September 10, 2025 • 18 mins
This week, Tony explains how amazingly athletic dogs can be, but also how we can get fooled into believing our personal dogs are more conditioned than they really are, and why that's a big problem.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host
Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about how fit our
dogs really are, how we can know how fit they are,
and what we should be aware of when it comes
to thinking of our dogs as athletes. Their early seasons
are here. Some of us are hunting teal or other
puddle ducks. Some of us are chasing doves. Maybe you're
(00:25):
out west somewhere chasing Sharpie's. You know, pretty soon rough
grouse and woodcock and pheasants and quail and a whole
host of waterfowl are going to be on the menu.
And it's pretty awesome. Because of this, we will ask
a lot of our dogs, though, and they might deliver,
or they might stall out, and we might wonder why
this is natural, because we often think of our dogs
(00:45):
as super athletes. But it's not so simple. And the
more that you understand about this, the better you can
treat your pup, which is what this episode is all about.
The thing that's pretty crazy about the proliferation of smartphones
is that humanity is documenting itself in a way that's
(01:06):
just bonkers. There are more pictures taken by the minute
and video footage shot by the hour than previously in
all of our history. This means there's a hell of
a lot of stills and videos of people's pets and
meals in the sunsets, and you know, the fish they
caught and selfies they took wherever, on and on. This
(01:26):
also means there's a hell of a lot of videos
of people, and by that I mean men doing really
dumb stuff, including getting into fistfights. Alcohol and egos are
the best boxing coaches out there, or I probably guess
I should say they're the best hype men. And boy
are there a lot of videos of dudes figuring out
that they aren't qualified to step into the octagon and
(01:46):
go five rounds with the middleweight champion if you know
what I mean. The amount of dudes you can watch
go from conscious to unconscious and often probably brain damaged
is unreal. I am convinced that most men have a
delusional sense of self when it comes to how tough
we are, how attractive we are, and how smart and
capable we are. Now, I can't speak for women here,
(02:08):
so it might be a human thing, but I get
the impression us why chromosome owners might not have a
monopoly on delusional self imagery. We definitely have sort of
cornered the market, and this extends beyond us as well.
When was the last time you met a dude who
has a working or a sporting dog who hasn't mostly
had NonStop praise for that dog. Not to be fair,
(02:29):
women do this too, but in a different way. A
lot of times where this can be a real problem
is when it comes to canine athleticism and what we
believe our dogs are kind of capable of right now
versus what they really are actually capable of. Now, Before
I get into what your dog is actually capable of,
I think it is a good idea to explore what
(02:49):
some dogs have been proven to be capable of because
they have the potential to be super athletes. All of
them do well, maybe not Chihuahwas or dash ounds mind you. Oh,
I guess I can't say that with certainty, and that
might come from personal bias any huski. The researchers out
there who have studied this stuff have found quite a
bit of interesting things about certain breeds in certain situations
(03:13):
that's just kind of fascinating about how good of athletes
dogs can be. Take Vo two Max as an example.
Simply put, this is a measure of maximal oxygen consumption,
which reflects respiratory, cardiovascular, and muscular efficiency during serious physical activity.
It's measured in millimeters of oxygen per kilogram of body
(03:36):
weight per minute. The higher the VO two max, the
better a creature can deliver oxygen to its muscles, which
directly translates to better endurance and performance. The average thirty
five year old man, for example, has a VO two
max around forty five millimeters per minute, while world class
(03:56):
endurance athletes like the folks who dominate sports like cycling
or cross country skiing can get up to around ninety.
The top score so far is held by a cyclist
named Oscar Spensen, who, as you probably guessed, is from Norway.
His VO two max was measured at ninety seven point five.
Now compare that with Alaskan huskies or sled dogs, which
(04:20):
have been shown to reach as high as two forty
in some extreme cases. How do they do this well?
