Every competitive dog handler faces a crucial balancing act: maximizing performance while preserving their canine athlete's long-term wellbeing. This eye-opening conversation with small animal physiotherapist Mel challenges conventional wisdom about training and recovery for sports dogs.
"Your dog only has so many jumps in their lifetime." This simple yet profound statement forms the foundation of our discussion, exploring how recovery isn't just about rest, but about strategic rehabilitation that allows muscle fibers to repair and strengthen properly. Mel reveals the surprising truth that many handlers unwittingly compromise their dogs' recovery by misunderstanding what proper post-competition care looks like.
We dive deep into designing the ideal training week between competitions, creating a bell curve of intensity that peaks mid-week rather than continuously pushing our dogs. You'll discover why Monday should be a genuine recovery day, how to incorporate skills training, conditioning, and sprint work in a balanced schedule, and why travel itself creates significant physical and mental stress that needs accounting for.
Perhaps most surprising is the revelation that muscle building doesn't require extensive free running - contrary to popular belief, controlled exercises that recruit specific muscles correctly can be far more effective than unstructured activity. This "fit without kit" approach emphasizes quality over quantity and simplicity over fancy equipment.
Whether you're competing every weekend through the season or selectively targeting specific shows, this conversation will transform how you plan your training, recovery, and competition schedule. Your dogs will thank you with longer, healthier, and ultimately more successful competitive careers.
Tune in next week for Part II!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lauren Langman (00:09):
Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sexier than a
Squirrel podcast.
I'm Lauren Langman.
I'm one of the world's leadingdog trainers and it's my mission
to help owners become theirdog's top priority.
In each episode, you'lldiscover how to gain trust and
communicate with your dog likenever before, creating
unbreakable bonds that make youthe most exciting part of their
world.
Okay, so, mel, I'm joined by,obviously, the wonderful Mel.
(00:33):
Mel, you are, in fact,introduce yourself.
What are you?
What do you do on a day-to-daybasis?
You're a physio to me.
You're the brilliant Mel who Igrab at shows and I go, mel,
help feel this.
And you're like, oh dear lord,stop panicking.
And what do you do for a living?
What do you do day to day?
How do you spend your days?
I know you love what you do andyou get to do that every day of
the week.
Tell us about it.
Mel Doyle (00:56):
So I'm a small animal physio, so I don't treat large
animals.
I specialize purely in smallanimals and pretty much 99
percent being dogs.
I also do hydrotherapy as well,so but I see that as all
encompassing really.
So hydro physio is allintegrated.
I've got sort of an integratedservice land based, water based,
(01:18):
the whole, the whole package,and that's really what I've been
doing probably for the last 13years now really, um have my own
clinic at home, um my ownunderwater treadmill, um, and
yeah, and treat a variety ofdogs sports dogs, um rehab cases
(01:41):
, post-surgery elderly dogs, um,and I love doing it all because
it all brings somethingdifferent and you're absolutely
brilliant at it.
Lauren Langman (01:50):
Now, we were talking only the other day and
it really blew my brain.
I was like, oh my god, Iactually I think we need to do a
podcast on this, because I'vebeen in dogs all my life, so
I've I've um sort of dreamt ofof the job that I do.
Um, since I was probably abouttwo, like, I've always dreamt of
doing what I do and I feel likeI know a lot about it.
I feel like I'm an expert in myfield.
And yet you sometimes look downand you're like, oh my God, I'm
(02:13):
just on the top of the iceberghere.
Like this is just scary.
I'm right at the tip.
And that was one of thosemoments where we had this
conversation.
I was like hang on a second,let's backtrack here.
I think we've got trouble.
And we were talking rest, wewere talking recovery, we were
talking rehab, we were talkinghow to plan a week out, and I
think it's really important thatwe touch base on this Now.
Today, we're going to primarilyfocus on sports talks, because
(02:35):
I think that that is exactlywhat we were talking about when
we obviously had theconversation and it really, for
me, it was almost a trigger, buta good trigger.
It was like, oh my God.
And so I was like quite shockedby it, to be honest, and at the
same time, I always feel likeI'm fairly knowledgeable.
And yet what you were tellingme was like throwing like what I
(02:55):
understood to be true orcorrect.
And yet I'm not saying thatthere's always like a one way
and all the highways.
And you're very good at this,you're very good at like working
with what's in front of you,but I do think it'd be really
lovely to share with ourlisteners.
So if you're up for that, um,that's what I'd love to do.
Yeah, your game.
So, basically, let's start withthe idea that you've got a week
(03:17):
now.
We've got a week now we'retalking agility.
Agility is our sport and we'regoing to talk a competition week
, so we're competing.
Typically, let's go with theweekend we've just had.
So we've just been in Scotland.
I've been competing in Scotland, mad I know and it was a
gorgeous weekend.
There was loads of sun andfantastic.
We competed on the Saturday andwe competed on the Sunday.
(03:37):
Now how does our following weeklook in the ideal life of a dog
and I know there's sometimes thechildren to balance the husband
, the dinners, the work, thetreadmill, that all the other
things.
But with the best week in theworld and the best will in the
world, how does that ideal nextweek look?
Because we finished competingon a Sunday?
Let's say, like us, you'recrazy enough to drive home when
(03:58):
you're home on the Sunday night.
We got home about midnight, um,and so that was good going then
, wasn't it?
I thought the same.
We got home about midnight.
That was good going then.
It was good going, wasn't it?
I thought the same.
We got home about midnight.
It might have been about 12.30,but it was pretty good.
And all the dogs went out andwe got straight back upstairs
into bed done, everyone asleep,and so it was good.
And we got up the next morningand took Liza to school at seven
(04:18):
, so it was definitely a rockand roll.
But when we get back and westart our next day at 7am, how
does that look for a competitiondog?
How can we design our week?
How can we make sure we'redoing all the right things by
them?
And for me, this was my wake upbecause I was like rock and
roll.
Back to training or back to, um, maybe a swim or maybe a water,
treadmill or all the otherthings.
(04:39):
You were like uh, uh, uh, uh,hang on, a second, langman, get
back here.
And you kind of build me backin like a little fish and I kind
of went.
So, yeah, tell us how it mightlook.
Mel Doyle (04:50):
So I think it's really important that you know
we think of things in particularlike competition and we can
sort of look at as well whathuman athletes do, and that's
sort of again sort of where alot of the sort of canine world
is sort of, because the researchis done in humans and although,
yes, we've got a quadrupedversus a biped, their physical,
(05:11):
physiological systems are very,are very, similar.
So we've got that to work on.
So it's really important.
You think we've been throughreally high stresses at
competition and this weekend waslike one of the planes taking
off like 200 yards from the ring, landing crow scarers.
I mean there was loads goingoff and that's just the mental
(05:34):
impact for the dogs as well.
But physically, we had somegrass rings, we had some sand
rings, we had some hard sand, wehad some softer, deeper sand
where some of the larger dogsrun through.
Now all those things are goingto have different impacts on the
body.
Obviously, running contacts,now everything is so quick.
We've got skills at speed asmassive inputs into the dog's
(05:57):
body that we have to sort ofbalance out.
So it's really important thatthose little traumas that the
dog's body has gone throughthrough the competition and this
also does apply to sometraining as well, depending upon
what training you're doing thatwe give the body time to
rebuild and recover and allow itto become back to normal again,
(06:20):
normal again.
Um, those muscle fibers thathave had micro trauma, um, they
need good nutrition, they needgood hydration, they need all
these things to rebuild and weneed a quiet day the next day.
So for me that if it's acompeting saturday, sunday,
monday is, uh, we do very littleday um, I'm writing questions
as we speak.
Lauren Langman (06:40):
I'm literally writing things, so I'm like
quick, I've already gotquestions, but keep going.
So monday, it's quite.
I think we should just explainthe venue.
The venue was a close to anairport, wasn't it?
Mel Doyle (06:48):
so the venue yes, which is what you're saying is
actually highly stressful for alot of very, very stressful even
if they, even if I don't, evenif they don't actually show it,
it's still massive and it'sdifferent, very different.
It's my first time I've everbeen there, so it was really new
for me, but it's massivelydifferent to even a typical show
environment.
(07:09):
So, um, and then you've gotsome shows where you've got four
rings, where it's really quietand hardly anything, and then
you've got like the likes of thereally big shows that we have
here in the UK.
I mean, even Wallingford was 16rings.
You know, it's just crazy.
There's so much going on.
So, yeah, so Monday would be alighter way so you said you said
a rest day.
Lauren Langman (07:29):
Now I think it's really important we consider
what rest looks like fordifferent people and different
animals and different dogs andpeople's perspective.
