Conditioning of the Performance Dog-a primer.

If you have a USDAA show on a Sunday, it is probably Not a good idea to Not let the dogs do anything fun or exciting like training or running or even walking briskly or even walking slowly the 2 days before. We will call this poor conditioning.

We will call running their asses off for 2 days prior to the 2 days of sitting around doing absolutely nothing, running including but not limited to: near impalement on objects, falling off ravines, potentially getting kicked by deer, eating carion and general mayhem, perhaps not the best conditioning either.

Handlers should attempt to not stay up late and get up super early. Try not to have giant Work Events the same week as vacation and dog shows. We will call this also poor conditioning.

And then, just to make it a little more complicated, add in potential unsoundness due to residual lameness and potential deer kick to one dog. Add in one dog is young and generally bouncing off the walls. Add in one dog just nutso all the time anyways. Add in maybe dogs have to stay at home on days of giant Work Events. Add in phone calls from home to work that you can hold up for all your students, saying, "Listen to the howling at my house, you guys!" Phone call maybe not intended for amusement of students.

This could be called conditioning of the Performance Dog. Team Small Dog style.