An injury does not necessarily mean that all training has to stop.

That statement needs an important qualification. A dog with a painful or significant injury may require strict rest or exercise restriction, and the recommendations of the treating veterinarian or rehabilitation professional should always take priority. However, once a dog is recovering and certain activities have been cleared, there may be considerable scope to adapt training rather than discontinue it altogether.

This is particularly relevant for dogs participating in sports such as agility, obedience and flyball. These dogs are often accustomed to regular training and interaction with their handler. A sudden reduction in activity can therefore present a practical challenge: how can we continue to provide appropriate mental engagement and meaningful training without interfering with physical recovery?

The answer is not to train through an injury. It is to reconsider what training can look like during recovery.

Three questions before you adapt your training

Before modifying a training session, I would start with three questions.

1. What exactly is injured?

The type and location of an injury matter enormously. A healing paw pad, muscle injury, tendon injury, fracture or post-operative joint are not interchangeable. Different tissues have different healing processes and different tolerances to mechanical loading (Kirkby Shaw et al., 2020). Knowing what is injured helps you understand which movements or loads may be inappropriate.

2. What activities are currently allowed?

This is where veterinary or rehabilitation advice is important. “Rest” does not necessarily mean the same thing for every dog. One dog may require strict exercise restriction, while another may be allowed controlled movement or specific rehabilitation exercises. 

The important thing is to understand the actual boundaries of the recovery plan:

- What is allowed?

- What should be avoided?

- Does the restriction concern speed, jumping, turning, weight-bearing, duration, surface, or simply the overall amount of activity?

Without knowing those boundaries, adapting training becomes guesswork.

3. What does the exercise actually require from the injured area?

This is perhaps the question trainers can contribute most to.

Take an agility exercise. What does the dog actually have to do?

Jump? Accelerate? Decelerate? Turn? Change direction? Push off? Land? Maintain balance? Carry a toy?

By breaking the exercise down into its physical components, we can sometimes identify ways to train the same general skill with substantially different physical demands.

That is very different from trying to find a loophole around an exercise restriction.

Injury does not necessarily mean complete inactivity

Veterinary rehabilitation is based on an individualized approach. Exercise and activity can be adjusted according to the patient's condition, stage of healing, function and rehabilitation goals (Gamble, 2022; Kirkby Shaw et al., 2020).

This does not mean that exercise is appropriate for every injury. Some conditions require strict restriction, particularly during specific stages of tissue healing. It does mean, however, that the choice is not always simply between normal training and complete inactivity.

For a dog that has been cleared for some activity, a more useful question may be:

What aspects of training can we continue without placing inappropriate demands on the recovering tissue?

That question allows us to separate the sport from the individual training components that make up the sport.

Adapt the components, not necessarily the entire sport

Dog sports are made up of many different components. Some are highly physical; others require relatively little movement from the dog.

Agility

If jumping is temporarily inappropriate, agility training does not necessarily have to disappear completely. Depending on the injury and the professional recommendations for the dog, training might focus on:

• engagement and attention;
• start-line behaviours;
• targeting;
• obstacle recognition;
• verbal cues;
• handler movement and positioning; 
• controlled, low-impact exercises; 

• the handler's own timing and mechanics.

A complete agility sequence may not be appropriate, but individual components can sometimes still be trained. The same principle can be applied to equipment. Reducing obstacle height, eliminating jumps, shortening distances or simplifying turns may alter the physical demands of an exercise. However, such modifications should be based on the injury rather than on a generic list of supposedly “safe” agility exercises. Agility is a physically demanding sport, and returning an injured dog to it requires consideration of the specific demands placed on the musculoskeletal system (Markley, 2023).

Obedience

Obedience offers many opportunities for modification because numerous behaviours can be trained with limited movement. Depending on the restrictions, a handler might work on:

• attention;
• stationary positions;
• duration;
• impulse control;
• targeting;
• discrimination;
• reinforcement delivery;
• chin rests;
• cooperative-care behaviours; 
• precise cueing.

If walking heelwork is temporarily inappropriate, there may still be considerable value in training engagement or stationary behaviours without asking the dog to perform repeated movement.

Flyball

Flyball presents a particular challenge because the sport involves acceleration, jumping, rapid turns and high levels of arousal. When those physical components need to be restricted, training can instead focus on elements such as:

• start-line behaviour;
• release cues;
• impulse control;
• targeting;
• toy skills;
• calm behaviour around equipment; 
• handler timing.

Again, the objective is not to find a way around a restriction. It is to identify which aspects of the sport remain compatible with the dog's current physical limitations.

What if your dog goes completely “bananas”?

This is often the practical problem. You have an active sporting dog that is suddenly doing much less physical activity. The dog is enthusiastic, frustrated and looking for something to do. The obvious response is to try to tire the dog out with more mental stimulation. That is not always the best approach.

Some training activities actually increase arousal. If every interaction during recovery becomes an exciting training session, the dog may become even more frustrated when activity stops again. This can be an excellent opportunity to work on calm behaviour instead.

