A recent survey of the frequency and types of orthopedic conditions and injuries experienced by dogs competing in agility.
The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association conducted a new Intenet-based survey of active agility dogs.
- Agility has continued over the last few years to be one of the most popular canine performance events in the world, with participation continuing to grow. According to the American Kennel Club, for example, the total number of agility entries have increased 38% over the past decade.
- Previous surveys have evaluated the prevalence of injuries among dogs training and competing in agility and found that 32% of dogs had experienced an injury, with injuries of the shoulder region (22.9%), back (18.5%), digits (13.3%), and neck (12.4%) most commonly reported. However, these surveys were conducted over 10 years ago, and even though the sport has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, updated evaluations had not been done.
- As the sport has grown, the level of competition has increased, and courses have become more challenging. While changes have been made over the past 10 years to improve the safety of agility equipment and some agility obstacles, such as the chute, have been removed from competition entirely by certain organizations, new levels of competition and technical demands have placed increased physical demands on participating dogs and may potentially increase the risk of injury.
- New Survey
- An internet-based survey (online survey software) conducted in English was distributed primarily via social media and made available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Continental Europe, the UK and Ireland, and all other countries. A total of by 4,197 individuals responded and for most of the dogs, agility was the main sport focus. The most common breed or type in the sample was Border Collie, followed by mixed-breed, Shetland Sheepdog, and Australian Shepherd. The most common geographic region was the US, followed by the UK and Ireland, Canada, and Continental Europe.
- Overall, owners of 1,958 of the 4,701 (41.7%) dogs reported that the dog had experienced an injury severe enough to keep it from participating in agility for ≥ 1 week. Owners reported that of the 1958 dogs with this information available, 986 (50.6%) had experienced only 1 such injury, 569 (29.2%) had experienced 2 such injuries, 233 (11.9%) had experienced 3 such injuries, 72 (3.7%) had experienced 4 such injuries, 23 (1.2%) had experienced 5 such injuries, and 67 (3.4%) had experienced ≥ 6 such injuries.
- Among injured dogs, the most common injury location was the shoulder region, followed by the iliopsoas muscle, digits, and lumbar spinal or lumbosacral region
- This table from the research shows the primary areas of injury.
Anatomic region No. (%) of dogs Percentage of injuries All regions 1,958 (41.7) 100 Shoulder 589 (12.5) 30.1 Iliopsoas muscle 380 (8.1) 19.4 Digits (toes) 350 (7.4) 17.9 Lumbar spinal or lumbosacral 336 (7.1) 17.2 Stifle 261 (5.6) 13.3 Thoracic spinal 258 (5.5) 13.2 Paw pads 200 (4.3) 10.2 Neck 199 (4.2) 10.2 Hip 169 (3.6) 8.6 Carpal 166 (3.5) 8.5 Thigh 116 (2.5) 5.9 Elbow 90 (1.9) 4.6 Metacarpal 63 (1.3) 3.2 Ribs or side 55 (1.2) 2.8 Antebrachium 41 (0.9) 2.1 Head 39 (0.8) 2.0 Tibial or fibular 34 (0.7) 1.7 Tarsal or calcaneal tendon 34 (0.7) 1.7 Tail 24 (0.5) 1.2 Metatarsal 23 (0.5) 1.2
- This table from the research shows the primary areas of injury.
- Results of the recent study suggested that musculoskeletal injuries were common among dogs competing and training in agility, with injuries to the shoulder region substantially more common than injuries in other anatomic locations and iliopsoas muscle injuries second most common. In addition, we found that the frequency and types of injuries varied among breeds and geographic regions. The overall prevalence of injuries in the present survey was 41.7% (1,958/4,701), which was substantially higher than the 32% reported a decade ago. Importantly, most of the dogs in the present study were ≤ 11 years old, meaning that they would not have been included in the earlier survey.
- The authors suggest that “our findings provide valuable insights into the most commonly reported injuries in agility dogs and may help guide clinical evaluations and diagnostic testing of dogs examined because of lameness or performance issues. The survey also indicated a need for studies evaluating the biomechanics of injuries to the shoulder region, iliopsoas muscle, and lumbar spinal region as well as studies aimed at prevention and treatment strategies for these injuries.”