Injury Prevention, Performance Assessment, and Return-to-Function
Core concepts
Understand pre-participation screening, workload management, and the balance between training load and recovery. Know performance assessment tools relevant to animal athletes: gait analysis, force plate and pressure mat measures, jump and agility timing, heart rate and lactate responses, and sport-specific skill tests. Be able to define return-to-function criteria: pain-free full range of motion, symmetrical limb use, adequate strength and proprioception, sport-specific competence, and graded reintroduction with monitoring. Understand risk factors such as abrupt workload increases, fatigue, poor conditioning, and surface or equipment factors.
Traps
Questions often tempt candidates to clear an animal on imaging alone or on time since injury. Another trap is confusing return to activity with return to performance, or ignoring the difference between a screening test's ability to detect a deficit and its ability to predict injury.
Worked example / rule of thumb
An agility dog after shoulder injury: require symmetrical weight bearing, full pain-free range, and completion of sport-specific drills before competition. Rule of thumb: return to sport only after the animal has met functional criteria and workload is increased gradually-typically no more than a modest weekly increment-while monitoring for signs of fatigue or soreness.