Book review: Care of the Canine Athlete

Book title: Care of the Canine Athlete. A Complete Guide to Sports Dog Fitness

Author: Lowri Davies

What is this book about? 

This book examines the factors affecting fitness, and the chance of injury, from puppyhood and onwards for performance sports dogs.

Who would this book suit? 

 - Medical professionals treating any performance dogs, particularly agility
 - Agility and other performance sports dog trainers
 - Agility handlers, and competitors
 - Club instructors
 - Breeders of sports performance dogs
 - Anyone intending to study a qualification relating to fitness or care of canine athletes

What was awesome about this book? 

This book covers so many aspects relevant to keeping performance dogs fit, and healthy. From structure, to diet, to the amount of exercise that dogs of different ages should do, to injuries, and therapeutic modalities.  It really covers every aspect that may be relevant, and make's many of the concepts specific to agility.

The explanations were very detailed and it seemed more like a textbook than a training book.

What I didn't like about this book: 

Unfortunately, the only section that was lacking, in my opinion, was the 'Conditioning the agility dog' section. The exercises suggested, particularly the strength exercises, were dated and looked to be more from a rehabilitation background rather than from what I experienced in my CCFT training. This means that the strength exercises were perhaps not as specific to agility as what they could be. The 'Therapeutic exercises' section was a little better with well-explained exercises, however they were more towards the beginner end in terms of difficulty.

Verdict: 

This is one of the better books that I have read in terms of fitness relevant for agility. It is a good book for people intending to train in canine fitness related areas, or who would like to work with agility dogs in training. I wish that this had been available when I was training for my CCFT qualification, as I think it would have helped for the theory immensely.

Where to find this book:
https://www.dogwise.com/care-of-the-canine-athlete-a-complete-guide-to-sports-dog-fitness/