Movie Monday - Conditioning

This week's Movie Monday also doubles as a conditioning video and little Ruthie makes her "training" video debut!:0)




This video is just a basic approach to some variety that you can throw into a routine involving an aerobic step. With a larger dog and a smaller step, even simple movements such as sitting take more concentration and muscle control, as evidenced by Heffner and Bess. The aerobic step is also something that's a little different than the various core balancing balls that we use. The possibilities are really endless as far as what types of equipment you can work into a strength training routine for your dogs! It's one of the many reasons why I get so much enjoyment out of doing these various routines with my guys.

Before putting a string of movements together I first introduce the dogs to the individual pieces of equipment and get them offering the positions/movements that I want. Once they're comfortable with the equipment, I start putting it all together!

The aerobic step was bought off of Amazon, and is one of the more basic steps. Right now, I didn't feel like spending a lot of money on the step and this fit my purposes perfectly. It's a small enough step that just moving around on it requires concentration and muscle control from the danes. Eventually I would like to get one of the longer steps, but this one is great for right now. The only down side to this particular step is that the top surface is VERY slick and poses the threat of injury if I were to try to use it as is. To solve the problem, I cut off a chunk of my yoga mat to fit the step. Adam then recommended I secure it to the step with a spray adhesive, which has worked woooooonderfully. And now we have a fully functioning aerobic step that the dogs can use with pulling or straining something!

Just having the dogs sit and stand on the step got boring after a bit, so I decided to play around with some of the other equipment that I have to spice things up a bit. I don't use my Paw Pods for very much right now, so I thought I would throw them in there and see what happened. Prior to ever having the dogs step on them I tried them out with my own bare feet because I was a little concerned that the spikes were too poky and they were. To alleviate this problem I took an electric sander to the tips and sanded them all down so that they were nice and rounded. Much better! After that, I got the dogs to start standing with just their front feet on them to get them used to the positioning that I wanted. Then I combined it with the step and we have an exercise that's a little more interesting.

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day!!