And I'm going to give you aperspective here because I
remember, probably about sevenor eight years ago, maybe longer
, having um a client's dogspayed and the um, I bet, said,
uh, just go um straight back toum, uh exercise, a normal
(07:54):
exercise um within like fivedays and the woman had the dog
out like doing um canny crossand like running with the dog
because in her mind that waslead work and I think that's
really important to acknowledge,like what is the perspective of
rest?
So what does rest look like,mel for?
Mel Doyle (08:10):
you.
So rest for me will includethings like um having a quiet
environment, having um writingthem down, by the way yeah, um,
my, I apologize for the noise,because my dog has just decided
to now chew the ear that I gaveher when we started this, which
(08:32):
she didn't want, but now she'snow doing it.
So is it now?
Absolutely had to be now,didn't it?
Lauren Langman (08:38):
um and um would be good something to chew yes,
so something to chew.
Mel Doyle (08:43):
Again, nutritional input as well, because the body
needs good protein in order torepair itself, um, so that's
really important.
Whatever format the, thenutrition takes is, is fine, but
nutrition is really important.
Again, hydration as well,because without those things the
body's got no fuel to repairitself.
(09:04):
So it needs the fuel in orderto sort of facilitate those.
So, yeah, something like umalong you know chew, or a phil
kong or something like that, orphil bone is quite nice, um, for
me it might be a gentle leadwalk as well.
So it's important to havemovement and rest shouldn't be
just sleep in your bed all dayand don't do anything, because,
(09:27):
um, particularly the sport thatwe're talking about, mainly
agility, you know you get, Imean, if we know it, if we've
gone and done a lot of exercise,we get lactic acid build up and
it's really important that wetry and clear that lactic acid
from the body, because that'swhat gives that delayed onset
muscle soreness that you feel.
You you know that achy feelingthat you when you've done a lot
of hard work, and we canmitigate that by using some.
(09:48):
I mean, I would use someelectrotherapy treatments to
help with that.
But actually movement is alsokey as well to that.
So you know, light, gentle leadwork is good.
You know lots of sniffs, itmight be on whatever you choose.
In a long line, if you've got adog that just mooch, but if
(10:09):
you've got a dog that just wantsto race, it might be a shorter
lead, um, but it's about keepingthings quite calm, quiet and
just allow everything to settleback down and recover, basically
both sort of mentally andphysically so loads of good
things that you mentioned there,and one of the things that I
was going to ask you about wasI've got quite a nice size
garden.
Lauren Langman (10:30):
Is that appropriate or is that not
appropriate when we think aboutrest time?
Because I think you gave somequite nice clarifications,
because it may or may not be,depending on how the dog behaves
in the garden.
So what would you say in termsof a garden?
Mel Doyle (10:41):
Yeah, so if the dog's going out and mooching the
garden, I think what I said toyou was if they're going to be
bouncing vertical bouncingbecause they want to see
something going on, or they'regoing to race up and down
because they want to see, youknow, hear something that's not
rest, you know, if they go outin the garden they have a lay in
the sun.
They're going to mooch around,having a sniff, maybe some
scatter feeding or somethinglike that, to just allow them to
(11:02):
mentally decompress as well asphysically.
Keep moving to allow the bodyto recover is good.
But certainly I wouldn't becanny crossing, I wouldn't be
going out with um where the dogsare racing.
You know have multiple dogsracing around together, um, so I
wouldn't have mine out in thegarden where they're running
around, playing chase andeverything else like that.
They'd go out on their own um.
(11:24):
My spaniel does like tovertically bounce if she's um,
you know, quite aroused.
So I would be making sure thatI would not allow those things
to happen.
But still allow movement, allowcalmness, allow um her to
decompress from the weekend yeah, so, so great stuff.
Lauren Langman (11:41):
Now, if you're thinking about having, for
example, treatment because oneof the things I often think is
I've got to fit in treatment forthe dogs, and often the day
after the treatment the dogs arethen rested as well, so they
they have treatment one day andthen they have a calm day or a
lower impact day.
Would a monday be a good day tohave a trip if they were going
to have like a, um, a treatmentfrom someone like you as a
(12:01):
physio, or would that be betteron a Tuesday or Wednesday or
Thursday or Friday?
Where do you put that in?
Mel Doyle (12:07):
yeah, so well, and again, it depends what you've
got going on the followingweekend as well, because again,
this was something else wetalked about.
You know, um, if I've got noshow on the the following
weekend, then I might, my weekmight extend slightly, so I
might do some light skillstraining on the Tuesday and then
maybe Wednesday slightly moreintense, then Thursday I might
(12:28):
have again a quiet day.
I might do some land based work.
Friday I might train again andthen Saturday I might treadmill.
But if I've got so, like youknow, talking about the
professionals, like we did, youknow it's trying to tailor the
time of day as well.
So for me, if you've got thingsyou want to do say you want to
do some skills training andyou've got a professional to see
(12:52):
that same day, then do theprofessional later on in the day
and whatever else you want todo, whether that be treadmill,
skills work, fitness work in themorning, whether that be
treadmill skills work, fitnesswork in the morning, because if
you see the professional in themorning it knocks the rest of
your day out, because the dogshould have some quiet, calm
recovery time after thattreatment to allow the best work
(13:13):
from that treatment.
Otherwise you're sort of you'retreating in one respect, but
then you're sort of negating alittle bit by overdoing other
things afterwards.
Lauren Langman (13:25):
Yeah, it makes complete sense.
I'm still taking myself somenotes.
I'm loving it.
Um, and so the other thing youtalked about was like, um,
potentially like damaged musclefibers and then re um, building
those muscle fibers and actuallydamage being just part of
working them, and like thosemining, like micro traumas, I
think you called them, and butthose types of things like tell
me more about that well, inorder to build muscle and to
(13:48):
strengthen the muscle, we haveto traumatize it in a way as
well.
Mel Doyle (13:53):
So, in order to allow it to grow and get better, we
add some trauma by basically, um, whatever, whether we're doing
some treadmill work, we might bepushing, we might be doing some
inclines Again, it depends onthe dog and what stage they're
at Actually to physically pushthem and push them to fatigue,
because that's when we then growmuscle.
What's important is what followsthat session is time for that
(14:17):
muscle to recover and repairitself, to become stronger.
If we don't allow it time torecover and repair itself,
excuse me, um, to becomestronger, if we don't allow it
time to recover and repairitself, to become stronger, and
we then tax that muscle andcause more microtrauma the
second day, then we're going tomake the small microtraumas
gradually accumulate and becomea bigger one, and then we're
more susceptible to injury.
(14:37):
That's when we get likeoverloading, overtraining, um,
and more injuries will probablyhappen as a result of it.
So it it's a massive taskbecause you found out when we
were talking about it to balanceout the week with competition,
get the skills training that youwant in, get some treadmill
work, get a professionalinvolved.
(14:57):
Everything is is is reallydifficult.
Lauren Langman (15:01):
And then compete the next weekend.
Because, yes, typically my, mysummer goes from probably middle
of october sorry, middle ofapril through to middle of
october, pretty much everyweekend in.
In, in a nutshell, you mightget the odd weekend off.
And I'm now looking, thinking,well, actually I'm going to a
competition this weekend.
I'm like maybe I shouldn't goto that competition.
So you start to like questionwhich ones you should go to,
(15:23):
maybe start to be a little bitmore selective, which, again, I
think is good.
I don't think that's a badthing, I think it's just a bit
of a wake-up to it that youhadn't really woken up to before
.
And then there's that moment offeeling like you might be
letting your.
There's that I should be hereand because you've always been
(15:45):
there.
So there's those feelings aswell.
So if we were to go ahead andplan our perfect week, mel, how
might that look?
And I'm going to give you anexample and a scenario of purely
selfishly here, because this isa scenario.
And so we've just been toScotland, we're going to
Nottingham at the weekend.
We've got five days now well,less than because we're already
part way in, but let's go fromthe Monday.
(16:07):
We want to fit in.
I'm going to give you the list.
This is the wish list.
We want to fit in aprofessional at some point.
The professional is probablygoing to be body work, because I
don't have anyone that works inthe treadmill like you do,
other than, obviously, our ownteam in-house, which is a
learning progress space for allof us.
Um, matt is great, isn't he inthe treadmill, matt?
He is, he's employable, right,mel?
(16:29):
absolutely, yes, you're not whatam I like in the treadmill?
How fast do I want to do it allso fast?
You're like slow down, lauren,don't push so hard.
And I'm like go, go, go, go, go.
Um.
So, yeah, definitely, I'm not atreadmill girl, I'm not a
triple girl.
Jamie and Matt fantastictreadmill girls and boys.
(16:52):
Um, and so, mel, when we'rethinking about that week, I want
to fit in the professional.
I want to fit in a session onthe treadmill with Matt or with
Jamie.
I would like to fit in theprofessional.
I want to fit in a session onthe treadmill with matt or with
jamie.
I would like to fit in someland base.
