Sports Medicine and Rehab

Part of the extended period of radio silence on the blogging front has been because I've undergone something of a career 360 and it's been taking up an awful lot of effort! I originally qualified as a vet, and then for a variety of reasons didn't spend much time in practice, and have done lots of other things instead.

The more dogs I've acquired (four at the last count, but you know, there are SO MANY that need homes... :D) and the more I've been working with them, the more interested I have become in canine sports medicine and rehab. Since it's only very rarely that something grabs your attention and refuses to let go AND could conceivably be a way to earn a living, I've started down the route of qualifying to do canine sports medicine and rehab as a career...and I am SO excited. So far, I've loved every second of the studying and am looking forward to putting it all into practice. It's also given me the impetus to go back to being a vet, and so I've done more studying this last few months than I think I have ever before in my life (including when I passed my exams...)

The next step in the process is going to be to set up my own facility. I'm currently debating between a mobile clinic and my own place. The advantages to mobile are that I can go to my referring vets' practices, which works for everyone. The disadvantage to that is I want to take an underwater treadmill with me, and that's not incredibly straightforward (it can be done - but it's a fairly sizeable trailer to do it, and the size of vehicle you'd need to tow that weight is pretty mind blowing)

I've also been doing a little bit of speaking here and there. Yesterday saw me and collie #2 off to a campsite in the midlands to talk on canine warmups before sport , and also a little bit on conditioning for the canine athlete for Canicross Midlands. I managed to condense a talk that would normally take about 8 hours into 1h 45 mins so I was pretty pleased with that. It did involve talking fast though. We also did a little bit of practical work on core strength and on active stretching, so even the canine attendees had to pay attention...

Canicross weekender

Daisy, Cybi and I had quite the adventure over the start of Easter Weekend. We had a stab at a full weekend (well, three days) of Canicross up at Catton Hall in Derbyshire. The original plan was to have one dog in the Novice event and one in the short course each day, and perhaps switch them, but it became obvious that while I was running each of them on their own for the first time, Daisy had much more confidence than Cybi and was much more willing to charge blithely along. So she got stuck with towing me along the Novice course, while boy dog managed to get away with only having to run 1.5km per day.

Weather conditions were mixed, to say the least, but improved drastically over the weekend. And we had a really fun time. Daisy and I won the Novice run on the first day (over a shortened and, importantly, flat course) and then were emphatically beaten on days two and three. I'd love to blame the fact that our opposition was a good four inches taller (me) and probably 30kg heavier (Daisy - she is a titchy little collie, and the other dog was an incredibly handsome, huge, European-bred Dobermann)...but I fear the fault lies entirely with me, and my ability to run uphill. I'm very bad at it indeed. Daisy was fine, and did her best, but there's a limit to what she can do in the face of my inability to run fast. So training on running up hills for me, while they get to just chill - they are quick enough already!

Cybi and I won the short course, which was nice. We came out in front on each of the three days, though at least by day three Cybi was towing me - on day one he just minced his way along the path, avoiding the mud and wet spots, and generally not contributing to overall speed at all. It's one of the reasons he'd never have made it as a farm collie - he hates getting his feet wet.

Daisy giving it some beans on the left; Cybi getting the general gist but not really figuring out directions on the right...

Thoughts on being towed along by nutters

Daisy, Cybi and I have recently been doing some running together, as I'm so busy with rowing training, and I want to make sure they're fully exercised, and we need to fit in obedience, agility and scent work, so at least if we all run at the same time that serves two purposes.

I had heard of Cani-cross (or cani-x) but it all seemed a bit scary - super fit people charging about with their perfectly trained sled dogs. I decided I'd bite the bullet and have a go at an event anyway - since I'm rubbish at running, I figure that getting better at it will assist my other sports. There aren't *that* many events, but I managed to find something fairly locally, run by Canicross Midlands.

So we pitched up to our first event, with my having bottled it and entered us for the short (really short! - 1.5km) distance, in a howling gale in the middle of Derbyshire. We were there early enough to watch a number of the other racers, and I was somewhat reassured to see that not everyone looked like they yomped 20 miles before breakfast every day. I was extremely reassured, as well, by just how friendly everyone was. Like, seriously "going out of the way to make sure I was ok because I was a new face" friendly. Such an incredibly refreshing change after my initial experiences with some other dog sports. The club has some kit that's available to be borrowed, and the organiser, Claire, was politely insistent that I borrowed a waist belt rather than run the dogs in my hand as we'd done at home. I wasn't entirely convinced until I gave it a try...wow. The difference it makes running with the dogs pulling from hip height rather than in the hand is incredible.

 Our event was off last as we were only doing a little bit of the course, so by the time the nice weather had disappeared completely, the wind had picked up and the sleet had started we were ready for our first assault on a Canicross course. I cannot even articulate how much fun (while simultaneously painful) it is being towed around by two lunatic collies while sliding through the mud. Improved only by being pulled over on our way down a muddy bank, and then falling over Cybi when he stopped to shake the water out of his coat.

I was warned by an obedience friend that Cani Cross is addictive, and I was somewhat disbelieving....until we tried it. I'm now already the proud owner of my very own running belt (and it's a posh one!), about to fork over a large wodge of cash for running harnesses for the nutters, and we have race entries in for the end of the month and the start of April, and also for May. Rowing? What rowing? :o)

Cani Cross done properly (thanks various members of Canicross Midlands for the ok to use your pics!). Daisy, Cybi and I did not look like this....:

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