Yes, it's a new column; no, it isn't about hounds. This column will concern media, broadly understood as books, videos, magazines, and occasionally seminars. I am interested in providing monthly reviews of various works that should interest trainers of competition obedience dogs. My choices will be eclectic. I'll be looking at both fiction and nonfiction, at books designed for the general educated public and those aimed solely at the specialized market of obedience training, at relatively new publications and older, classic texts. I will not be criticizing any particular training method elaborated upon in these works. Rather, I will attempt to evaluate the clarity and precision with which these methods are presented.
The dog in the picture is my basset bitch, Ch. Brevis Concorde CDX TD (two legs on the UD and we're still hoping . . .). Connie's a tough critic; I tend to cut authors a little slack, but she continually demands nothing less than excellence. Between the two of us, we should be able to hammer out some sort of fair-minded middle ground. For the curious, since I refuse to submit my own picture, I am a recent Ph.D. in American religious history and thought who is delighted by the opportunity to take an occasional break from the Puritans and think about dog training. The title of this column was a communal effort from my good friends on the Internet mailing list obed-l (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should. If you do, send e-mail to obedreq@reepicheep.gcn.uoknor.edu to get some more information on the list. Internet will soon become the only form of media that any of us really need.) Ed Marrow, one of the list members, came up with "Media Hound." Everyone seemed to like it. (I was equally partial to "Dog-Eared Pages," the brain-child of list-member Sally Molloy. But then I tend to be old-fashioned.). That's really all the background that anyone should need. I hope you enjoy the column!
This month's review will be of the book Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete by M. Christine Zink, D.V.M. Ph.D. (New York: Howell Book House, 1992).
Zink's book unquestionably belongs in the library of anyone participating in canine performance events, including obedience, agility, conformation, tracking, herding, lure coursing, hunting tests, and field trials. As Zink writes, "There are many books that discuss the specifics of how to train a dog for a particular performance event. But training is only one facet of preparing for competition. The dog must be physically prepared in a broader sense, starting with a sound body, strengthened through exercise, proper nutrition and excellent health care. We, as owners/trainers/handlers, participate in canine performance events by playing the role of coach. The winning coach must be a combination of talent scout, sports medicine specialist, problem preventer, physical therapist, trainer and friend" (xvii-xviii). In effect, Zink has written a sports manual to allow all of us to become winning canine coaches.
Peak Performance touches on almost every aspect of performance dogs, including general chapters on canine structure and locomotion, a guide to selecting a performance dog, routine maintenance of the performance dog, organizing a fitness program, common causes of lameness, common medical problems that can affect performance, fundamentals of canine pharmacology, and the physiological effects of stress on the performance dog. Zink has been active in canine competition since graduating from veterinary school; she and her golden retrievers have earned titles in obedience, hunting, and conformation. Her book is thus not a jargon-filled technical manual of primary interest to scientists and veterinarians; it is instead a guide to success in the world of canine performance events, written by a knowledgeable veterinarian who is also an active dog fancier. The combination is powerful.
Several of the book's chapters, including those on canine locomotion and general health, are basic introductions to information covered in greater detail by other authors. Zink is always careful to provide citations to these works for those readers wishing further study and more detailed information. Possibly Peak Performance's most original and important chapters are "Selecting a Performance Dog," "Conditioning the Performance Dog," and "Lameness and Performance-Related Injuries." In selecting a dog, one should, according to Zink, pay as much attention to basic soundness and fluid movement as to temperament. Zink discusses in great detail the specifics of developing a proper fitness program for the individual dog, including specific exercises to strengthen particular muscle groups. Her analysis of the various causes and treatments of lameness is extremely useful to those of us constantly battling to keep our dogs sound.
My complaints about this book are few. I would have liked to have a section on the proper uses of the treadmill, as well as its potential abuses. Some more detail on methods of reducing physical and emotional stress on the performance dog would have been welcome. (Zink is currently at work on a second book which will cover conditioning in much greater depth.) In her acknowledgments, Zink thanks a fourteen-year-old boy who helped edit her book, saying that he was forced to give up on fixing her dangling participles. A few of those participles still remain ("Despite the fact that they cannot yet walk, it is possible for an experienced eye to assess certain features of a puppy's physical makeup, especially in the first day after birth" [48]). But a dangling participle or two is an insignificant price to pay for a book as informative and useful as Peak Performance.