I would like to fit in sometraining and I might need a pen
for all of this I know this iswhat we're gonna have to.
(17:12):
I'm setting you home here.
I would also love to fit insome walking on lead and off
lead, because I quite like to doa bit of both.
Um, I think that's my wish list.
So, the professional, thetreadmill, oh, if there was time
(17:33):
, a swim as well.
But this is where I struggle,and obviously we are leaving on
the Friday.
I'm gonna have to get a pen too.
My phone's just died, um, butwe are leaving as well on the
Friday, so we leave on theFriday, we leave.
So Friday is typically a travelday for us.
So, yeah, we've got aprofessional, we've got a land
(17:55):
base, we've got our um watertreadmill, we've got our swim,
we've got our um and obviously,enrichment and garden times
happening anyway.
So those are all happeninganyway.
But where do we start when itcomes to designing that week?
Like, how does that week look?
Mel Doyle (18:12):
okay, so the dogs we're talking about, are they
competing on saturday and sundayor just saturday or just sunday
, because that has an impact aswell.
I've got two that are competingboth days and I've got one that
is only going to do one class onSunday.
Ok, so the one that's doing theone on Sunday, that gives you a
(18:40):
little bit longer because youdon't have to think about
backtracking.
So for me I would backtrackfrom the weekend that we're
working towards and go right, sowe need to come backwards from
that.
So the one that's on the sundayyou could probably do um, like
a treadmill session on thethursday afternoon, um, which
(19:02):
would leave friday, saturday,free for acclimatization from
that activity, um, so that wouldbe thursday, and then I would
typically look at tuesday,wednesdays, being my training,
like agility training days.
Um t Tuesday, probably alighter session, so because
(19:23):
they've had Monday as a rest day, back on a Tuesday, possibly
lighter.
So it might be some very simpleskills, just on one jump or two
jumps, and then Wednesday,slightly a higher intensity of
you know.
So it might be.
You might do then maybe somerunning, dog walks.
You know, know, dog running,dog walks into weaves, because
then you're looking at massiveacceleration to decel, to
(19:44):
turning.
So it's really, reallychallenging on the body.
So that would then be theWednesday for that type of thing
.
So a Tuesday.
Wednesday would be myactivities.
I would probably do thetraining in the morning and then
have land-based sessions andlead walks in the afternoon.
Yeah, and Friday would be againa quiet day, but then most of
(20:10):
the time we're travelling.
But something else I did want totalk about was travelling.
I think sometimes we don'tappreciate how big an impact
actually travelling has on ourdogs, even when they're in the
vehicle, that they know witheverything's calm and quiet.
Um, there have been so muchthought into human athletes when
(20:30):
they travel to majorcompetitions actually, that
traveling two to three daysbefore the competition isn't
enough to for peak performance.
And then again that's sort oftalking for peak performance.
And when we're talking aboutgeneral weekend to weekend
through the agility year, I meanthere was a time where we
couldn't do the amount of showsthat we have.
(20:50):
Now it has become morechallenging for us to manage
because of how much there isavailable to us.
Um, and so we have to.
We do have to be a little bitselective and no matter what we
do, our dogs cannot be at theirpeak performance from mid-april
to october.
It's just not possible.
(21:12):
They will physically not beable to manage it.
So we have to actually manageit a little bit for them and
almost like what are our goals?
And the difficulty is when youhave like you've had champ this
weekend, you've got champ nextweekend, you've got champ the
weekend after, you've got champthe weekend after that, so we've
got like four weekends on thetrot of championship shows.
Lauren Langman (21:31):
Olympia novice, like there's a lot, isn't there.
There's a lot.
Yeah, you get to do and and itis like a I feel some days like
a kid in a sweet shop, like I'mlike there's so many things that
I want and yet you also knowthat you probably can't have the
, the like jelly worms and thefizzy, fizzy strawberries and
the fried eggs and the chocolatecovered.
You know what that?
(21:52):
And that's sometimes whatyou're trying to do.
You're trying to go in thereand try and have it all and
actually you do need to be alittle bit more selective and
say, actually for this dog, thisdog's seven or eight or nine,
or this dog's um, like in didhave a I don't know an injury
last year and I want to be awareof that.
Or this dog's still young andstill building up, there's no, I
don't get many times where Ithink this dog is just flipping
(22:13):
perfect.
You don't get many times whereI think this dog is just
flipping perfect.
You don't get many times thereis nothing wrong, everything is
kosher, life is good.
Let's stay like this.
There's often something anyway,there's a niggle or there's
something that you're working on.
I think that's just the natureof a sports dog and a finely
tuned eye.
Mel Doyle (22:28):
Absolutely.
And the more driven, the morethe sport pushes for speed, the
more those things are going tohappen.
Because we, we're looking tohave our athletes performing and
they are, you know, highlydriven and have less
self-preservation and they arejust all about the go.
(22:52):
They're all about performingand they're not going to think
about what they're doing totheir bodies.
You know, and you're very goodat, if they're all about
performing and they're not goingto think about what they're
doing to their bodies, you knowand you're very good at, if
they're eliminated and you'renot going to get anything more
from it taking them out, whycarry on?
Why risk anything more thanwhat you need to?
Lauren Langman (23:07):
um, that's a really interesting one, mel,
because a lot of times peoplehave come up to me and gone why
did you take her out?
And I'm like, like as if I'mbeing cruel, as if I'm being a
bad person, and I'm like, no, no, she's having a great time and
I'm very happy with her.
There's nothing I'm unhappywith.
I'll even do it in likechammerings, like you've seen me
.
I do it.
I don't, I don't care wherewhich ring I'm in.
Um, I'll complete on something Ithink the dog's successful at,
(23:29):
seesaw, for example, and off Igo um and for me that is.
That is okay.
But I think there's thisexpectation of the world to say
this is the way it should bedone, and there's almost like an
etiquette that it might beconsidered as rude to not stay
there, but I feel like it's mydog that I want to be um, like
to and kind to, and I don'treally mind the etiquette of the
(23:52):
judge.
I always say thank you, Ialways say I appreciate the
course.
But I think you're right,there's only so many jumps in a
dog right and under.
Absolutely do any more.
Mel Doyle (23:59):
Yeah yeah, and I think sometimes that there's
saying that just because we candoesn't mean we should, you know
.
So just because we can run awhole course doesn't mean we
should if we're not going toachieve something we want out of
it.
You know, know, or you knowthey've been eliminated in a
champ class and they're nine,why would you carry on if you're
(24:20):
not gonna, you know, want topreserve your dog for the next
run?
You know, and that's just.
I think it's something that we,we really do need to pay more
attention to, and it is becomingmuch more aware about those
things, you know.
But there are, like you say,there are still people going.
(24:40):
Why did you do that?
You know, and I'm thinking well, why wouldn't you do that?
That just makes complete sense.
You know, if a dog has a falloff a dog walk I must admit and
I apologise if anyone's I havethe it makes me worry so much
when they put them back over it,when they've fallen off from
the middle plank and it's badly.
I'm like the dogs are full ofadrenaline.
They are not going to feel theimpact of the fall that they've
(25:02):
just had.
It will be, and I'm sure we canall, as human beings know we've
fought.
Yeah, we've fallen over.
Yeah, it'll be the next day,but it'll also be the second day
that you will probably feelreally sore.
Lauren Langman (25:20):
I recently fell over, I went over a tunnel and
it was three to four days beforeI actually felt not sore.
And that's the thing is.
You'll sit down and for me, Ialways know like I always dread
and I know this probably soundsOCD, but I always dread getting
out of the vehicle after I'vecome home or after I've been on
a big training session.
Because I know, although I'vewarmed them up and cooled them
(25:42):
down and done all the rightthings, I know if there's going
to be any unsoundness, I'lloften see it there, where
they've had like a period ofrest, yeah, or a period of um,
which is why I actually reallylike doing training days at home
here, because we've got a lotof space to warm them up, cool
them down and they don't have togo in a crate afterwards.
My dogs can wander around thehouse or wherever I'm going to
put them up the work yard andgarden, wherever they're going
to go um, because I do thinksometimes it's that period of
(26:05):
immediate rest.
After that you'll see them getup with a level of stiffness.
But you're right, it's notoften, if it's not going to be
in that moment, they're stillpainful three or four days later
, um, but you didn't know it inthat moment and what you just
did was put them over that dogwalk again yeah, and even if you
can't visibly see that they'repainful, they will be muscle
soreness.
Mel Doyle (26:23):
So if you know that they've had a fall, a slip or
they've twisted in a tunnel,then I I would be accounting for
that and going right.
We are having a really quietthree to four days here to make
sure I mean, obviously I do itmyself and my own dogs, but all
(26:43):
getting somebody in to have afeel, to do some work if they
need it on them, to help themget through it, use
electrotherapies if need be tohelp boost that recovery process
.
