I have a few thoughts about that:

🔘 Your dog may compete in a sport, but the time spent training for that sport, while it does keep your dog more active than most, isn't fitness training, it's sports training. Fitness training for your sport would work to target the specific muscle groups that enable your dog to perform more effectively at a high level in that sport. Think better, stronger, faster.

🔘 We ask a lot of our performance dogs and a number of the sports they participate in are very physically demanding (quick stops/starts, high impact landings, etc), this leads to injury often. Fitness training helps reduce the likelihood of those injuries. I don't know anyone that wants to have a dog's career ended or set back from months of rehab.

🔘 If a dog only trains for a sport, they can often develop compensations based on the muscles always in use. Picture a rally or obedience dog that spends most of its time on the handler's left side with its neck craned upward and to the right. There will be muscles that are over and under developed in these situations and open the dog up to injury long term. Cross training is really important for a well rounded dog. 

Want to learn more? I can help you develop a specific program for your dog and build a better athlete. ❤️