Fitness Trainer Programs

[lehughes]

Hey Gang,

Looking to encourage discussion:
There are a few different options out there when it comes to Fitness Trainer education (i.e. FitPaws Master Trainer or Fenzi Dog Sport Academy, K9 Fit Club).
What are you thoughts on this?
Which programs did you take and what did you like / dislike?

Discuss away please!

Cheers,
Laurie

[tania]

My thoughts, although i have not taken either program...As professionals we 'know' what is right for our patients. From what i can glean from these programs, they are taught by non rehab people and more of a marketing strategy to buy fitpaws products.
I have been teaching use of various products for vets, vet techs, Pt's and pet dog owners for many years, including home made products, and using what i have learned from people like Laurie, as to what is appropriate for various clientele (i.e. hip dogs, knee dogs, neurologic and geriatric, etc).
So my two cents..keep your money in your pocket, and think about what your goals are (i.e. muscles you want to strengthen) and figure out exercises that will target that.

tania

[erica]

I have taken the FitPaws Master trainer one year ago in UK
From my point of view (I am a physio vet)it is a very well structured course, scientifically based.
It was very basic in some aspects (anatomy, muscles type of work), but very illuminating for others: how to set up a balanced fitness program (cardio, strenght, mental,flexy, balance), the importance of warm up and cool down, different programs for different needs (puppy, senior, sporting dogs, obese...), very inspirating for differnet types of exercise and their progression.

I would recommend it.
Hope my english was good enough

Erica

[lehughes]

Thanks Erica!

Laurie

[lisamblanchard]

FWIW, I have taken the program (both on-line and live). You can say I may be a little biased as I now work for FitPAWS. However, I wanted to let everyone know that the program is taught by 2 DVMS, a PT and and LVT that are rehab certified. The main difference when developing the fitness program is that we are teaching non-professionals so we have to be very careful to ensure that they understand when to refer to veterinarians, rehab physios, etc. It can be challenging to have a curriculum that satisfies both the professional community and the layperson, but we continue to work on it! What I have found is that in rehab practice we don't get the opportunity to work with dogs to create fitness plans (i.e. utilizing variables like a human fitness trainer - reps, sets, etc.). Most of the dogs that come in are "broken" and just need to be fixed. The Master Trainer/CCFT program strictly teaches how to design fitness programs for dogs of all Life Stages.

If anyone has questions on the program, I would be happy to answer them. Thanks for the opportunity to explain!

Lisa Blanchard BA, LVT, CMT, CCRP, CCFT, FP-MTI

[lehughes]

Thanks Lisa!