Because if we don't recognizethat'm on notes again yeah, if
we, if we don't recognize that,and then we go and do some
training or you know, andtraining days are probably more
physically demanding thancompetition, you know, most,
(27:06):
like I say, goes that you haveyou're looking at sort of five
to six minutes of intensive,intensive work and I mean you
know I am, if I've gone on trainday, if I think I've had enough
, I'm like no more.
Even if I haven't had my time,I'm like nope, that's it, we're
done, because I want to makesure that I've got them for the
next session or the next week orthe next month.
Lauren Langman (27:31):
Or let's go with the next 15 years, right?
And I think that's importantbecause I know you, without
either of us getting upset, youlost an older dog and she looked
fantastic right to the last day, and I think the same with mine
, I think the same like Poppy,to the day I lost her looked fit
and healthy.
She looked fit and healthy andI think for me that's such a
privilege and a pleasure to havea dog who still looks great as
(27:54):
they reach their senior years.
And I know that you, you takehuge pride in how good your dog
looks, and I don't know aboutyou, but I always think about
mileage in a dog, like, Iactually think my dog is a quite
low mileage and I think of,like my vehicles, um, my van is
quite high mileage, um, my dogis quite low mileage and that's
the way I'd like to keep it nowthat I want my dog to be low
(28:15):
mileage, um, that's the way I'dlike to keep it now that I want
my dog mileage, um.
So now, one thing we didn'tmention was in our plan for the
week and I'm going to runthrough this plan for because
there really isn't enough timeand I know that this is what
we're going to come out with ina minute, um is, there isn't
enough time.
But one of the things that yousaid I need to add into my
program, which I struggle on, issprint training.
Now I struggle for a fewreasons on sprint training or
(28:37):
off-leash work because I'mparanoid.
I have a very hyper, busy dogwho I love her off-leash.
I don't have any recallstruggles or problems like that,
but I feel like I need toprotect her from the world
because she will spring offbanks.
Or you've been on our laneBowen Lane is beautiful.
You're walking along the laneand you think the lane is really
safe.
She could only be on the laneand you're gonna see if it's
(28:57):
because it's a one way, it's aone track road and I've got
great recall.
However, you'd hope um, andhowever, she's on the top of the
bank.
She's leaping across the bank.
She's jumping across.
There's like she's just nutsand I'm like I need to take full
responsibility for you becauseyou take none for yourself.
She's like owning a lemming.
I feel like.
I feel like she has a strongwill to die and I feel like she
(29:21):
would jump off, like, and I feelI feel like there's a massive
responsibility with that now.
Then the second one I waswalking across yesterday and our
pony got out of the field onlya few weeks ago and, um, he
galloped across the yard.
He undid his own gates and thengalloped and I know you saw the
video and then galloped across.
But he left a few divots and sosince then I haven't wanted to
(29:41):
let them in that field because Ineed to get them filled um and
then rolled um, and I findmyself becoming very paranoid
about the ground they're on andalso the ability to sprint like
I want them to sprint.
But I'm also careful thatthey're sports dogs and that
carpus and or carpal injuries or, um, sort of slight sprains,
you know how quick they happenor how quickly they happen.
You know how long they take torecover.
(30:01):
What would be yourrecommendations on sprinting and
off-leash work?
When would that be best tohappen?
Because we've come back off ashow on a sunday.
Is it a good thing to do it?
Maybe sunday night, mondaymorning, monday daytime?
Is it better to do it whenwe're doing our Wednesday
training day?
Is it better to not do it, todo it on?
The other option I've got ismaybe a flexi lead, and I know
that flexi leads aren't liked,but they give her a bit more
(30:22):
range without me having a onlead or off lead, so they kind
of give me a bridge in a safespace.
What would be yourrecommendations on off leash?
Mel Doyle (30:32):
and, like I said, it's not about controlling her,
it's about safe off leash yeah,stopping her from being crazy
and hurting herself, yeah, um, Imean, you know we sort of
talked about, I think, the flexilead is a good option, because
it gives more than just a shortlead but prevents her from being
on the top of bank and leapingoff, because you can, you know,
manage it a little bit easier.
(30:53):
Um, but we talked about usingthe arena for sprinting as well,
so you don't need to worry somuch about, um, what the ground
undulations are like and, likeyou say, about the little divots
that could be in the fieldbecause of said horse galloping
across the field.
Um, so, but and it's, sprintwork doesn't have to be um with
(31:18):
a turn, because we talked about,you know, just doing it
straight.
So it could be somebody you caneither.
I often do it because I'm on myown, so much for my training, I
don't have anybody else.
So I actually have a and, Ihate to say, I do have a really
good weight with my spaniel.
Lauren Langman (31:33):
Um really do have a really good weight.
I watch you and I'm like, oh myGod, I love her weight.
My dog is so, so different.
On a weight she's like stalkylittle collie, whereas yours is
like princess Phoenix is perfect.
And I'm like, oh my God, lookat her.
So Mel does have a great weight.
In fact, mel's teaching thenext course.
It's going to be like 10 daysto start my days.
Mel Doyle (31:53):
um, go on and she's gonna so yeah, so I, I use her
weight and I will leave her in aweight and I will um, I don't
have an indoor arena, but youcan use your indoor arena so you
can either get somebody torestrain, who can restrain
appropriately and we talk aboutnot like restraining around the
neck, um, and I then go out andI basically I recall her, and
(32:15):
this is after she's warmed up aswell, so it's a straight line,
it's a straight sprint to me andI'm running and I then slow
myself down.
So we haven't got like a sprintto a dead stop, because I don't
want that, I don't want hersprinting to a dead stop.
I just, at that moment in time,I'm targeting just the
acceleration and thesustainability of that as well,
(32:36):
because I think that's somethingthat we do need to, because
agility is a sport that bordersthe 30 second to 45 second sort
of window.
I suppose not many of our topdogs do go up to 45, but you
know you can go up to sort ofthat sort of you're looking at
that time period.
We do sort of cross theanaerobic, aerobic border and we
(32:58):
do need to make sure that wecover sort of all of those
aspects.
Plus also we could do a run inone ring.
You never know you might have todo another.
You know, say you've got achamp run and then you've got a
qualifier.
Not that it's ideal, not thatyou really want to do it, and in
an ideal world you wouldactually have time to have a
break, calm down, you know ifthe class is big enough, but if
(33:19):
that wasn't a possibility, worstcase scenario you have to go
from one ring to another ringand do two runs back to back or
training days.
You know, some of the trainingdays, like I say, they're
actually higher intensity than acompetition.
So we need to prepare them forthat.
So we need them to be able tosprint, have a short break but
then sprint again.
(33:39):
So we need to build that intoour plan and I would probably
include that within the,probably on the Wednesday, and I
would.
So I would probably do someagility training first.
I then might have a like ashort break and then do some um,
sprint work, um, and then Imight maybe do um a land-based
session at the end of that.
Lauren Langman (33:59):
So we've got Wednesday being training.
Mel Doyle (34:02):
So Wednesday's like your peak day really.
So you've basically you'recreating like this curve effect.
So the peak of your week is themiddle of the week.
You've got to build up to itand then you've got to tailor
off to it to the weekend.
So whatever you've done on theWednesday, the dog's body has
got time to get over that andrecover before they then are
asked to compete on the weekendso that's really good.
Lauren Langman (34:22):
So we've got.
Monday is our sort of um restday, maybe a lead walk, maybe,
um, a little bit of likedowntime, chew time, um, and
obviously any of our therapiesthat we might be using, um, we
could be adding in our lecturetherapies there, potentially,
yeah, and and a few other days.
And our tuesday is lightertraining, some lead work, um,
(34:44):
and anything else we might addin there you could do some
land-based work as well.
Mel Doyle (34:48):
So sort of all the, all the exercises that we talk
about doing to sort of ummaintain range of motion, to
maintain core strength, tomaintain and build.
Lauren Langman (34:59):
I mean, look how much um skittles, glutes have
built up since august last yearmassive, massive, huge
confluence circuits on top of umall of the land-based exercises
we're doing with her structuredstands and um her balance
movement, and actually it's notfree running.
Mel Doyle (35:15):
That's done that because she doesn't get a lot of
free running, not because Idon't want to more, because I
fear for her life at times freerunning I think that's probably
the biggest misconception isthat, in order to build muscle,
we have to do more off lead, wehave to do more running, but
actually it isn't.
It's the slow, controlledrecruiting the right muscles,
activating the right muscles,having the right exercises in
(35:38):
place and having them performedin the right way.
Um, I remember when we firsttalked a lot there was a you
know.
We talked about using morestable surfaces.
I don't think jamie very rarelyuses unstable surfaces anymore.
Lauren Langman (35:50):
And look at what she's achieved with the dogs
yeah, way, way, way less propand more, like we were talking
about the other day, fit withoutkit, like she's really yes,
absolutely yeah.