As you can imagine, generations of breeding the best of
the best have certainly helped steer huskies in the endurance
athlete direction. Compared to other breeds. They have oversized hearts
and lungs, at least relative to their overall size. They
(04:41):
have high mitochondrial density in their muscles, which directly translates
to the production of ATP in their cells. ATP is
the molecule that power cells, particularly during times of exercise. Now,
high mitochondrial synthesis helps prevent fatigue, improves recos and supports
endurance and stamina. Huskies are literally built to run long
(05:05):
distances at relatively high speeds. Labrador retrievers in German short
hairs not so much. There's not to say that labs
and gsps aren't better athletes than your average weekend warrior
pheasant hunter, because they certainly are. They just aren't quite
the super athletes we want to think they are, although
they are capable of a hell of a lot, which
(05:26):
is where things get a little bit tricky. This hit
home with me a couple of years ago when I
had to watch my brother in law's yellow lab LENNI
is by all accounts, a dog who looks like she's
built to run. This didn't mean much to me until
I was working with her in my young lab Sadie,
and I saw Lenny take off like a cheetah on fire.
(05:46):
It was bonkers, and she might literally be the fastest
hunting dog I've ever seen in my life. I was
blown away until about five retrieves into it, when Sadie
started to outrun her to the bumper every single toss.
While Lenny is naturally fast as hell, she was so
deconditioned then that it didn't take more than a few
minutes of messing around at a local park before she
(06:08):
needed to lay down and take a rest. Now here's
what I know about a dog like her. She looks
the part, she acts the part. She will make you
believe that she con pheasant hunt all day without missing
a beat, But she can't. And I've seen that last
part in action with her too. Just like the dudes
who have never thrown a real punch suddenly squaring up
(06:31):
outside the bar with someone who has and who enjoys it,
the sporting dog that has only taken on walks and
then asked a pheasant hunt all day is just going
to suffer. Now, I've talked about the dangers of this enough,
especially in consideration with the early season and the conditions
that are so common then, so I'm not going to
get into that. But instead I want to address how
(06:51):
we can recognize that our dogs aren't up to snuff
and what we should do about it. This is easiest
to understand by comparing hunting a do into shape by
thinking about going elk hunting in the mountains as a
way for us to get in shape. Given a long
enough timeline, either could absolutely work, but the opportunity for
injury is way higher than sticking to some level of
(07:12):
exercise all year long. Our dogs need that too, and
we often convince ourselves that we are giving them enough
when we are barely scratching the surface. Think about this
in terms of step count or distance travel during the
day in the crp fields and pheasants slews, you know,
out of curiosity, my hunting buddies and I usually check
(07:33):
the stats at the end of the day just to
see how far we've gone. I've had a couple of
days for pheasants and a couple more for western species
like sharpies and prairie chickens that topped out at just
over thirty thousand steps in a day. The distance there
generally correlates too close to half marathon distance, So you know,
a shade over thirteen miles somewhere around there. Now, how
(07:56):
accurate smartphones and smart watches are on measuring this as
anyone's guests. But I know on the back end of
any one of those days, I had no trouble falling asleep,
and neither did my dogs, who without question ran farther
than I walked. Quite a few hunters have strapped a
GPS enabled collar to their dogs and have gone a
(08:16):
step further with this data, and it seems like a
general rule of thumb is that, depending on breed and conditions,
our hunting dogs will easily two or three x our
daily mileage, and they do this while being a hell
of a lot shorter, moving a hell of a lot
faster mostly, and often doing it in a hell of
a lot worse cover than we walk. That's all great
(08:48):
for framing up generalities, but what about specifics. I did
a whole episode on this two weeks ago about general
breed traits and beliefs versus what our own individuals are
and what they are capable. But it also matters in
this context as well. Our neighbors have two huskies and
they never get to go outside of their yard. I've
(09:08):
maybe seen those dogs get taken out on a walk
two or maybe three times in the last two years. Now,
if you hooked either one of those dogs up to
a sled and had them start pulling, their hearts would
explode from exertion before the scenery ever changed for the musher.
