Dobo is a fun and effective form of exercise for both dog and handler. Oval shaped exercise balls, balance cushions and half balls are used in dobo for different exercises.
There are three kinds of exercises in dobo: those for the dog, the handler, and for both. Most exercises are easy to modify from easy to challenging, so it is excellently suited for athletes of all levels.
Dobo's benefits for the dog:
- improves concentration
- improves balance and body control
- strengthens the deep muscles
- exercises help the dog to strech and through streching, muscle tension can be relieved or removed
- improves the relationship between dog and handler
Dobo's benefits for the handler:
- increases muscle strength
- increases flexibility - the dobo ball makes it easy to target the areas that need streching
- improves coordination, balance and body control
- improves posture, as the muscles in the torso must work continuously to maintain balance
- relationship to dog improves when sharing a fun activity
Why do the deep muscles of a dog need workout?
The deep muscles of a dog begin to deteriorate at the age of four months, unless they are exercised. Deep muscles are extremely sensitive, and they are always activated before the superficial muscles. Superficial muscles are the ones creating the actual movement. Deep muscles support the joints and play an important part in that sense. Deep muscles are activated in slow and static movements. A dog may have excellent muscles otherwise, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it would have strong deep muscles. Weak deep muscles cause the superficial muscles to work improperly, leading to tension, pain and wear.
Strong deep muscles decrease the dog's risk of injury. When strong deep muscles form a corset, they also diminish the strain on the wrong parts of the body. Naturally, this is especially important in agility, where both dog and handler are faced with surprising and sudden movements.
Trying dobo for myself
I was interested in dobo as a sport, because it seemed like a way to improve a dog's body control, so I went to a dobo instructor course. While coaching agility and obedience, I often run into situations, where a dog doesn't have the necessary physical control for meeting the demands of the sport, and the expectations of its handler.
Prior to the course, I had tested dobo with my own dogs, a dobo ball and a balance cushion, as instructed by a physical therapist. I was a bit apprehensive about the amount of exercises we would be doing with our dogs, knowing that even balancing on the ball is a lot of work, if you don't have previous experience. My suspicions proved to be wrong.
On the first day, we studied different dobo exercises in theory, and practiced some of the easier exercises without our dogs. Already at this point it was easy to see, why both the dog and the handler need a thorough warm-up before dobo. I was positively surprised to see, that there are several exercises, where the handler does most of the hard work. Thanks to this, it only takes careful planning to match the exercises with the level of each group, and to avoid overworking the dogs, which would not be in the spirit of the original idea. It was also motivating to see, that for almost all exercises there were options available, so you can choose the one that is best suited for your own and your dog's current physical condition. And to top it all, it is impossible to practise dobo without smiling - our group was living proof of that.
I have never been too excited about going to a traditional gym, but now I realized that abdominal exercises or push-ups can even be fun! What else would they be, when you get to do them with your own beloved dog.
Written by Maria Mäkelä
Photos: Laura Kangasmäki
Who am I?
"My name is Maria Mäkelä. Originally, I trained as a practical nurse, but for the last eight years I have been working full time in our dog training center, ProCanis. My family comprises of my partner Janne, daughter Minttu and our dogs.
I have been into dog sports since I was a child, concentrating on agility and obedience, but I've also done some tracking, searching and protection training.
When I got started in dog sports back in 1992, canine muscle maintenance was not discussed to the extent it is today, if at all, since even agility was a new sport in Finland at the time. I became interested in the subject when my Belgian Shepherd who was born in 1997 had to be euthanized at the age of seven, due to severe spondylosis. It made me wonder if I could have done something differently. The dog in question became a member of the Finnish agility team at the age of two, and the Finnish obedience team at the age of four. We spent countless hours training; with my training skills at the time we had to, in order to reach that level. I remember practically living in the training arena, training both agility and obedience on most nights. Back then, no time was put aside for warming up or cooling down the dog, or any other muscle maintenance, or excercises for improving the dog's body. It has been several years from that dog to this day, and there have been several dogs in between, but it was at that point that I promised myself I would do my best to spread the knowledge about muscle maintenance for sport dogs.
As my experience keeps building up, I now see muscle maintenance as part of a dog's holistic care, which I see as especially important, and where everything is connected. Mind and body have a strong relationship: physical problems manifest themselves in several types of behavioral problems, and those in their part leave their mark on the dog's body, so neither can be neglected. The biggest part of a dog's life is everyday life, and I feel it should be made as stress free and effortless as possible, in the name of the dog's overall wellbeing. The wellbeing of both mind and body is emphasized when dealing with sport dogs, where every factor counts when aiming for the optimal performance in a competition.
Agility training sessions and competitions are, due to the exciting nature of the sport, highly stressful, and that in itself is not a problem. The problems arise, when a dog is unable to lower its stress levels between training sessions and competitions. This can easily happen, if the dog's everyday life is full of stressful situations. The dog's body contains excessive amounts of stress hormone, and in the long run this will cause several types of health and behavior problems.
These days, I aim to improve my skills as a trainer, so I can get a better result with less training. The time saved through the use of more efficient training methods, I use to maintain and develop my dogs' muscles. I hope to have a canine companion for training sessions and competitions for years to come, and to provide my dog with the means of living a long and good life."
