Building strength and staying steady
Quiet, low-impact work for a dog who needs to move well rather than move hard: an older dog getting stiff, a heavy dog whose joints are carrying it, one coming back from a layoff. Food is what changes a dog's weight, so read ditch the bowl for that part. What this page does is hold onto the muscle underneath while that happens, which is the half most people skip.
Teaching your dog to get on, stay on, and move around a raised platform or an unstable surface. Quiet, low-impact, and surprisingly tiring.
Arousal
Calming. It requires concentration and slow movement.
Shopping list
Tools
- A stable raised platform that will not slide.
- Optionally a balance disc or a wobble cushion. Inflate softly rather than firmly: an over-inflated disc is unstable in a way that risks injury.
Food
- Small treats, fed one at a time and slightly to each side.
How to do it
- Put the platform down and reward any interaction: a look, a paw on it, a step up.
- Build to all four feet on. Feed while they're standing on it.
- Add duration. Count to five, feed. Count to ten, feed.
- Add a down on the platform, then a stay while you move around it.
- For balance work, start with a barely-inflated disc so it's nearly stable. Reward two front feet on it.
- Build to all four feet, then add slow weight shifts by feeding treats slightly to one side and then the other.
- Sessions should be five minutes maximum. Balance work fatigues muscles fast.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Any interaction with the platform.
- Lvl 2
- Four feet on, standing.
- Lvl 3
- Duration, then a down, then a stay while you move around it.
- Lvl 4
- Two front feet on a barely inflated disc.
- Lvl 5
- Four feet on it, with slow weight shifts. Stop at the first tremble.
Safety
Platform must not slide. Inflate balance equipment softly rather than firmly: an over-inflated disc is unstable in a way that risks injury. Stop as soon as you see trembling or wobbling, which means fatigue. For dogs recovering from injury, get a rehab vet's guidance before starting balance work.
The closest thing to a squat a dog can do. Builds the back end in a dog who is getting stiff, losing condition, or coming back from time off.
Arousal
Calming. Slow, deliberate reps, and most dogs settle afterwards.
Shopping list
Tools
- A non-slip surface. On tile or wood the reps become a lesson in slipping.
Food
- Small treats, one per rep, held at nose height.
How to do it
- Stand your dog on the mat, square, with all four feet underneath them.
- Lure a sit by lifting a treat back over their head. Pay it.
- Lure them straight back up by taking the treat forward at nose height. Pay that too.
- Watch the back feet. They should stay where they started. A dog who walks their back feet in or out is dodging the rep, and the muscle you want is not doing the work.
- Five reps, then stop. This is far more tiring than it looks.
- Build towards two or three sets of five, with a proper rest between them.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Three or four reps, with the treat doing most of the work.
- Lvl 2
- Five clean reps in a row, back feet still.
- Lvl 3
- Two sets of five, with a minute between.
- Lvl 4
- The same on a slightly soft surface, like a folded blanket, so the muscles work harder to stabilize.
Safety
Stop if your dog sits sideways, sinks rather than folds, or refuses after a rep or two. Any of those can mean pain rather than laziness, and this is not an exercise to push through. If your dog is lame, stiff, or recovering from surgery, ask your vet before starting. This is a standard rehab exercise and it is usually prescribed for a reason.
Works shoulders, chest and core in a dog who needs strength without any impact through the joints. The front-end counterpart to the sit-to-stand.
Arousal
Calming. Quiet, controlled, and tiring in a way that shows up afterwards.
Shopping list
Tools
- A non-slip surface, because a foot sliding out on this one is exactly what you are trying to avoid.
Food
- Small treats.
How to do it
- Start with your dog standing on the mat.
- Lure a down by taking a treat straight to the floor between their front feet. Pay it.
- Lure them back to a stand by drawing the treat forward and up to nose height. Pay it.
- The rep is down, stand, down, stand. No sit in between: a sit lets the back end take over and skips the work you came for.
- Three to five reps, then stop.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Three reps, with a sit creeping in now and then.