They aren't conditioned for the task, even though it's entirely
possible that they could be. Or I guess I should
(09:31):
say they could be better suited to endurance than they
currently are. No, of course, the key to canine conditioning
is the key to our conditioning consistency. Now, I probably
have to say this since I literally started this podcast
out by showing why Alaskan huskies are the undisputed kings
and queens of endurance athleticism. But here we go. They
(09:51):
are bred for the job, and a lot of them
are very good at it. They have a gene deep advantage,
and that matters. It matters with us too, although we
often get this wrong in an attempt to excuse ourselves
from not being in better shape. You know, it's pretty
common to hear people cite their own metabolism as an
excuse for not being in good shape. But I have
yet to meet anyone who's gone to the doctor for
(10:12):
a true metabolism test. We just make it up as
an excuse, and it's more comfortable to believe that we
can put on weight by merely looking at cake than
it is to count calories and realize we drink the
equivalent of a slice of cake in calories every few
hours when we are awake. The power of the mind
to protect ourselves from our true selves is bananas. And
we do this with our dogs too. So what does
(10:35):
all this mean for your English Setter or your Monster
Lander or your Golden Retriever or whatever. Well, keep them
in good shape for real. It's not enough to keep
them just at a healthy weight, although that is a
huge step in the right direction. In fact, it's a
necessary component to the whole thing. A dog that has
the body shape of a potato needs fewer calories in
(10:56):
conjunction with a proper exercise plan. The dog that is lean,
has a nice cutback by the hips, and is by
all accounts of very healthy weight has a huge start.
But not being overweight is also not necessarily proof that
a dog is conditioned well. Dogs need to run and swim,
and they need to do this consistently throughout the year,
(11:17):
otherwise they just won't be conditioned that well. The key
to this is to find the old balance between underdoing
it exercise wise and overdoing it during any given session
or hunt. Most dogs aren't in a lot of danger
of being exercised too hard in the offseason, which is
the big problem during the actual hunting season, because that's
(11:40):
the easiest scenario for us to push it too far
with them and for them to be all about overdoing
it until it has been overdone, because that's their nature. Now,
this is not something that is static over a dog's
life either. You poppy owners out there know how young
dogs go from zero to one hundred and then back
to zero in short fits and spurts. That is the
(12:03):
nature of young dogs. They play hard and then they
rest hard. Middle aged dogs are a different thing, though,
and they are much better at preserving their energy and
managing their output. The exercise needs of a twenty week
old puppy won't look anything like the needs of a
six year old dog. What will be somewhat the same
(12:23):
is that at least a few sessions of physical activity
a day over the course of many many days will
shape them into well conditioned dogs that have all kinds
of health benefits going for them. Now, if you take
your lab out twice a day every day to chase
down a bumper and work on retrieves, you'll have a
dog that is more conditioned than your average shitsu. We
(12:44):
also have a dog that is conditioned to a specific
type of exercise. That dog might tear up the game
farm pheasants in the preseason, but still crash out two
hours into a wild bird hunt, or it might get
into real trouble the first time you go from the
soccer fields to the duck boat. The birds are flying
low and slow, and your dogs really only used to
running a bunch on grass, and now it has all
(13:07):
the excitement of a duck hunt to deal with while
also dealing with the reality of having to periodically swim
and pursuit of wounded green heads. Just like with human athletes,
too much of one type of exercise can lead to
a plateau adaptive complacency, which is testament to how well
our bodies can function, to the point where the same
(13:27):
type of exertion for too long can start to lose
some of its benefits. Because our bodies learn how to
be super efficient in that regard. That shit works for
dogs too. This is why there has always been an
emphasis on aerobic and anaerobic workouts when it comes to
people getting into really good shape. Cardio and weightlifting compliment
each other and allow for us to keep tricking our
(13:49):
bodies into making progress. Crossfitters, as annoying as they can
be on social media, are generally overall more fit than
strict long distance runners, although in one category the long
distance runners will win every time, but overall fitness is different.
