Fitness Training

Canine fitness training involves structured, progressive exercise designed to build a dog’s strength, balance, flexibility, endurance and body awareness — the dog equivalent of going to the gym rather than just going for a walk or a run.

Why it exists

Most pet dogs get exercise that’s all one thing: forward motion at speed, often on flat ground, or chasing a ball.  These activities are great for enrichment, cardiovascular fitness and front-end drive but leave the stabilising muscles of the core, hips and shoulders underdeveloped.  Fitness training targets those gaps, which matters for injury prevention, for working dogs needing performance, for older dogs losing muscle mass, and for dogs rehabbing after injury or surgery.

The main components

• Proprioception and body awareness — teaching a dog to know where its feet are.
• Core and postural strength — static holds and controlled movement on unstable surfaces.
• Strength and power — hill work, controlled pushing and pulling, weight shifting to load specific limbs.
• Flexibility and range of motion — spinal flexibility and passive stretching
• Endurance — built gradually with structured walking, trotting, and swimming.  Definitely not marathons of ball chasing which are good for my business but not good for your dog.

My goal is always to give you and your dog a strong foundation.  This includes:  reliable stationary positions (sit, down, stand) on cue, the ability to be shaped or lured into position calmly, and a handler who can spot a dog that’s disengaging.

Puppies with open growth plates, dogs with undiagnosed lameness, and brachycephalic dogs with breathing limits all will need modified programmes.