And we were talking aboutactually a lot of people
underestimating the value of nokit, like it's almost like naked
training, like you don't wantit, you want to strip back all
the like fun, fluffy, inflatabletype world, because that there
(36:14):
is that massive world, for Imean, at the end of the day, it
sells, doesn't it?
It sells really well, because alot of products there you can
buy and they look great, likethey do look great.
The fitness room looks great,but actually the amount we use
those, compared to um, the, thereal base exercise, is very
little.
And particularly thinking onthe, the stand, the hamstrings,
the tail, the structure and herweight shift, those are probably
(36:35):
your real go-tos everywherebefore you do anything.
Yeah, absolutely.
Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sexier than a
Squirrel podcast.
I'm Lauren Langman.
I'm one of the world's leadingdog trainers and it's my mission
to help owners become theirdog's top priority.
In each episode, you'lldiscover how to gain trust and
communicate with your dog likenever before, creating
unbreakable bonds that make youthe most exciting part of their
world.
Okay, so, mel, I'm joined by,obviously, the wonderful Mel.
(00:33):
Mel, you are, in fact,introduce yourself.
What are you?
What do you do on a day-to-daybasis?
You're a physio to me.
You're the brilliant Mel who Igrab at shows and I go, mel,
help feel this.
And you're like, oh dear lord,stop panicking.
And what do you do for a living?
What do you do day to day?
How do you spend your days?
I know you love what you do andyou get to do that every day of
the week.
Tell us about it.
Mel Doyle (00:56):
So I'm a small animal physio, so I don't treat large
animals.
I specialize purely in smallanimals and pretty much 99
percent being dogs.
I also do hydrotherapy as well,so but I see that as all
encompassing really.
So hydro physio is allintegrated.
I've got sort of an integratedservice land based, water based,
(01:18):
the whole, the whole package,and that's really what I've been
doing probably for the last 13years now really, um have my own
clinic at home, um my ownunderwater treadmill, um, and
yeah, and treat a variety ofdogs sports dogs, um rehab cases
(01:41):
, post-surgery elderly dogs, um,and I love doing it all because
it all brings somethingdifferent and you're absolutely
brilliant at it.
Lauren Langman (01:50):
Now, we were talking only the other day and
it really blew my brain.
I was like, oh my god, Iactually I think we need to do a
podcast on this, because I'vebeen in dogs all my life, so
I've I've um sort of dreamt ofof the job that I do.
Um, since I was probably abouttwo, like, I've always dreamt of
doing what I do and I feel likeI know a lot about it.
I feel like I'm an expert in myfield.
And yet you sometimes look downand you're like, oh my God, I'm
(02:13):
just on the top of the iceberghere.
Like this is just scary.
I'm right at the tip.
And that was one of thosemoments where we had this
conversation.
I was like hang on a second,let's backtrack here.
I think we've got trouble.
And we were talking rest, wewere talking recovery, we were
talking rehab, we were talkinghow to plan a week out, and I
think it's really important thatwe touch base on this Now.
Today, we're going to primarilyfocus on sports talks, because
(02:35):
I think that that is exactlywhat we were talking about when
we obviously had theconversation and it really, for
me, it was almost a trigger, buta good trigger.
It was like, oh my God.
And so I was like quite shockedby it, to be honest, and at the
same time, I always feel likeI'm fairly knowledgeable.
And yet what you were tellingme was like throwing like what I
(02:55):
understood to be true orcorrect.
And yet I'm not saying thatthere's always like a one way
and all the highways.
And you're very good at this,you're very good at like working
with what's in front of you,but I do think it'd be really
lovely to share with ourlisteners.
So if you're up for that, um,that's what I'd love to do.
Yeah, your game.
So, basically, let's start withthe idea that you've got a week
(03:17):
now.
We've got a week now we'retalking agility.
Agility is our sport and we'regoing to talk a competition week
, so we're competing.
Typically, let's go with theweekend we've just had.
So we've just been in Scotland.
I've been competing in Scotland, mad I know and it was a
gorgeous weekend.
There was loads of sun andfantastic.
We competed on the Saturday andwe competed on the Sunday.
(03:37):
Now how does our following weeklook in the ideal life of a dog
and I know there's sometimes thechildren to balance the husband
, the dinners, the work, thetreadmill, that all the other
things.
But with the best week in theworld and the best will in the
world, how does that ideal nextweek look?
Because we finished competingon a Sunday?
Let's say, like us, you'recrazy enough to drive home when
(03:58):
you're home on the Sunday night.
We got home about midnight, um,and so that was good going then
, wasn't it?
I thought the same.
We got home about midnight.
That was good going then.
It was good going, wasn't it?
I thought the same.
We got home about midnight.
It might have been about 12.30,but it was pretty good.
And all the dogs went out andwe got straight back upstairs
into bed done, everyone asleep,and so it was good.
And we got up the next morningand took Liza to school at seven
(04:18):
, so it was definitely a rockand roll.
But when we get back and westart our next day at 7am, how
does that look for a competitiondog?
How can we design our week?
How can we make sure we'redoing all the right things by
them?
And for me, this was my wake upbecause I was like rock and
roll.
Back to training or back to, um, maybe a swim or maybe a water,
treadmill or all the otherthings.
(04:39):
You were like uh, uh, uh, uh,hang on, a second, langman, get
back here.
And you kind of build me backin like a little fish and I kind
of went.
So, yeah, tell us how it mightlook.
Mel Doyle (04:50):
So I think it's really important that you know
we think of things in particularlike competition and we can
sort of look at as well whathuman athletes do, and that's
sort of again sort of where alot of the sort of canine world
is sort of, because the researchis done in humans and although,
yes, we've got a quadrupedversus a biped, their physical,
(05:11):
physiological systems are very,are very, similar.
So we've got that to work on.
So it's really important.
You think we've been throughreally high stresses at
competition and this weekend waslike one of the planes taking
off like 200 yards from the ring, landing crow scarers.
I mean there was loads goingoff and that's just the mental
(05:34):
impact for the dogs as well.
But physically, we had somegrass rings, we had some sand
rings, we had some hard sand, wehad some softer, deeper sand
where some of the larger dogsrun through.
Now all those things are goingto have different impacts on the
body.
Obviously, running contacts,now everything is so quick.
We've got skills at speed asmassive inputs into the dog's
(05:57):
body that we have to sort ofbalance out.
So it's really important thatthose little traumas that the
dog's body has gone throughthrough the competition and this
also does apply to sometraining as well, depending upon
what training you're doing thatwe give the body time to
rebuild and recover and allow itto become back to normal again,
(06:20):
normal again.
Um, those muscle fibers thathave had micro trauma, um, they
need good nutrition, they needgood hydration, they need all
these things to rebuild and weneed a quiet day the next day.
So for me that if it's acompeting saturday, sunday,
monday is, uh, we do very littleday um, I'm writing questions
as we speak.
Lauren Langman (06:40):
I'm literally writing things, so I'm like
quick, I've already gotquestions, but keep going.
So monday, it's quite.
I think we should just explainthe venue.
The venue was a close to anairport, wasn't it?
Mel Doyle (06:48):
so the venue yes, which is what you're saying is
actually highly stressful for alot of very, very stressful even
if they, even if I don't, evenif they don't actually show it,
it's still massive and it'sdifferent, very different.
It's my first time I've everbeen there, so it was really new
for me, but it's massivelydifferent to even a typical show
environment.
(07:09):
So, um, and then you've gotsome shows where you've got four
rings, where it's really quietand hardly anything, and then
you've got like the likes of thereally big shows that we have
here in the UK.
I mean, even Wallingford was 16rings.
You know, it's just crazy.
There's so much going on.
So, yeah, so Monday would be alighter way so you said you said
a rest day.
Lauren Langman (07:29):
Now I think it's really important we consider
what rest looks like fordifferent people and different
animals and different dogs andpeople's perspective.
And I'm going to give you aperspective here because I
remember, probably about sevenor eight years ago, maybe longer
, having um a client's dogspayed and the um, I bet, said,
uh, just go um straight back toum, uh exercise, a normal
(07:54):
exercise um within like fivedays and the woman had the dog
out like doing um canny crossand like running with the dog
because in her mind that waslead work and I think that's
really important to acknowledge,like what is the perspective of
rest?
So what does rest look like,mel for?
Mel Doyle (08:10):
you.
So rest for me will includethings like um having a quiet
environment, having um writingthem down, by the way yeah, um,
my, I apologize for the noise,because my dog has just decided
to now chew the ear that I gaveher when we started this, which
(08:32):
she didn't want, but now she'snow doing it.
So is it now?
Absolutely had to be now,didn't it?
Lauren Langman (08:38):
um and um would be good something to chew yes,
so something to chew.