With dogs, adaptive complacency comes with some extra danger because
(14:10):
we might look at our dogs and you know the
fact that they can run three miles a day behind
our side by sides as we go for an evening
drive and think, well, that is a dog that is
primed and in shape sort of. But that's also a
dog that is highly conditioned for one type of exercise,
which may or may not closely prepare them for an
(14:30):
actual style of hunting. You can think about this like
you can think about just about any training drill you
might set up for your dog. Maybe you just want
your dog to learn a step in a bigger process,
like steadiness at the front end of a retrieving drill.
That's great, we also want to tie that into a
real world skill that is necessary in the field. In
(14:51):
that instance, a dog that is steady while a bumper
spins through the air and thumps on the ground is
a dog that is being trained to be a good
dove dog or a good duck dog. In addition to
the fact that steadiness is just a solid trait for
all working dogs. Now to contrast that never making a
dog weight when you're tossing a backyard bumper means you're
(15:13):
preparing a dog to run at the first whim that
tickles its smooth brain, including when you flush non target
birds like hen pheasants or some ducks fly by that
aren't on the menu and the gravity is a little
bit too much for your dog and he goes for
a swim just in case you shoot one. Anyway, conditioning
our dogs in general is great, but it's also a
(15:34):
good idea to think about conditioning them specifically for the
physical aspects of the kinds of hunts they'll actually be
asked to participate in. Just like if you do draw
that elk take you could get into some type of
better shape on an elliptical machine, but you might also
want to think about putting a backpack on, filling it
with something heavy and then hitting up the stair climber
(15:55):
because when you get to the mountains, you're going to
need that training. I'll take away on this is this,
our dogs are incredible athletes that are capable of more
than most of us can imagine. They don't come out
of the box that way, though. They need to be
molded into real athletes, and the biggest part of that
that most of us make a mistake on is assuming
(16:15):
our dogs are in way better shape than they actually
are throughout most of the year. So maybe appropriate way
to think about this is we often view our dogs
as being in good enough shape, kind of like we
do with ourselves. It's a great mindset to have if
you never need to prove it with them or yourself,
But the illusion on both ends can crumble pretty quickly
four hours into a slog through the frozen cattails or
(16:38):
out in the rolling sandhills where they are about four
sharpies per square mile of grass. Pay attention to your
dogs as you hit up these early season opportunities, and
don't forget to address their exercise needs in the off
days when you aren't in the field. This is a
habit that matters to their overall health. And it will
(16:58):
result in more birds game bag. It's just something that
you should stick to, you know, not only throughout the season,
but after the closing bell, so your dog doesn't ever
get too out of shape because you just don't want
them deconditioned, because we can fool ourselves into thinking that
they're in good shape. Leads to all kinds of problems.
(17:18):
So just think about that as you get out there
for whatever you're gonna hunt right now, think about it
throughout the year, and then think about this. Think about
coming back in two weeks because I'm going to talk
about force free training styles and balance training styles and
how their adherence to both camps, but really diving into
only one style of training might not be the best
(17:39):
option for you and your dog. That's it for this week.
I'm Tony Peterson. This has been The Houndation's podcast, which
is such a fun project for me because you guys
have shown up and you've supported me like crazy with this,
you know, Cal and I really appreciate this. It's so
fun to see the dog lovers who are also media
(18:00):
your fans come out of the woodwork. It's been great,
So thank you so much for that. If you want
some more. You know, dog training content. Maybe you're gonna
hunt some deer this fall with the family, head out
on a road trip for something. Whatever, the mediater dot
com has you covered. We drop new articles, we drop
new recipes, we drop new films, We drop a ton
(18:20):
of podcasts. Our podcast network is huge, so many good
shows on there for entertainment, education. All of it can
be found at the mediater dot com. Go check it
out and thank you once again.
Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host
Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about how fit our
dogs really are, how we can know how fit they are,
and what we should be aware of when it comes
to thinking of our dogs as athletes. Their early seasons
are here. Some of us are hunting teal or other
puddle ducks. Some of us are chasing doves. Maybe you're
(00:25):
out west somewhere chasing Sharpie's. You know, pretty soon rough
grouse and woodcock and pheasants and quail and a whole
host of waterfowl are going to be on the menu.
And it's pretty awesome. Because of this, we will ask
a lot of our dogs, though, and they might deliver,
or they might stall out, and we might wonder why
this is natural, because we often think of our dogs
(00:45):
as super athletes. But it's not so simple. And the
more that you understand about this, the better you can
treat your pup, which is what this episode is all about.
The thing that's pretty crazy about the proliferation of smartphones
is that humanity is documenting itself in a way that's
(01:06):
just bonkers. There are more pictures taken by the minute
and video footage shot by the hour than previously in
all of our history. This means there's a hell of
a lot of stills and videos of people's pets and
meals in the sunsets, and you know, the fish they
caught and selfies they took wherever, on and on. This
(01:26):
also means there's a hell of a lot of videos
of people, and by that I mean men doing really
dumb stuff, including getting into fistfights. Alcohol and egos are
the best boxing coaches out there, or I probably guess
I should say they're the best hype men. And boy
are there a lot of videos of dudes figuring out
that they aren't qualified to step into the octagon and
(01:46):
go five rounds with the middleweight champion if you know
what I mean. The amount of dudes you can watch
go from conscious to unconscious and often probably brain damaged
is unreal. I am convinced that most men have a
delusional sense of self when it comes to how tough
we are, how attractive we are, and how smart and
capable we are. Now, I can't speak for women here,
(02:08):
so it might be a human thing, but I get
the impression us why chromosome owners might not have a
monopoly on delusional self imagery. We definitely have sort of
cornered the market, and this extends beyond us as well.
When was the last time you met a dude who
has a working or a sporting dog who hasn't mostly
had NonStop praise for that dog. Not to be fair,
(02:29):
women do this too, but in a different way. A
lot of times where this can be a real problem
is when it comes to canine athleticism and what we
believe our dogs are kind of capable of right now
versus what they really are actually capable of. Now, Before
I get into what your dog is actually capable of,
I think it is a good idea to explore what
(02:49):
some dogs have been proven to be capable of because
they have the potential to be super athletes. All of
them do well, maybe not Chihuahwas or dash ounds mind you. Oh,
I guess I can't say that with certainty, and that
might come from personal bias any huski. The researchers out
there who have studied this stuff have found quite a
bit of interesting things about certain breeds in certain situations
(03:13):
that's just kind of fascinating about how good of athletes
dogs can be. Take Vo two Max as an example.
Simply put, this is a measure of maximal oxygen consumption,
which reflects respiratory, cardiovascular, and muscular efficiency during serious physical activity.
It's measured in millimeters of oxygen per kilogram of body
(03:36):
weight per minute. The higher the VO two max, the
better a creature can deliver oxygen to its muscles, which
directly translates to better endurance and performance. The average thirty
five year old man, for example, has a VO two
max around forty five millimeters per minute, while world class
(03:56):
endurance athletes like the folks who dominate sports like cycling
or cross country skiing can get up to around ninety.
The top score so far is held by a cyclist
named Oscar Spensen, who, as you probably guessed, is from Norway.
His VO two max was measured at ninety seven point five.
Now compare that with Alaskan huskies or sled dogs, which
(04:20):
have been shown to reach as high as two forty
in some extreme cases. How do they do this well?
