Paws to Performance Pt 2: How to Condition a Dog

What Do I Do First? There's So Much to Try!

Starting a fitness routine for your dog can feel overwhelming, but don’t worry—we’re here to help! Follow this simple guide to set your dog up for success and learn how to condition a dog.

Nike exploring her platform

Prep for Success

Step 1: Set Up Your Training Space

Get everything you need in your training area before you begin. Platforms, props and treats. Follow the instructions from your fitness trainer (hopefully that’s me!). Make sure you have enough room and the right equipment.

Step 2: Potty Your Pup

Before you start, take your dog outside for a potty break. Make sure their bladder and bowels are empty so they can focus on training.

Step 3: Warm Up

Once your dog is ready, take a quick walk and try some mat to mat sprints. This warms up their muscles and gets them ready for a good workout.

Steps for Success

Step 1: Use Clean Training Loops

When your dog does the right behavior, mark it with a click or a word like "yes," then reward them in place. This teaches them that they did the right thing. It's important to mark the behavior, wait a second, then give the reward. Keep it simple and clear. This mechanic gives your pup clear information, and time to process they were correct. Watch the video below with Squid to see what a clean training loop looks like.

Marker Training with Squid

Notice that I say "yes", pause, then move to reward. I'm not doing any extra chatter or unnecessary movements. Most fitness behaviors you'll have treats in your hand, but the process is the same if you're getting treats from the bowl or out of a pouch.

Step 2: Naming behaviors

In fitness training, you don’t need to name a lot of behaviors. Most of the time, you’ll reward your dog for the correct position. If you do name a behavior, make sure your dog fully understands it first. I have 2 named behaviors

1. Fold: I named my fold back down, so my dog's know "fold" means fold back into a down. "Fold" is a specific muscle engagement and movement pattern. "Down" means "lay down and it doesn't matter how you get there." It gives my dog more clarity.

2. Back up: I use this sometimes to encourage a rear foot target.

Yep, that's it.

You can use things like "paws up," or "bow" but it's really not necessary unless you're doing trick training and you want the behavior without a lure. The "fold" command really isn't necessary either, because my lure and reward placement will tell the dog to fold back into a down.

Mark and reward when your dog meets criteria. Conditioning is based on shaping, luring and reward placement. However, verbal commands are sometimes helpful, depending on the dog and handler. If your dog likes to offer a down, giving a stand command may be helpful.

Step 3: Keep It Short, Keep It Fun!

Do 2-3 exercises a day and keep each session under 15 minutes. If your dog seems tired or frustrated, it’s okay to stop early. Always end on a positive note.

Step 4: Adjust Food Portions

Since you’re using treats during training, remember to give your dog a little less food at mealtimes to prevent weight gain. We don't want pudgy pups.

Time to Exercise! What to Expect

Your First 1-2 weeks: Learning Phase

At first, neither you nor your dog will be perfect, and that’s okay! This time is for getting used to new equipment and exercises.

Try to take videos of your sessions and review them. It helps to see how you and your dog are doing and figure out ways to improve.

Break everything down into small steps. If your dog places their paws on a target, reward them! Slowly increase the difficulty as they get better.

Your dog is focusing on correct posture, such as sphinx down, square stand, square sit and acclimating to equipment.

You're learning too! Take this time to figure out how far apart your props need to be and your reward placement.

First 3-6 weeks: Criteria

Now you can start raising your expectations. Focus on your dog’s posture—are their elbows over their wrists? Are their rear legs in the right position? If not, adjust the placement of your rewards or props until they are. This is when your dog starts building muscle.

This is where the mirror and the video review come in.

Continue to increase your criteria until your dog is proficient.

Nike on her pivot bowl in proper form

All the Arrows in this photo are points where Nike met criteria on the pivot pod. First, I wanted her elbows over her wrists. I wasn't concerned with anything else. Then I wanted her elbows over her wrists AND her ankles vertical. Her level muzzle has a lot to do with my reward placement. Don't ask for everything at once. You will get frustrated and so will your dog. Focus on one criterion at a time.

Every dog is different. The time frames above are estimates, adjust these time frames to your individual dog.

Any time you and your dog learn a new exercise, you'll go back to the beginning. Break down criteria, review your mechanics.

You'll focus on adding movement to posture exercises, such as a tuck sit to a kick back stand and stand to a fold down.

Congratulations! After a few weeks, you and your dog will be pros at your exercises. Now you can start adding more challenging moves to your routine.

Sets, Reps and Circuit Training

Sets and Reps

Once you and your dog are 85% successful with an exercise, start asking for sets and reps.

For beginner dogs, most exercises do 3 sets of 5 reps.

If your dog is proficient on the tuck sit to kick back stand, ask your dog to repeat the tuck sit to kick back stand 5 times. This is a "set." Take a 30 second break and ask for 5 more reps. This is your second "set." Take another 30 second break and ask for 5 more reps. This is your 3rd and final "set."

Now you can start overloading your dog and building muscle!

Fitness Circuits

This is the fun part! Set up a different area for your dog to do each exercise.

For example, your plan for today has 3 exercises:

1. Tuck sit to kick back stand (3 sets of 5 reps)

2. back up (3 sets of 5 reps)

3. bow stretch (3 sets of 5 reps)

How do I do that? We'll walk you and your pup through it.

1. Ask your dog to tuck sit to kick back stand, 5 times.

2. Ask your dog for 5-7 steps backwards, 5 times.

3. Ask your dog for a bow stretch, 5 times.

   That was your first circuit!

   Repeat steps 1 -3 two more times.

Now what?

Check out Part 3: Platform Training

Click here for Part 3