Mel Doyle (08:43):
Again, nutritional input as well, because the body
needs good protein in order torepair itself, um, so that's
really important.
Whatever format the, thenutrition takes is, is fine, but
nutrition is really important.
Again, hydration as well,because without those things the
body's got no fuel to repairitself.
(09:04):
So it needs the fuel in orderto sort of facilitate those.
So, yeah, something like umalong you know chew, or a phil
kong or something like that, orphil bone is quite nice, um, for
me it might be a gentle leadwalk as well.
So it's important to havemovement and rest shouldn't be
just sleep in your bed all dayand don't do anything, because,
(09:27):
um, particularly the sport thatwe're talking about, mainly
agility, you know you get, Imean, if we know it, if we've
gone and done a lot of exercise,we get lactic acid build up and
it's really important that wetry and clear that lactic acid
from the body, because that'swhat gives that delayed onset
muscle soreness that you feel.
You you know that achy feelingthat you when you've done a lot
of hard work, and we canmitigate that by using some.
(09:48):
I mean, I would use someelectrotherapy treatments to
help with that.
But actually movement is alsokey as well to that.
So you know, light, gentle leadwork is good.
You know lots of sniffs, itmight be on whatever you choose.
In a long line, if you've got adog that just mooch, but if
(10:09):
you've got a dog that just wantsto race, it might be a shorter
lead, um, but it's about keepingthings quite calm, quiet and
just allow everything to settleback down and recover, basically
both sort of mentally andphysically so loads of good
things that you mentioned there,and one of the things that I
was going to ask you about wasI've got quite a nice size
garden.
Lauren Langman (10:30):
Is that appropriate or is that not
appropriate when we think aboutrest time?
Because I think you gave somequite nice clarifications,
because it may or may not be,depending on how the dog behaves
in the garden.
So what would you say in termsof a garden?
Mel Doyle (10:41):
Yeah, so if the dog's going out and mooching the
garden, I think what I said toyou was if they're going to be
bouncing vertical bouncingbecause they want to see
something going on, or they'regoing to race up and down
because they want to see, youknow, hear something that's not
rest, you know, if they go outin the garden they have a lay in
the sun.
They're going to mooch around,having a sniff, maybe some
scatter feeding or somethinglike that, to just allow them to
(11:02):
mentally decompress as well asphysically.
Keep moving to allow the bodyto recover is good.
But certainly I wouldn't becanny crossing, I wouldn't be
going out with um where the dogsare racing.
You know have multiple dogsracing around together, um, so I
wouldn't have mine out in thegarden where they're running
around, playing chase andeverything else like that.
They'd go out on their own um.
(11:24):
My spaniel does like tovertically bounce if she's um,
you know, quite aroused.
So I would be making sure thatI would not allow those things
to happen.
But still allow movement, allowcalmness, allow um her to
decompress from the weekend yeah, so, so great stuff.
Lauren Langman (11:41):
Now, if you're thinking about having, for
example, treatment because oneof the things I often think is
I've got to fit in treatment forthe dogs, and often the day
after the treatment the dogs arethen rested as well, so they
they have treatment one day andthen they have a calm day or a
lower impact day.
Would a monday be a good day tohave a trip if they were going
to have like a, um, a treatmentfrom someone like you as a
(12:01):
physio, or would that be betteron a Tuesday or Wednesday or
Thursday or Friday?
Where do you put that in?
Mel Doyle (12:07):
yeah, so well, and again, it depends what you've
got going on the followingweekend as well, because again,
this was something else wetalked about.
You know, um, if I've got noshow on the the following
weekend, then I might, my weekmight extend slightly, so I
might do some light skillstraining on the Tuesday and then
maybe Wednesday slightly moreintense, then Thursday I might
(12:28):
have again a quiet day.
I might do some land based work.
Friday I might train again andthen Saturday I might treadmill.
But if I've got so, like youknow, talking about the
professionals, like we did, youknow it's trying to tailor the
time of day as well.
So for me, if you've got thingsyou want to do say you want to
do some skills training andyou've got a professional to see
(12:52):
that same day, then do theprofessional later on in the day
and whatever else you want todo, whether that be treadmill,
skills work, fitness work in themorning, whether that be
treadmill skills work, fitnesswork in the morning, because if
you see the professional in themorning it knocks the rest of
your day out, because the dogshould have some quiet, calm
recovery time after thattreatment to allow the best work
(13:13):
from that treatment.
Otherwise you're sort of you'retreating in one respect, but
then you're sort of negating alittle bit by overdoing other
things afterwards.
Lauren Langman (13:25):
Yeah, it makes complete sense.
I'm still taking myself somenotes.
I'm loving it.
Um, and so the other thing youtalked about was like, um,
potentially like damaged musclefibers and then re um, building
those muscle fibers and actuallydamage being just part of
working them, and like thosemining, like micro traumas, I
think you called them, and butthose types of things like tell
me more about that well, inorder to build muscle and to
(13:48):
strengthen the muscle, we haveto traumatize it in a way as
well.
Mel Doyle (13:53):
So, in order to allow it to grow and get better, we
add some trauma by basically, um, whatever, whether we're doing
some treadmill work, we might bepushing, we might be doing some
inclines Again, it depends onthe dog and what stage they're
at Actually to physically pushthem and push them to fatigue,
because that's when we then growmuscle.
What's important is what followsthat session is time for that
(14:17):
muscle to recover and repairitself, to become stronger.
If we don't allow it time torecover and repair itself,
excuse me, um, to becomestronger, if we don't allow it
time to recover and repairitself, to become stronger, and
we then tax that muscle andcause more microtrauma the
second day, then we're going tomake the small microtraumas
gradually accumulate and becomea bigger one, and then we're
more susceptible to injury.
(14:37):
That's when we get likeoverloading, overtraining, um,
and more injuries will probablyhappen as a result of it.
So it it's a massive taskbecause you found out when we
were talking about it to balanceout the week with competition,
get the skills training that youwant in, get some treadmill
work, get a professionalinvolved.
(14:57):
Everything is is is reallydifficult.
Lauren Langman (15:01):
And then compete the next weekend.
Because, yes, typically my, mysummer goes from probably middle
of october sorry, middle ofapril through to middle of
october, pretty much everyweekend in.
In, in a nutshell, you mightget the odd weekend off.
And I'm now looking, thinking,well, actually I'm going to a
competition this weekend.
I'm like maybe I shouldn't goto that competition.
So you start to like questionwhich ones you should go to,
(15:23):
maybe start to be a little bitmore selective, which, again, I
think is good.
I don't think that's a badthing, I think it's just a bit
of a wake-up to it that youhadn't really woken up to before
.
And then there's that moment offeeling like you might be
letting your.
There's that I should be hereand because you've always been
(15:45):
there.
So there's those feelings aswell.
So if we were to go ahead andplan our perfect week, mel, how
might that look?
And I'm going to give you anexample and a scenario of purely
selfishly here, because this isa scenario.
And so we've just been toScotland, we're going to
Nottingham at the weekend.
We've got five days now well,less than because we're already
part way in, but let's go fromthe Monday.
(16:07):
We want to fit in.
I'm going to give you the list.
This is the wish list.
We want to fit in aprofessional at some point.
The professional is probablygoing to be body work, because I
don't have anyone that works inthe treadmill like you do,
other than, obviously, our ownteam in-house, which is a
learning progress space for allof us.
Um, matt is great, isn't he inthe treadmill, matt?
He is, he's employable, right,mel?
(16:29):
absolutely, yes, you're not whatam I like in the treadmill?
How fast do I want to do it allso fast?
You're like slow down, lauren,don't push so hard.
And I'm like go, go, go, go, go.
Um.
So, yeah, definitely, I'm not atreadmill girl, I'm not a
triple girl.
Jamie and Matt fantastictreadmill girls and boys.
(16:52):
Um, and so, mel, when we'rethinking about that week, I want
to fit in the professional.
I want to fit in a session onthe treadmill with Matt or with
Jamie.
I would like to fit in theprofessional.
I want to fit in a session onthe treadmill with matt or with
jamie.
I would like to fit in someland base.
I would like to fit in sometraining and I might need a pen
for all of this I know this iswhat we're gonna have to.
(17:12):
I'm setting you home here.
I would also love to fit insome walking on lead and off
lead, because I quite like to doa bit of both.
Um, I think that's my wish list.
So, the professional, thetreadmill, oh, if there was time
(17:33):
, a swim as well.
But this is where I struggle,and obviously we are leaving on
the Friday.
I'm gonna have to get a pen too.
My phone's just died, um, butwe are leaving as well on the
Friday, so we leave on theFriday, we leave.
So Friday is typically a travelday for us.
So, yeah, we've got aprofessional, we've got a land
(17:55):
base, we've got our um watertreadmill, we've got our swim,
we've got our um and obviously,enrichment and garden times
happening anyway.