As you can imagine, generations of breeding the best of
the best have certainly helped steer huskies in the endurance
athlete direction. Compared to other breeds. They have oversized hearts
and lungs, at least relative to their overall size. They
(04:41):
have high mitochondrial density in their muscles, which directly translates
to the production of ATP in their cells. ATP is
the molecule that power cells, particularly during times of exercise. Now,
high mitochondrial synthesis helps prevent fatigue, improves recos and supports
endurance and stamina. Huskies are literally built to run long
(05:05):
distances at relatively high speeds. Labrador retrievers in German short
hairs not so much. There's not to say that labs
and gsps aren't better athletes than your average weekend warrior
pheasant hunter, because they certainly are. They just aren't quite
the super athletes we want to think they are, although
they are capable of a hell of a lot, which
(05:26):
is where things get a little bit tricky. This hit
home with me a couple of years ago when I
had to watch my brother in law's yellow lab LENNI
is by all accounts, a dog who looks like she's
built to run. This didn't mean much to me until
I was working with her in my young lab Sadie,
and I saw Lenny take off like a cheetah on fire.
(05:46):
It was bonkers, and she might literally be the fastest
hunting dog I've ever seen in my life. I was
blown away until about five retrieves into it, when Sadie
started to outrun her to the bumper every single toss.
While Lenny is naturally fast as hell, she was so
deconditioned then that it didn't take more than a few
minutes of messing around at a local park before she
(06:08):
needed to lay down and take a rest. Now here's
what I know about a dog like her. She looks
the part, she acts the part. She will make you
believe that she con pheasant hunt all day without missing
a beat, But she can't. And I've seen that last
part in action with her too. Just like the dudes
who have never thrown a real punch suddenly squaring up
(06:31):
outside the bar with someone who has and who enjoys it,
the sporting dog that has only taken on walks and
then asked a pheasant hunt all day is just going
to suffer. Now, I've talked about the dangers of this enough,
especially in consideration with the early season and the conditions
that are so common then, so I'm not going to
get into that. But instead I want to address how
(06:51):
we can recognize that our dogs aren't up to snuff
and what we should do about it. This is easiest
to understand by comparing hunting a do into shape by
thinking about going elk hunting in the mountains as a
way for us to get in shape. Given a long
enough timeline, either could absolutely work, but the opportunity for
injury is way higher than sticking to some level of
(07:12):
exercise all year long. Our dogs need that too, and
we often convince ourselves that we are giving them enough
when we are barely scratching the surface. Think about this
in terms of step count or distance travel during the
day in the crp fields and pheasants slews, you know,
out of curiosity, my hunting buddies and I usually check
(07:33):
the stats at the end of the day just to
see how far we've gone. I've had a couple of
days for pheasants and a couple more for western species
like sharpies and prairie chickens that topped out at just
over thirty thousand steps in a day. The distance there
generally correlates too close to half marathon distance, So you know,
a shade over thirteen miles somewhere around there. Now, how
(07:56):
accurate smartphones and smart watches are on measuring this as
anyone's guests. But I know on the back end of
any one of those days, I had no trouble falling asleep,
and neither did my dogs, who without question ran farther
than I walked. Quite a few hunters have strapped a
GPS enabled collar to their dogs and have gone a
(08:16):
step further with this data, and it seems like a
general rule of thumb is that, depending on breed and conditions,
our hunting dogs will easily two or three x our
daily mileage, and they do this while being a hell
of a lot shorter, moving a hell of a lot
faster mostly, and often doing it in a hell of
a lot worse cover than we walk. That's all great
(08:48):
for framing up generalities, but what about specifics. I did
a whole episode on this two weeks ago about general
breed traits and beliefs versus what our own individuals are
and what they are capable. But it also matters in
this context as well. Our neighbors have two huskies and
they never get to go outside of their yard. I've
(09:08):
maybe seen those dogs get taken out on a walk
two or maybe three times in the last two years. Now,
if you hooked either one of those dogs up to
a sled and had them start pulling, their hearts would
explode from exertion before the scenery ever changed for the musher.
