Dog Agility Shoulder Problems

When you are putting your dog into agility training or an agility competition you are asking a lot of them physically.

Working at a high pace, and with many changes in direction, agility can put your dog into compromising positions that can stress different areas of their body.

A dog will usually work until they can’t.  They will push through the discomfort until it’s too unbearable anymore. They truly are resilient animals.

One body area that is particularly vulnerable with dog agility is your dog’s shoulder and lower neck.

The lower neck has a network of nerves that feed the front limbs.  While the shoulder is your dog’s primary joint for movement between the spine and the front limb.

If your dog injures either of these areas, the symptoms can overlap and look similar.

Typically your dog will come up lame and not weight bear well on that side.  They may have tenderness in that area of their shoulder or they may have limited neck range of motion.

In any case where your dog comes up lame you should have them assessed physically by either your vet and if nothing serious arises, make sure they have a physical assessment by an animal chiropractor.

One way you can determine where the injury is coming from, by testing the ROM in your dog’s neck.  If it’s limited or asymmetrical side to side it is a positive test.

You can test this by performing the treat/cookie test.  Do this by holding a treat while your dog is standing, and make your dog follow the treat in an arc to their left shoulder, and then back all the way to the right shoulder.  

Lower neck conditions in dogs are a big concern as they can potentially lead to damaging nerve trauma and produce longer recovery times.

If your dog is starting agility or is currently doing agility it is a good idea to have their function in all joints assessed by an animal chiropractor.  

Better function = Better performance.

Animal Chiropractor For Agility Dogs

Agility competitors (both dogs and humans) have to be in great shape to perform well.

But let’s face it, the dog is the high performance athlete in this case.

If you and your pooch are competing in dog agility you know that every second counts.  

Just like in high performance human athletes there is a difference between being injured and being hurt.

Being injured usually requires time off to heal, recoup and rehab back to shape.

Being hurt usually means, playing through discomfort, but not being able to perform at optimum capacity.

The same is true in your performance agility dog.  It’s obvious when they get injured. They may go lame, or pull up and stop at obstacles.  However, when they are hurting signs may be less obvious.

The most common objective measure that a dog may be hurting is that their performance is slipping for no apparent reason. You are training hard, they are responding to you well but yet the time isn’t up to where it should be.

This is a good time to have your agility dog check by an animal chiropractor.

When joints in the spine or extremities are not functioning optimally, your pet’s performance is not going to be optimal either.

Time and time again I see agility dog’s that respond really well to getting a chiropractic check up and adjustment.  

Think of it like a tune up analogous for a high performance sports car.   

After all you would never miss an oil change with your sports car would you?