasy. 

 Modification- Muffin Tin and Reset Cookie

      This video shows a simplified version of the game for my oldest dog Ruger- who has a few extra challenges going on. First- his front end is compromised, so lowering his head all the way to the floor is very hard. I've got his search area raised up to help make it a more comfortable height. Next- he is very grabby, so instead of egg cartons, I'm using a muffin tin- bigger holes for our search cookies, and less like to get chewed up in the process!  He is hard of hearing now too-  so I use my little waving finger motion to get him searching again after the reset cookie- at first it's a bit of a 'fake out' move, where thinks I'm tossing the cookie into the tin, but soon it becomes the hand signal to search. Then the reset cookie itself is hand delivered to his mouth- up and away from the search area- while I use my other hand to place a search cookie. 

 

 

Modification- Reset cookie placed on target instead of throwing 

  • This video also version of modifications for Ruger  with raised egg carton placement so that he doesn’t have to lower his head as far to search, which can be helpful to dogs with back, neck or front end issues. In the example below, I also decide to try playing it outside in the snow- Ruger sleeps a lot so if I can 'double up' on his activity time by also getting some sunshine and fresh air while he's playing, that is a bonus. You'll also notice that I am helping quite a bit in moving Ruger from the egg cartons back to the reset cookie that I place on the red licky mat- besides his mobility challenges, he has lost a lot of his functional hearing and so it doesn't really work well to rely on verbal cues to reset him or get him searching (though talking to him is a habit I can't seem to get rid of even when I know it's not helping!) In retrospect, I probably could have made this a bit less awkward by omitting the egg cartons altogether and just forming little pockets in the snow for him to search! 

Homework: First decide how you will set up this game to best accommodate your dog. Think about: Number of egg cartons or searching containers, cookie color, reset cookie placement options.  then give it a try!

After you've played a round of this, let's review video. Is your dog moving comfortably during the game? Are they confident in searching for the cookie? Are they ready to increase the challenge of the search?

 

Testimonials & Reviews

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 A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

New class for the February 2022 session.

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Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.

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