They aren't conditioned for the task, even though it's entirely
possible that they could be. Or I guess I should
(09:31):
say they could be better suited to endurance than they
currently are. No, of course, the key to canine conditioning
is the key to our conditioning consistency. Now, I probably
have to say this since I literally started this podcast
out by showing why Alaskan huskies are the undisputed kings
and queens of endurance athleticism. But here we go. They
(09:51):
are bred for the job, and a lot of them
are very good at it. They have a gene deep advantage,
and that matters. It matters with us too, although we
often get this wrong in an attempt to excuse ourselves
from not being in better shape. You know, it's pretty
common to hear people cite their own metabolism as an
excuse for not being in good shape. But I have
yet to meet anyone who's gone to the doctor for
(10:12):
a true metabolism test. We just make it up as
an excuse, and it's more comfortable to believe that we
can put on weight by merely looking at cake than
it is to count calories and realize we drink the
equivalent of a slice of cake in calories every few
hours when we are awake. The power of the mind
to protect ourselves from our true selves is bananas. And
we do this with our dogs too. So what does
(10:35):
all this mean for your English Setter or your Monster
Lander or your Golden Retriever or whatever. Well, keep them
in good shape for real. It's not enough to keep
them just at a healthy weight, although that is a
huge step in the right direction. In fact, it's a
necessary component to the whole thing. A dog that has
the body shape of a potato needs fewer calories in
(10:56):
conjunction with a proper exercise plan. The dog that is lean,
has a nice cutback by the hips, and is by
all accounts of very healthy weight has a huge start.
But not being overweight is also not necessarily proof that
a dog is conditioned well. Dogs need to run and swim,
and they need to do this consistently throughout the year,
(11:17):
otherwise they just won't be conditioned that well. The key
to this is to find the old balance between underdoing
it exercise wise and overdoing it during any given session
or hunt. Most dogs aren't in a lot of danger
of being exercised too hard in the offseason, which is
the big problem during the actual hunting season, because that's
(11:40):
the easiest scenario for us to push it too far
with them and for them to be all about overdoing
it until it has been overdone, because that's their nature. Now,
this is not something that is static over a dog's
life either. You poppy owners out there know how young
dogs go from zero to one hundred and then back
to zero in short fits and spurts. That is the
(12:03):
nature of young dogs. They play hard and then they
rest hard. Middle aged dogs are a different thing, though,
and they are much better at preserving their energy and
managing their output. The exercise needs of a twenty week
old puppy won't look anything like the needs of a
six year old dog. What will be somewhat the same
(12:23):
is that at least a few sessions of physical activity
a day over the course of many many days will
shape them into well conditioned dogs that have all kinds
of health benefits going for them. Now, if you take
your lab out twice a day every day to chase
down a bumper and work on retrieves, you'll have a
dog that is more conditioned than your average shitsu. We
(12:44):
also have a dog that is conditioned to a specific
type of exercise. That dog might tear up the game
farm pheasants in the preseason, but still crash out two
hours into a wild bird hunt, or it might get
into real trouble the first time you go from the
soccer fields to the duck boat. The birds are flying
low and slow, and your dogs really only used to
running a bunch on grass, and now it has all
(13:07):
the excitement of a duck hunt to deal with while
also dealing with the reality of having to periodically swim
and pursuit of wounded green heads. Just like with human athletes,
too much of one type of exercise can lead to
a plateau adaptive complacency, which is testament to how well
our bodies can function, to the point where the same
(13:27):
type of exertion for too long can start to lose
some of its benefits. Because our bodies learn how to
be super efficient in that regard. That shit works for
dogs too. This is why there has always been an
emphasis on aerobic and anaerobic workouts when it comes to
people getting into really good shape. Cardio and weightlifting compliment
each other and allow for us to keep tricking our
(13:49):
bodies into making progress. Crossfitters, as annoying as they can
be on social media, are generally overall more fit than
strict long distance runners, although in one category the long
distance runners will win every time, but overall fitness is different.
