Sporting dog trainers are competitors, often athletes themselves, and always sports enthusiasts. They make up 20 to 30 percent of the membership of simple dog obedience clubs and virtually 100 percent of the membership of organizations devoted to a particular sport. Sporting dogs are athletes who require a specific way of life and must be monitored biologically and medically like elite human athletes.For utility dogs, the most important notions are operational performance and optimal physical performance on an ongoing basis. Here again, veterinarians who have worked to acquire and develop specific skills and knowledge are an important part of the final result.
With the growth of various sporting dog disciplines and the many uses of dogs as professional assistants to humans, veterinarians must respond increasingly to the very specialized and specific needs of trainers. Still too often informal, these needs involve a number of areas:- General biological training of the owner/competitor.- Advice on breeding, especially in terms of improving performance.- Prevention of disorders related to physical effort, as well as breeding and group living.- A good knowledge of organizations and regulations and a contribution to their development.- An effective presence on the site of competition.- Implementation, understanding, and application of anti-doping regulations.
Still, the true function of veterinarians in a particular canine sport is often poorly defined and depends more on the degree of interest in that sporting discipline than on a true definition of responsibilities. Based on enthusiasm as well as logic (both technical and financial), this function must be better defined in each discipline so that the roles of veterinarians can be better delineated and made official.
The purpose of this chapter is simply to provide a basis for reflection. The potential roles of veterinarians in the world of canine sports are discussed below in no particular order.
Veterinarians Giving Advice on Optimizing Canine Performance
Obviously, the systematic effort to improve performance by breeders, handlers, competitors, and trainers has increased the incidence of disorders specific to the group involved, since intense performance most often means increased fragility.
Each sporting and working dog has a genetically determined psychological performance limit. The goal of a good training plan, as discussed in the specific chapters, is therefore to attain this limit and maintain the animal there. The veterinarian's advice must fit into this notion of an "overall training plan" and must include:- Support for optimal genetic selection.- Regular monitoring of the dog's general condition (kennel hygiene and design, preventive treatment programs that interfere the least possible with training and competition, regular biochemical and hematological tests).- Participation in developing training plans (still too often, the physical training of sporting dogs is nothing but the product of vague empiricism aimed only at accruing miles on the track).- Nutritional advice, both in finding the food most adapted to the type of effort and size of the dog and in using nutritional supplements, many of which are nothing but a waste of money.- Early detection of cumulative stress that is too great for the dog and can lead to psychological demotivation and later true illness.
Veterinarians Training Trainers
Given the principle that "we use well only what we understand well," we believe that biological and veterinary information must be as extensive as possible. In the manner of pulka and dog sled racing and annual American and Australian conferences on the Greyhound, each discipline could have veterinary commissions to provide basic training to trainers who are members. This type of activity would foster a true exchange between veterinarians and trainers that would prove very beneficial to the veterinarians themselves.
Veterinarians on Site During Competition
We believe that one or more veterinarians should be present on site for the duration of each canine sports competition. No country is anywhere near such a state of affairs. In this regard, sled dog racing is certainly a good example. In this sport, teams of specialized veterinarians are assembled for each event. Completely independent, they are present on site twenty-four hours a day and are an integral part of the overall setting of this sport. Their presence is even more important, since the possibility of medical or surgical emergencies is compounded by regulations (drug tests, if any) and communication (interface with certain animal protection groups and the media). On-site veterinarians must be fully knowledgeable about the sporting discipline involved. This generally makes them even more enthusiastic about the competition, which leads them to increase their skills and knowledge. The still limited function of on-site veterinarians in canine sports competition is now and must concretely become more important and better acknowledged by organizers. This will benefit all those involved, starting with the dogs, but will be possible only if veterinarians do their best to respond to trainers' needs and respect their skills and knowledge.
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