- Lvl 2
- Five reps with no sit at all.
- Lvl 3
- Two sets of five.
- Lvl 4
- Slower on the way down, so the muscles carry the descent instead of the dog dropping into it.
Safety
A dog who slams down rather than lowering is avoiding the work, and that usually means something hurts. Ask your vet before starting this with a dog who is stiff, lame or post-operative. Stop at any trembling, which means the muscle is done.
Slow weaving around two objects, which asks a dog to bend through the spine and load each side evenly. Good for a stiff dog, and quietly hard work.
Arousal
Neutral. It stays that way as long as you keep it slow.
Shopping list
Tools
- A non-slip surface if you are indoors on anything slick.
Food
- Treats, or any lure your dog will follow with their nose.
Around the house
- Two stable objects: kitchen chairs, buckets, laundry baskets. Anything that will not tip if your dog bumps it.
How to do it
- Set the two objects roughly two of your dog's body lengths apart.
- Lure your dog in a slow figure of eight around them, keeping their nose close to your hand.
- Slow is the entire exercise. A dog trotting through this is cornering, not bending.
- Three or four full eights, then stop.
- Swap direction between sessions so both sides get the same work.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- One slow loop around a single object.
- Lvl 2
- A full figure of eight, luringGuiding a dog into a position by moving food or a toy that they follow with their nose.Read more → the whole way round.
- Lvl 3
- The objects closer together, so the bend is tighter.
- Lvl 4
- The same shape with your hand further from their nose, so they carry the path themselves.
Safety
Keep it slow and keep the turns wide to begin with, because a tight turn at speed is how a dog tweaks something. If your dog will bend one way but resists the other, stop and mention it to your vet. A one-sided refusal is information, not stubbornness.
Walking through shallow water. The resistance builds strength with almost nothing going through the joints, which is why rehab vets reach for water first.
Arousal
Neutral, though plenty of dogs get silly the moment they are in water. Keep it to walking.
Shopping list
Tools
- A life jacket anywhere the bottom might drop away.
Food
- Treats to lure them forward, or a toy that floats.
Around the house
- Calm, shallow water with footing you can see: a dog pool filled a few inches deep is the easiest and safest version.
How to do it
- Start at a depth somewhere between your dog's hocks and their knees. Deeper is not better here.
- Walk them forward through it on a loose lead, or lure them with a treat.
- Let them set the pace. You want walking, not splashing.
- Five minutes is a real workout. Water is much harder than it looks.
- Dry their ears properly afterwards.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Standing in it, no walking at all.
- Lvl 2
- A few steps in and back out again.
- Lvl 3
- Steady walking, with turns, for a few minutes.
- Lvl 4
- Slightly deeper, to just below the elbow, so more of the leg is loaded.
Safety
Never leave a dog unsupervised near water, however shallow. Know what the bottom does before your dog finds out: a shelf that drops away is the whole risk. Tiring in water looks like a lower head and a shorter stride rather than slowing down, so watch for that and stop. Blue-green algae makes standing water genuinely dangerous in Houston heat, so if it looks scummy or smells wrong, do not use it. A dog recovering from surgery belongs in a vet's hydrotherapy setup, not a creek.
The only serious cardio a sore or heavy dog can do without loading a single joint. Five minutes of it is worth far more than it looks.
Arousal
Moderate. Real work, and most dogs are properly tired afterwards rather than wired.
Shopping list
Tools
- A life jacket with a handle, for any water that is not a shallow pool you filled yourself. The handle is how you get a dog out.
Food
- Nothing during. A big meal before swimming is a bad idea for the same reason it is for you.
Around the house
- Water you actually know: a pool with a slope or steps, a quiet lake edge, a friend's pool. Somewhere you can see the bottom and reach your dog.
How to do it
- Let your dog walk in from a slope or steps. Never drop or throw a dog into water, however keen they seem.
- Stay in the water with them the first few times, or on the edge within reach.