So those are all happeninganyway.
But where do we start when itcomes to designing that week?
Like, how does that week look?
Mel Doyle (18:12):
okay, so the dogs we're talking about, are they
competing on saturday and sundayor just saturday or just sunday
, because that has an impact aswell.
I've got two that are competingboth days and I've got one that
is only going to do one class onSunday.
Ok, so the one that's doing theone on Sunday, that gives you a
(18:40):
little bit longer because youdon't have to think about
backtracking.
So for me I would backtrackfrom the weekend that we're
working towards and go right, sowe need to come backwards from
that.
So the one that's on the sundayyou could probably do um, like
a treadmill session on thethursday afternoon, um, which
(19:02):
would leave friday, saturday,free for acclimatization from
that activity, um, so that wouldbe thursday, and then I would
typically look at tuesday,wednesdays, being my training,
like agility training days.
Um t Tuesday, probably alighter session, so because
(19:23):
they've had Monday as a rest day, back on a Tuesday, possibly
lighter.
So it might be some very simpleskills, just on one jump or two
jumps, and then Wednesday,slightly a higher intensity of
you know.
So it might be.
You might do then maybe somerunning, dog walks.
You know, know, dog running,dog walks into weaves, because
then you're looking at massiveacceleration to decel, to
(19:44):
turning.
So it's really, reallychallenging on the body.
So that would then be theWednesday for that type of thing
.
So a Tuesday.
Wednesday would be myactivities.
I would probably do thetraining in the morning and then
have land-based sessions andlead walks in the afternoon.
Yeah, and Friday would be againa quiet day, but then most of
(20:10):
the time we're travelling.
But something else I did want totalk about was travelling.
I think sometimes we don'tappreciate how big an impact
actually travelling has on ourdogs, even when they're in the
vehicle, that they know witheverything's calm and quiet.
Um, there have been so muchthought into human athletes when
(20:30):
they travel to majorcompetitions actually, that
traveling two to three daysbefore the competition isn't
enough to for peak performance.
And then again that's sort oftalking for peak performance.
And when we're talking aboutgeneral weekend to weekend
through the agility year, I meanthere was a time where we
couldn't do the amount of showsthat we have.
(20:50):
Now it has become morechallenging for us to manage
because of how much there isavailable to us.
Um, and so we have to.
We do have to be a little bitselective and no matter what we
do, our dogs cannot be at theirpeak performance from mid-april
to october.
It's just not possible.
(21:12):
They will physically not beable to manage it.
So we have to actually manageit a little bit for them and
almost like what are our goals?
And the difficulty is when youhave like you've had champ this
weekend, you've got champ nextweekend, you've got champ the
weekend after, you've got champthe weekend after that, so we've
got like four weekends on thetrot of championship shows.
Lauren Langman (21:31):
Olympia novice, like there's a lot, isn't there.
There's a lot.
Yeah, you get to do and and itis like a I feel some days like
a kid in a sweet shop, like I'mlike there's so many things that
I want and yet you also knowthat you probably can't have the
, the like jelly worms and thefizzy, fizzy strawberries and
the fried eggs and the chocolatecovered.
You know what that?
(21:52):
And that's sometimes whatyou're trying to do.
You're trying to go in thereand try and have it all and
actually you do need to be alittle bit more selective and
say, actually for this dog, thisdog's seven or eight or nine,
or this dog's um, like in didhave a I don't know an injury
last year and I want to be awareof that.
Or this dog's still young andstill building up, there's no, I
don't get many times where Ithink this dog is just flipping
(22:13):
perfect.
You don't get many times whereI think this dog is just
flipping perfect.
You don't get many times thereis nothing wrong, everything is
kosher, life is good.
Let's stay like this.
There's often something anyway,there's a niggle or there's
something that you're working on.
I think that's just the natureof a sports dog and a finely
tuned eye.
Mel Doyle (22:28):
Absolutely.
And the more driven, the morethe sport pushes for speed, the
more those things are going tohappen.
Because we, we're looking tohave our athletes performing and
they are, you know, highlydriven and have less
self-preservation and they arejust all about the go.
(22:52):
They're all about performingand they're not going to think
about what they're doing totheir bodies.
You know, and you're very goodat, if they're all about
performing and they're not goingto think about what they're
doing to their bodies, you knowand you're very good at, if
they're eliminated and you'renot going to get anything more
from it taking them out, whycarry on?
Why risk anything more thanwhat you need to?
Lauren Langman (23:07):
um, that's a really interesting one, mel,
because a lot of times peoplehave come up to me and gone why
did you take her out?
And I'm like, like as if I'mbeing cruel, as if I'm being a
bad person, and I'm like, no, no, she's having a great time and
I'm very happy with her.
There's nothing I'm unhappywith.
I'll even do it in likechammerings, like you've seen me
.
I do it.
I don't, I don't care wherewhich ring I'm in.
Um, I'll complete on something Ithink the dog's successful at,
(23:29):
seesaw, for example, and off Igo um and for me that is.
That is okay.
But I think there's thisexpectation of the world to say
this is the way it should bedone, and there's almost like an
etiquette that it might beconsidered as rude to not stay
there, but I feel like it's mydog that I want to be um, like
to and kind to, and I don'treally mind the etiquette of the
(23:52):
judge.
I always say thank you, Ialways say I appreciate the
course.
But I think you're right,there's only so many jumps in a
dog right and under.
Absolutely do any more.
Mel Doyle (23:59):
Yeah yeah, and I think sometimes that there's
saying that just because we candoesn't mean we should, you know
.
So just because we can run awhole course doesn't mean we
should if we're not going toachieve something we want out of
it.
You know, know, or you knowthey've been eliminated in a
champ class and they're nine,why would you carry on if you're
(24:20):
not gonna, you know, want topreserve your dog for the next
run?
You know, and that's just.
I think it's something that we,we really do need to pay more
attention to, and it is becomingmuch more aware about those
things, you know.
But there are, like you say,there are still people going.
(24:40):
Why did you do that?
You know, and I'm thinking well, why wouldn't you do that?
That just makes complete sense.
You know, if a dog has a falloff a dog walk I must admit and
I apologise if anyone's I havethe it makes me worry so much
when they put them back over it,when they've fallen off from
the middle plank and it's badly.
I'm like the dogs are full ofadrenaline.
They are not going to feel theimpact of the fall that they've
(25:02):
just had.
It will be, and I'm sure we canall, as human beings know we've
fought.
Yeah, we've fallen over.
Yeah, it'll be the next day,but it'll also be the second day
that you will probably feelreally sore.
Lauren Langman (25:20):
I recently fell over, I went over a tunnel and
it was three to four days beforeI actually felt not sore.
And that's the thing is.
You'll sit down and for me, Ialways know like I always dread
and I know this probably soundsOCD, but I always dread getting
out of the vehicle after I'vecome home or after I've been on
a big training session.
Because I know, although I'vewarmed them up and cooled them
(25:42):
down and done all the rightthings, I know if there's going
to be any unsoundness, I'lloften see it there, where
they've had like a period ofrest, yeah, or a period of um,
which is why I actually reallylike doing training days at home
here, because we've got a lotof space to warm them up, cool
them down and they don't have togo in a crate afterwards.
My dogs can wander around thehouse or wherever I'm going to
put them up the work yard andgarden, wherever they're going
to go um, because I do thinksometimes it's that period of
(26:05):
immediate rest.
After that you'll see them getup with a level of stiffness.
But you're right, it's notoften, if it's not going to be
in that moment, they're stillpainful three or four days later
, um, but you didn't know it inthat moment and what you just
did was put them over that dogwalk again yeah, and even if you
can't visibly see that they'repainful, they will be muscle
soreness.
Mel Doyle (26:23):
So if you know that they've had a fall, a slip or
they've twisted in a tunnel,then I I would be accounting for
that and going right.
We are having a really quietthree to four days here to make
sure I mean, obviously I do itmyself and my own dogs, but all
(26:43):
getting somebody in to have afeel, to do some work if they
need it on them, to help themget through it, use
electrotherapies if need be tohelp boost that recovery process
.
Because if we don't recognizethat'm on notes again yeah, if
we, if we don't recognize that,and then we go and do some
training or you know, andtraining days are probably more
physically demanding thancompetition, you know, most,
(27:06):
like I say, goes that you haveyou're looking at sort of five
to six minutes of intensive,intensive work and I mean you
know I am, if I've gone on trainday, if I think I've had enough
, I'm like no more.
Even if I haven't had my time,I'm like nope, that's it, we're
done, because I want to makesure that I've got them for the
next session or the next week orthe next month.
Lauren Langman (27:31):
Or let's go with the next 15 years, right?
And I think that's importantbecause I know you, without
either of us getting upset, youlost an older dog and she looked
fantastic right to the last day, and I think the same with mine
, I think the same like Poppy,to the day I lost her looked fit
and healthy.
