As well, conditioning increases our dog's ability to carry load on their muscles. This is important as injuries occur when muscles experience excessive lengthening and stretching that are unprepared for such a load. Another factor in injuries is fatigue in the muscles which causes our dogs to lose their ability to maintain position or cause stumbles and falls. While exercise like long walks or running in the backyard are good for maintaining large muscle groups, the deeper muscles which activate when our dog loses balance or tries to avoid slipping are often neglected and are often the area we see greater injury in.