Beginning Canine Conditioning

Beginning Canine Conditioning is a six-week canine conditioning course that will focus on strength, balance, body awareness, flexibility, and new skills for canine fitness.

Course Details

For six weeks, you will receive a complete workout every week, and a bonus lesson on using cavaletti’s for conditioning. The course is appropriate for adult dogs new to a conditioning program, or returning to a conditioning program after being less active.

The course will start out with basic exercises, and progress to more challenging exercises over the six weeks. All participating dogs should be in good health, free from injury, or cleared by their veterinarian if they have had an injury.

The course is for adult dogs who have finished growing.

Meet Your Instructor

Kathy Childers

Kathy Childers

Dog Sport Fitness Program Director

FITPaws Master Trainer
Certified Canine Fitness Instructor
AKC Star Puppy and CGC Evaluator
Associate Trick Dog Instructor
Scent Work and Rally Competitor
Dock Diving Support for Team Ruger

What You Will Need for This Course

  • Treat pouch, or pockets

  • Small soft treats

  • FitPaws pad, or similar pad or cushion

  • Small inflatable disc such as a FitPaws disc

  • Inflatable wedge, or similar object

  • FitPaws FitBone, or similar balance object

  • Small step stool or platform in a size on which your dog can perform a tuck sit

  • Optional equipment

  • 6-12 Cavaletti

  • Two targets, or mats

Should You Take This Course

Make sure you  meet these prerequisites:

  • An understanding of a marker/reward system.

  • The Canine Conditioning Foundations course, or the participants acknowledgement their dog knows the ten foundational skills of static stand, tuck sit, kickback stand, folding down, down to stand, nose target, give a paw, front foot target, independent back up and side step.  The foundational skills will be used in the Beginning Canine Conditioning class but will not be covered specifically.

Course Outline

  • Introductory lesson on how the program will work, equipment, safety, and signs of fatigue

  • How to track your dog’s progress

  • Warm ups and Cool downs

  • Six different, complete workouts that include exercises for strength, balance, flexibility, and body awareness; a different workout each week

  • Cavaletti Bonus – How to set up and use cavaletti as part of your dog’s conditioning program

We're Privileged to Share This Course With You!

Dog Sport University is fortunate to have Kathy grant us license to feature her courses, seminars and webinars on our online dog training platform. All of the content in this course is created by, owned by, and the rights to the content, are reserved to Kathy Childers.

WANT TO SEE MORE?

Check out the other online

Canine Fitness courses we have to offer!