Exercise and Conditioning Tips from Brendael English Springer Spaniels

The English Springer Spaniel is an active dog and needs regular exercise - more than just turning him out in the back yard. Teach your dog to chase a ball or other toys. Start slowly and build up to exercising for 10-15 minutes, 2-3 times a day to keep him from getting bored. Sustained and enforced exercise should be delayed until your puppy is over 18 months to two years of age. It will be that long before his bones are firm enough for him to go jogging with you every day.

Conditioning consists of proper nutrition, routine veterinary care, and an exercise program. A proper exercise program needs to be in addition to training. The benefits of exercise include fitness, coordination, reduced risk of injury, weight control, resistance to stress, and a sense of well being. 50% of behavioral problems would decrease if dogs had enough exercise. Remember that your dog needs to warm up just like you should before doing sustained exercise.

Games are fun to play with your dog, but you need to avoid ones where your dog is placed in the winning position such as tug of war, chase, roughhousing, or any teasing game. This is especially important with young children. If you playing tug of war with your puppy/dog, you MUST win the game.

How to design a balanced exercise program:

Skill Training – includes agility sequences and obedience exercises
Strength Training – includes exercises that involve the dog moving over short distances such as running free, retrieving games, and canine (not human) wrestling. Hiking, swimming, jumping are outdoor exercises. Spending 5 minutes a day teaching your dog to sit-up, wave, tug, spin, roll over, catch, crawl, and backup all strengthen the muscles. Take advantage of games your dog already enjoys doing. Frisbee chasing causes more injuries than any other game. If you do playing with a Frisbee do so for only a short amount of time and keep the disk low, so the dog does not have to jump and catch it in the air.
Endurance Training – involves some type of continuous sustained motion such as trotting for 20 minutes, swimming for 10 minutes. Roadwork, with a bicycle or scooter, encourages the dog to move faster than most humans can. Of note, it is okay for your dog to go up and down hills, but sustained stair climbing is not good for them.

Exercises for growing puppies:

8 weeks to 6 months – lots of unstructured play, level I jump training. The puppy should not jump higher than the carpus (wrist), non-impact skill training such as sit, down, come, running contacts, and tunnels.
6 to 14 months – strength training, level II jump training. The puppy can now jump as high as their elbows. If you are doing agility, channel weaves the width of the puppy’s body can be added.
After 14 months – jump training above elbow height, weaving, and endurance training.