She looked fit and healthy andI think for me that's such a
privilege and a pleasure to havea dog who still looks great as
(27:54):
they reach their senior years.
And I know that you, you takehuge pride in how good your dog
looks, and I don't know aboutyou, but I always think about
mileage in a dog, like, Iactually think my dog is a quite
low mileage and I think of,like my vehicles, um, my van is
quite high mileage, um, my dogis quite low mileage and that's
the way I'd like to keep it nowthat I want my dog to be low
(28:15):
mileage, um, that's the way I'dlike to keep it now that I want
my dog mileage, um.
So now, one thing we didn'tmention was in our plan for the
week and I'm going to runthrough this plan for because
there really isn't enough timeand I know that this is what
we're going to come out with ina minute, um is, there isn't
enough time.
But one of the things that yousaid I need to add into my
program, which I struggle on, issprint training.
Now I struggle for a fewreasons on sprint training or
(28:37):
off-leash work because I'mparanoid.
I have a very hyper, busy dogwho I love her off-leash.
I don't have any recallstruggles or problems like that,
but I feel like I need toprotect her from the world
because she will spring offbanks.
Or you've been on our laneBowen Lane is beautiful.
You're walking along the laneand you think the lane is really
safe.
She could only be on the laneand you're gonna see if it's
(28:57):
because it's a one way, it's aone track road and I've got
great recall.
However, you'd hope um, andhowever, she's on the top of the
bank.
She's leaping across the bank.
She's jumping across.
There's like she's just nutsand I'm like I need to take full
responsibility for you becauseyou take none for yourself.
She's like owning a lemming.
I feel like.
I feel like she has a strongwill to die and I feel like she
(29:21):
would jump off, like, and I feelI feel like there's a massive
responsibility with that now.
Then the second one I waswalking across yesterday and our
pony got out of the field onlya few weeks ago and, um, he
galloped across the yard.
He undid his own gates and thengalloped and I know you saw the
video and then galloped across.
But he left a few divots and sosince then I haven't wanted to
(29:41):
let them in that field because Ineed to get them filled um and
then rolled um, and I findmyself becoming very paranoid
about the ground they're on andalso the ability to sprint like
I want them to sprint.
But I'm also careful thatthey're sports dogs and that
carpus and or carpal injuries or, um, sort of slight sprains,
you know how quick they happenor how quickly they happen.
You know how long they take torecover.
(30:01):
What would be yourrecommendations on sprinting and
off-leash work?
When would that be best tohappen?
Because we've come back off ashow on a sunday.
Is it a good thing to do it?
Maybe sunday night, mondaymorning, monday daytime?
Is it better to do it whenwe're doing our Wednesday
training day?
Is it better to not do it, todo it on?
The other option I've got ismaybe a flexi lead, and I know
that flexi leads aren't liked,but they give her a bit more
(30:22):
range without me having a onlead or off lead, so they kind
of give me a bridge in a safespace.
What would be yourrecommendations on off leash?
Mel Doyle (30:32):
and, like I said, it's not about controlling her,
it's about safe off leash yeah,stopping her from being crazy
and hurting herself, yeah, um, Imean, you know we sort of
talked about, I think, the flexilead is a good option, because
it gives more than just a shortlead but prevents her from being
on the top of bank and leapingoff, because you can, you know,
manage it a little bit easier.
(30:53):
Um, but we talked about usingthe arena for sprinting as well,
so you don't need to worry somuch about, um, what the ground
undulations are like and, likeyou say, about the little divots
that could be in the fieldbecause of said horse galloping
across the field.
Um, so, but and it's, sprintwork doesn't have to be um with
(31:18):
a turn, because we talked about,you know, just doing it
straight.
So it could be somebody you caneither.
I often do it because I'm on myown, so much for my training, I
don't have anybody else.
So I actually have a and, Ihate to say, I do have a really
good weight with my spaniel.
Lauren Langman (31:33):
Um really do have a really good weight.
I watch you and I'm like, oh myGod, I love her weight.
My dog is so, so different.
On a weight she's like stalkylittle collie, whereas yours is
like princess Phoenix is perfect.
And I'm like, oh my God, lookat her.
So Mel does have a great weight.
In fact, mel's teaching thenext course.
It's going to be like 10 daysto start my days.
Mel Doyle (31:53):
um, go on and she's gonna so yeah, so I, I use her
weight and I will leave her in aweight and I will um, I don't
have an indoor arena, but youcan use your indoor arena so you
can either get somebody torestrain, who can restrain
appropriately and we talk aboutnot like restraining around the
neck, um, and I then go out andI basically I recall her, and
(32:15):
this is after she's warmed up aswell, so it's a straight line,
it's a straight sprint to me andI'm running and I then slow
myself down.
So we haven't got like a sprintto a dead stop, because I don't
want that, I don't want hersprinting to a dead stop.
I just, at that moment in time,I'm targeting just the
acceleration and thesustainability of that as well,
(32:36):
because I think that's somethingthat we do need to, because
agility is a sport that bordersthe 30 second to 45 second sort
of window.
I suppose not many of our topdogs do go up to 45, but you
know you can go up to sort ofthat sort of you're looking at
that time period.
We do sort of cross theanaerobic, aerobic border and we
(32:58):
do need to make sure that wecover sort of all of those
aspects.
Plus also we could do a run inone ring.
You never know you might have todo another.
You know, say you've got achamp run and then you've got a
qualifier.
Not that it's ideal, not thatyou really want to do it, and in
an ideal world you wouldactually have time to have a
break, calm down, you know ifthe class is big enough, but if
(33:19):
that wasn't a possibility, worstcase scenario you have to go
from one ring to another ringand do two runs back to back or
training days.
You know, some of the trainingdays, like I say, they're
actually higher intensity than acompetition.
So we need to prepare them forthat.
So we need them to be able tosprint, have a short break but
then sprint again.
(33:39):
So we need to build that intoour plan and I would probably
include that within the,probably on the Wednesday, and I
would.
So I would probably do someagility training first.
I then might have a like ashort break and then do some um,
sprint work, um, and then Imight maybe do um a land-based
session at the end of that.
Lauren Langman (33:59):
So we've got Wednesday being training.
Mel Doyle (34:02):
So Wednesday's like your peak day really.
So you've basically you'recreating like this curve effect.
So the peak of your week is themiddle of the week.
You've got to build up to itand then you've got to tailor
off to it to the weekend.
So whatever you've done on theWednesday, the dog's body has
got time to get over that andrecover before they then are
asked to compete on the weekendso that's really good.
Lauren Langman (34:22):
So we've got.
Monday is our sort of um restday, maybe a lead walk, maybe,
um, a little bit of likedowntime, chew time, um, and
obviously any of our therapiesthat we might be using, um, we
could be adding in our lecturetherapies there, potentially,
yeah, and and a few other days.
And our tuesday is lightertraining, some lead work, um,
(34:44):
and anything else we might addin there you could do some
land-based work as well.
Mel Doyle (34:48):
So sort of all the, all the exercises that we talk
about doing to sort of ummaintain range of motion, to
maintain core strength, tomaintain and build.
Lauren Langman (34:59):
I mean, look how much um skittles, glutes have
built up since august last yearmassive, massive, huge
confluence circuits on top of umall of the land-based exercises
we're doing with her structuredstands and um her balance
movement, and actually it's notfree running.
Mel Doyle (35:15):
That's done that because she doesn't get a lot of
free running, not because Idon't want to more, because I
fear for her life at times freerunning I think that's probably
the biggest misconception isthat, in order to build muscle,
we have to do more off lead, wehave to do more running, but
actually it isn't.
It's the slow, controlledrecruiting the right muscles,
activating the right muscles,having the right exercises in
(35:38):
place and having them performedin the right way.
Um, I remember when we firsttalked a lot there was a you
know.
We talked about using morestable surfaces.
I don't think jamie very rarelyuses unstable surfaces anymore.
Lauren Langman (35:50):
And look at what she's achieved with the dogs
yeah, way, way, way less propand more, like we were talking
about the other day, fit withoutkit, like she's really yes,
absolutely yeah.
And we were talking aboutactually a lot of people
underestimating the value of nokit, like it's almost like naked
training, like you don't wantit, you want to strip back all
the like fun, fluffy, inflatabletype world, because that there
(36:14):
is that massive world, for Imean, at the end of the day, it
sells, doesn't it?
It sells really well, because alot of products there you can
buy and they look great, likethey do look great.
The fitness room looks great,but actually the amount we use
those, compared to um, the, thereal base exercise, is very
little.
And particularly thinking onthe, the stand, the hamstrings,
the tail, the structure and herweight shift, those are probably
(36:35):
your real go-tos everywherebefore you do anything.
Yeah, absolutely.
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