Stations
Sometimes I struggle to count my reps during a workout. So one thing I do when I have a circuit setup is I precount the cookies I will need for each station and place them at each station, this way when I get to each station and start my exercise I can just exercise until my treats are out. This is also a great way to keep yourself from over training one station and then having a dog too tired for the next stations
Treat dispenser
Do the cheap treat dispensers work?
I decided to roll the dice and try a cheap treat dispenser game from Amazon to be my canine gym tool. I didn’t want yet another TnT/MM but was willing to because having one dedicated to the gym space would be helpful.
But instead I gave this toy a try
What I really like is that both the console and remote are USB rechargeable. The console holds a decent amount of food, not a ton but for me it’s enough for a session. I haven’t yet had it jam so that’s a huge plus. Works indoors and outdoors, I tested up to about 150ft
Biggest con is the size of remote since it was meant for a dog to learn to step on or nose touch it’s larger.
So far, I vote yes, I question really will be how long does it last
classroom
Here is an inside look at the Canine Fitness Basics classroom. We are deep diving into all things foundations for canine fitness but there is also some great bonus content, like some tricks that also serve as fitness exercises. You can still join in this classroom, we just started our week of learning Stand. Right now that is broken down into 4 different lessons so we get a proper, confident and reliable stand with a stay
Here is the link to sign up for if you want to learn along with this group, it's only $35 for lifetime access to this classroom, so you can come back to it over and over again if you need to refresh any of your foundations
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/2MB7F3DDN9PES
Stand
Ending the year and starting the new year really focusing on fitness for the dogs for me starts with tidying up all my fundamentals. This way we can start the new year really strong with this foundaiton underneath us, supporting everything else we want to do!
Here is a snippet from my lesson on teaching stand, going into detail about why I use the equipment I use.
If you want to join me in revisiting your foundations, or just want to get started in canine fitness properly for first time, this Canine Fitness Basics classroom is for you!
Here is the link to sign up for that, it's only $35 for lifetime access to this classroom, so you can come back to it over and over again if you need to refresh any of your foundations
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/2MB7F3DDN9PES
walks
Walking for Fitness - its all about the equipment. Take a look at the video and see how this leash choice influences the way my dog walks. Can you see how having the wrong piece of equipment if not helping my dog have a productive walk, through the lens of this walk being for fitness?
Want to learn more about some of a basic things you can do at home that will help improve your dog's fitness, like just going for walks. I'm hosting a live FREE webinar on Tuesday December 10th at 9pm EST to talk about position change, fitness walks and more
Register for that webinar here to get a link
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqc-CgpjIuHNO734AgriYlcpt122n4LxeZ
Position changes are a huge, huge part of canine fitness. Training things like these 3 downs is part of why I love canine fitness, the combination of dog training plus teaching your dog to move their body on their own without force or lures creates this really great bond between handler and dog
Besides the different downs here, we have different ways to sit and stand.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving and being grateful for all our followers, I’m thinking about putting together a FREE webinar on position changes and some tips on how to train them
Throw this post a like/love if you’d want to see that
As much as I share fitness here I also spend a lot of time trick training because really fitness is just a targeted, specific use of tricks
High performance athletes utilize sport specific training to do from just in shape to in shape for sportWe should be adding sport specific canine conditioning as well which is geared toward helping the dog be conditioned for sport like movements Following up from yesterday you can see in these clips how much angle the dog has when coming out of these turns or preparing for them. This is what makes the Amplify Your Agility program so unique! I have studied the movements the dogs have during agility and created exercises for some of the unique ways our agility dogs use their body. Sport specific exercises for our sport dogs, to help make them better athletes and be physically prepared to compete!K9Nut.com/agilityfitness
Teaching our dogs balance on contacts goes beyond just teaching a dog to be comfortable on narrow surfaces and being able to keep their feet on them. It is a great start but we can do SO much more to educate our dogs for body awareness in space and also to truly understand how to find balance and control their body in motion. This is why I have created the Amplify Your Agility canine fitness program!! 6 lessons to take you beyond the basics and really help to educate you dog on how to move and gain strength and control with their entire bodyLearn more and sign up here https://k9nut.com/agilityfitness/
If this was your workout, we would call this just a workout for general fitness, and if you had to do this every single day you would not only get bored you wouldn’t be getting better at any specific activity for sport. So it’s great you are moving and getting in fitness but it doesn’t serve any longer term goals…..so let’s apply this same thought process to our canine fitness routines #fitness #caninefitness #generalfitness #sportspecificfitness #k9fitness
Part 1
Power of Sport Specific Exercises
Cavalettis are a commonly used piece of canine fitness equipment, I use them often and for many different reasons. They are so adaptable and their use translate perfectly into dog agility as our agility dogs often understand what to do when they see the picture of a bar with two uprights.
Here is Part 1 or 3 of an exercise I use to not only help my dog gain core strength, balance and flexibility I’m taking a basic curved cavalettis setup and adding some twists to it to it to work on the concept and body control for collection, not just to a jump but to weaves or any where our dogs go from running in extension to shortening their stride for collection.
**If you are new to curved cavalettis setup, the basic setup here is 4 cones and 4 poles, I have the cones bunched up in a way that I can space my poles out in a way that the center of the poles is at my dog’s extension cavaletti spacing. If you don’t have that distance, we typically start at a distance equal to your dog’s shoulder height (unless you know your dog is very straight in the front then you might want to do 1in less). The height of the pole is low, I have it angled down using the lowest hole on my cones, this does not need to increase with taller dogs, low for all dogs is important**
If you want me to share Part 2 share this post and help get at least 50 likes to this video and I will release the next steps of this exercise
Jumping
Accidents like this happen but with concentrated effort of fitness to help our dogs with this kind of jump we are staking the desk in our favor that they won’t happen. Check out the Canine Fitness of Jumping Webinar Series to learn some exercises to help strengthen your dog for these exact type of scenarios
Details at K9Nut.com/webinars
(Note this was 2022 and we thankfully haven’t had any incidents like this while following a protocol that helps to keep him stronger)