- Two or three minutes is a full session to start. Swimming is much harder than running.
- Watch the back end. A dog whose hips are sinking and whose front paws are slapping the surface is tiring, and that is the moment to get out, not five minutes later.
- Rinse and dry afterwards, ears included.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Standing and walking in the shallows, no swimming at all.
- Lvl 2
- A few strokes between you and the steps.
- Lvl 3
- Two or three minutes of steady swimming with a rest.
- Lvl 4
- Longer sessions broken into short swims with breaks between them.
Safety
A dog who has swum before is not automatically a dog who can swim today, and being heavy, old or sore all make it harder. Barrel-chested and flat-faced dogs are poor swimmers and some cannot swim at all. Never leave a dog unsupervised near water and always know how they get OUT before they go in, because panic at a vertical pool wall is the common accident. Rinse chlorine and salt off afterwards. If your dog is recovering from surgery, this belongs with your vet as hydrotherapy rather than in your own pool.
Walking up an incline, which loads the back end far more than the same distance on the flat. One of the best ways to rebuild a weak rear on a dog who cannot run.
Arousal
Moderate. It builds if you let it run long, so keep it to sets.
Shopping list
Tools
- A normal lead, short enough that your dog is not choosing the pace for you.
Around the house
- An incline. Houston is flat, so realistically this is a set of stairs, a parking garage ramp, a levee, or the slope of an overpass approach. A driveway on a slight rise counts.
How to do it
- Walk up the slope at a steady, unhurried pace. Walking is the exercise. Trotting turns it into cardio and takes the work off the muscle you are trying to build.
- Walk back down slowly. Down is harder on the front end and on the joints than up is, so never let your dog charge it.
- Three to five repetitions, then stop.
- Build the number of repetitions before you build the steepness.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- One climb, gentle slope, plenty of rest.
- Lvl 2
- Three climbs at a steady walk.
- Lvl 3
- Five climbs, with the descent as slow as the ascent.
- Lvl 4
- A steeper slope, same number of repetitions.
Safety
Do not do this on stairs with a young puppy, or with any dog who is lame. Repeated stairs are hard on hips and elbows, and a dog with an undiagnosed problem will hide it until it is worse. Watch for the back end swinging or the dog stopping halfway, both of which mean stop for the day. In Houston, check the surface temperature with the back of your hand before you start: a concrete ramp in August will burn pads.
Fetch with the brakes built in. The pauses are the exercise, because they are what turn a wild, joint-hammering game into something a dog can do repeatedly without paying for it.
Arousal
High. Amping, and that is the point to manage: the structure is what keeps it from tipping into frantic.
Shopping list
Toys
- A ball or toy your dog will bring back. Tennis balls work, though they wear teeth down over years, so rotate them with something softer.
Around the house
- Grass or dirt. Not tile, not a slick floor, and ideally not hard-packed ground.
How to do it
- Throw low and along the ground rather than high. A dog leaping to catch lands on two legs, and that is where the damage happens.
- Throw five times, then stop and ask for a sit or a down until your dog's breathing settles.
- Repeat that pattern three or four times, then finish. The whole session is about ten minutes.
- Finish while your dog still wants more. A dog who is begging for another throw is easier to stop than a dog who is running on fumes.
- Walk for a few minutes afterwards rather than going straight indoors.
Change it up
- Lvl 1
- Three throws, then a long settle.
- Lvl 2
- Five throws between settles, three rounds.
- Lvl 3
- The settle asked for and held rather than waited out.
- Lvl 4
- A retrieve to hand every time rather than a drop somewhere nearby.
Safety
Repeated hard braking is what hurts dogs in fetch, not the running. A dog sprinting flat out and skidding to a stop puts real shearing force through the knees and shoulders, and doing that fifty times in a row is how a cruciate goes. That is why the throws stay low and the sets stay short, and it is the reason we do not use automatic launchers: they remove the person who was deciding when to stop. Skip this entirely for a dog with any history of knee or shoulder trouble.
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