With dogs, adaptive complacency comes with some extra danger because
(14:10):
we might look at our dogs and you know the
fact that they can run three miles a day behind
our side by sides as we go for an evening
drive and think, well, that is a dog that is
primed and in shape sort of. But that's also a
dog that is highly conditioned for one type of exercise,
which may or may not closely prepare them for an
(14:30):
actual style of hunting. You can think about this like
you can think about just about any training drill you
might set up for your dog. Maybe you just want
your dog to learn a step in a bigger process,
like steadiness at the front end of a retrieving drill.
That's great, we also want to tie that into a
real world skill that is necessary in the field. In
(14:51):
that instance, a dog that is steady while a bumper
spins through the air and thumps on the ground is
a dog that is being trained to be a good
dove dog or a good duck dog. In addition to
the fact that steadiness is just a solid trait for
all working dogs. Now to contrast that never making a
dog weight when you're tossing a backyard bumper means you're
(15:13):
preparing a dog to run at the first whim that
tickles its smooth brain, including when you flush non target
birds like hen pheasants or some ducks fly by that
aren't on the menu and the gravity is a little
bit too much for your dog and he goes for
a swim just in case you shoot one. Anyway, conditioning
our dogs in general is great, but it's also a
(15:34):
good idea to think about conditioning them specifically for the
physical aspects of the kinds of hunts they'll actually be
asked to participate in. Just like if you do draw
that elk take you could get into some type of
better shape on an elliptical machine, but you might also
want to think about putting a backpack on, filling it
with something heavy and then hitting up the stair climber
(15:55):
because when you get to the mountains, you're going to
need that training. I'll take away on this is this,
our dogs are incredible athletes that are capable of more
than most of us can imagine. They don't come out
of the box that way, though. They need to be
molded into real athletes, and the biggest part of that
that most of us make a mistake on is assuming
(16:15):
our dogs are in way better shape than they actually
are throughout most of the year. So maybe appropriate way
to think about this is we often view our dogs
as being in good enough shape, kind of like we
do with ourselves. It's a great mindset to have if
you never need to prove it with them or yourself,
But the illusion on both ends can crumble pretty quickly
four hours into a slog through the frozen cattails or
(16:38):
out in the rolling sandhills where they are about four
sharpies per square mile of grass. Pay attention to your
dogs as you hit up these early season opportunities, and
don't forget to address their exercise needs in the off
days when you aren't in the field. This is a
habit that matters to their overall health. And it will
(16:58):
result in more birds game bag. It's just something that
you should stick to, you know, not only throughout the season,
but after the closing bell, so your dog doesn't ever
get too out of shape because you just don't want
them deconditioned, because we can fool ourselves into thinking that
they're in good shape. Leads to all kinds of problems.
(17:18):
So just think about that as you get out there
for whatever you're gonna hunt right now, think about it
throughout the year, and then think about this. Think about
coming back in two weeks because I'm going to talk
about force free training styles and balance training styles and
how their adherence to both camps, but really diving into
only one style of training might not be the best
(17:39):
option for you and your dog. That's it for this week.
I'm Tony Peterson. This has been The Houndation's podcast, which
is such a fun project for me because you guys
have shown up and you've supported me like crazy with this,
you know, Cal and I really appreciate this. It's so
fun to see the dog lovers who are also media
(18:00):
your fans come out of the woodwork. It's been great,
So thank you so much for that. If you want
some more. You know, dog training content. Maybe you're gonna
hunt some deer this fall with the family, head out
on a road trip for something. Whatever, the mediater dot
com has you covered. We drop new articles, we drop
new recipes, we drop new films, We drop a ton
(18:20):
of podcasts. Our podcast network is huge, so many good
shows on there for entertainment, education. All of it can
be found at the mediater dot com. Go check it
out and thank you once again.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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