Self Guided -Psoas / Shoulder Injury Prevention
Designed by Bobbie Lyons, CSCC, CCFT, KPA CPT
Enroll Now!OPEN ENROLLMENT
Strength Training to Prevent the Most Common Injuries in Dog Sports
Aligning Exercises to Structural Weakness Can Be Key to Injury Prevention

Self-Paced Class
As soon as you sign up, you will have access to the full course!
In the K9 sport world there is a lot of talk of injury to the shoulders and illopsoas muscle. Often these injuries are "soft tissue" that are hard to diagnose and difficult to fully recover. My goal is in this SIX week class, is to help you understand how to reduce the chance of injury and have a better understanding of how these injuries can occur.
Illopsoas (psoas) injury is often seen in canine sport athletes due to over use of the muscles, splayed rear legs on slippery ground, under trained long jumps, and lack of strength in the core muscle group, just to name a few culprits. The illopsoas is two muscles and supports more movements then you might think.
Shoulder injury often occurs in performance dogs due to repetitive movements, managing surfaces, managing 60% of their body weight, the speed in which they are turning and more. This class will help you understand the complexity of the shoulder and how to support it through exercise.
Why Take This Class?
This course is ideal for any healthy dog!
Learn how to understand psoas and shoulder injuries in performance dogs
Describe the anatomy of the complicated shoulder and forelimb complex
The potential reasons for psoas and shoulder injuries
What makes your dog predisposed to psoas and shoulder injuries
Prevention, strength, stretching, and conditioning exercises will be described in depth
Advantages of the Online Class
What's Included?
Self Paced Class
As soon as you sign up, you have access to all the lessons. This way you can pick and chose which exercises to work on.
Start Date
The class will begin right after you enroll. This class is always open for enrollment, so some students might be ahead of you and some will be behind you.
Format
Each class is broken into lessons, with one or more exercises within each lesson - access to materials for as long as BLCC exists.
The school reserves the right to modify, update or remove this class at anytime.
Course Curriculum
Exercise Level:
This course will have beginner to advanced exercises with most falling in the intermediate to advanced level. If you are a beginner you can start at the foundation level and work out to the more advanced movements.
THREE weeks will work specifically on psoas
THREE weeks will work specifically on shoulders
Suggested Pre-requsites: basic understanding of targeting and foundation skills is helpful, but not required
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- 2o2o board/travel plank or aerobic bench
- K9FIT bones, large and small discs
- Peanut
- Klimbs or Platforms
- Cavalettis or agility jumps or poles on pop cans
Possible Equipment
Substitution will be recommended if you don't have the equipment used in the videos. FitPAWS is offering 30% education discount. Klimb is offering a discount as well. Information to get the discount will be available upon enrolling.There are many possible equipment options or you may use something you have laying around your house.
Training Methods
A variety of training methods can be used to obtain the proper movement or position - shaping, luring, targeting and It's Yer Choice. These methods will be discussed in the video turtorials, in the forum and through video review.
Disclaimer: Some information in this class may overlap or appear in other classes due to the foundation needed for many behaviors, tricks, and fitness exercises. In addition, there are overlapping skills needed for many different performance activities so you may see exercises that are the same but packaged up differently toward a slightly different goal.
Bobbie Lyons, CSCC, CCFT, KPA CTP
Lead Instructor and Program Director - Certified Canine Strength and Conditioning Coach ProgramCertified Canine Fitness TrainerKaren Pryor Academy Faculty
Bobbie has been teaching and learning about canine fitness for over 18 years. Her keen eye of movement and ability to adjust exercises to improve strength is undeniable. Bobbie creates pet, performance, and working dog canine fitness plans focusing on improving posture and strength specifically for the activities the dog is involved in, or the activities the handler strives to achieve.
Blending dog training techniques with canine fitness is what makes Bobbie an asset to any handler dog team or family. She can help you break down behavior, add in strength, and end up with a very strong behavior that improves performance while decreasing the chances of injury.
Bobbie is the Program Director for the Certified Canine Strength and Conditioning Coach program accredited by the North Carolina State Veterinary Medicine and a Karen Pryor Academy Faculty member. She spends a good amount of her time teaching others to improve their training skills and how to add canine fitness to their career path.
Bobbie is a fun, relaxed instructor who likes to teach more like a conversation. She is very giving of her time and imparts an amazing amount of information. This is an effort to help students understand why, how, and what to look for when training and completing canine fitness exercises.