Depending on the dog's restrictions, this might include:

• settling on a mat;
• waiting calmly for reinforcement;
• remaining relaxed while equipment is present;
• watching another dog work;
• cooperative care;
• chewing or appropriate food enrichment;
• sniffing activities that fit within the physical restrictions; or
• simply learning that not every interaction leads to an activity.

The goal is not to keep the dog occupied every minute of the day. The goal is to provide appropriate engagement while also teaching the dog to cope with reduced activity.

Adapt the criteria according to the recovery stage

One of the important principles of rehabilitation is progressive return to function. Activity is adjusted as the patient demonstrates that it can tolerate the current level of demand (Kirkby Shaw et al., 2020). For a sporting dog, returning to competition should therefore not be viewed as a single transition from “rest” to “normal training.” The physical demands of the sport need to be reintroduced progressively (Markley, 2023; Ramos et al., 2021). The same principle can be applied when adapting training during recovery.

Depending on what has been approved for the dog, you may be able to:

• reduce distance;
• reduce speed;
• reduce repetitions;
• reduce obstacle height;
• remove jumps;
• simplify turns;
• use a more controlled environment;
• reduce the complexity of a sequence; or
• replace a physical component with a stationary or cognitive component.

The aim is not to find a way to perform the original exercise regardless of the injury. The aim is to identify a version of the training objective that is compatible with the dog's current abilities.

Watch the dog, not just the calendar

A dog may be enthusiastic about training while still being physically unable to tolerate the activity. Motivation is therefore not a reliable indicator of recovery.

Handlers should pay attention to changes in gait, movement quality, willingness to perform particular behaviours, posture and behaviour during and after exercise. Any deterioration, increased discomfort or change in the injured area should prompt reassessment rather than simply a decision to continue at a lower level.

This is one reason why rehabilitation should be individualized and reassessed rather than based solely on a fixed timeline (Gamble, 2022; Kirkby Shaw et al., 2020).

Sometimes the best training is learning to do less

There is another opportunity during recovery that is easy to overlook. Sporting dogs are often very good at working. They may become highly excited by equipment, toys, other dogs or the prospect of training. When physical activity is restricted, it can be tempting to replace every lost training session with increasingly stimulating mental activities.

That is not always necessary. Recovery can also be an opportunity to teach and reinforce calm behaviour. Settling on a mat, waiting for a release cue, remaining relaxed while another dog works, accepting handling calmly, or simply learning that not every interaction leads to an activity are all useful skills for a sporting dog.

The goal is therefore not to keep the dog constantly occupied. It is to provide appropriate activity and appropriate rest.

The principle: adapt, don't work around the restriction

There is an important difference between adapting training and attempting to circumvent exercise restrictions. If a veterinarian has instructed a dog to avoid weight-bearing on a limb, for example, finding a “creative” exercise that still loads that limb is not adaptation. It is ignoring the restriction.

Adaptation means working within the boundaries of the recovery plan. The rehabilitation literature supports individualized exercise and progressive return to function, but it does not provide a universal list of exercises that are safe for every injured dog. The appropriate activities depend on the diagnosis, tissue involved, stage of healing and individual response (Gamble, 2022; Kirkby Shaw et al., 2020). That is why professional guidance is particularly important for significant injuries, surgery, persistent lameness, pain or wounds that have not adequately healed.

So, what can you still train?

The answer will be different for every dog.

When my dog's pad is healing, we do not continue normal agility because the dog is “almost healed.” Instead, we changed the training so that the activities we selected are appropriate to that stage of recovery.

The goal was not to prevent a temporary loss of fitness at all costs. The goal was to keep training meaningful without compromising healing.

For an active dog and an equally active handler, an injury does not necessarily have to mean putting training completely on hold.

References

Farr, B. D., Ramos, M. T., & Otto, C. M. (2020). The Penn Vet Working Dog Center Fit to Work Program: A formalized method for assessing and developing foundational canine physical fitness. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, Article 470. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00470

Gamble, L.-J. (2022). Physical rehabilitation for small animals. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, 52(4), 997–1019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2022.03.005

Hansen, L. A., Hazenfield, K. M., Olea-Popelka, F., & Smeak, D. D. (2015). Distribution, complications, and outcome of footpad injuries in pet and military working dogs. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, 51(4), 222–230. https://doi.org/10.5326/JAAHA-MS-6193

Kirkby Shaw, K., Alvarez, L., Foster, S. A., Tomlinson, J. E., Shaw, A. J., & Pozzi, A. (2020). Fundamental principles of rehabilitation and musculoskeletal tissue healing. Veterinary Surgery, 49(1), 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/vsu.13270

Markley, A. P. (2023). Management of injuries in agility dogs. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, 53(4), 829–844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2023.02.012

Ramos, M. T., Farr, B. D., & Otto, C. M. (2021). Sports medicine and rehabilitation in working dogs. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, 51(4), 859–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2021.04.005
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I would use “What can we train today?” as the closing line. It captures your philosophy without suggesting that dogs should exercise when they shouldn't.