10 reasons why you should care about canine fitness

Canine conditioning is not just for canine athletes.  All dogs benefit from it! Whether they chase squirrels in the yard, or enjoy neighborhood walks, compete in agility, hunt with their owner, keeping the streets safe, do search and rescue or compete in protection sports –all dogs deserve the best care and treatment to help maximize their enjoyment in life. 

Let’s talk again about many physical and mental benefits of exercise for dogs on regular basis, some are obvious and some may surprise you!

• It’s mentally stimulating and it often solves behavioral problems. Our dogs have a need for a job they were bred to do, and to fulfill this need they become distractive with all sorts of behaviors.  An old saying that a good puppy is a tired puppy applies well. A sure way to tire your pup out is to make him learn something new that is complex.  Balance and coordination exercises require concentration and focus and create new neuromuscular pathways while working out the brain!
• It increases focus and attention span.  
• It’s fun and quality time together.  It improves your communication skills with each other and strengthens the bond being rewarding for both, you and your dog.
• It reduces anxiety. Exercise produces hormones that reduce stress and anxiety.  In addition, the basic foundation fitness moves are always handy to distract a nervous dog from his “scary” environment and redirect into a fun positive successful exercises that require thinking for coordination!
• It reduces the risk of injury. Flexibility and body awareness are 2 components of fitness programs.  A dog that knows at all times where his feet are is able to control his movement better at all times.  And shall the inevitable happen, the post injury recovery is faster for well conditioned dogs
• It strengthens muscles and bones and helps with keeping healthy weight.  Remember building muscles burns fat and increases metabolic rate
• It increases risk of many diseases simply by staying mobile and healthy
• It slows the aging process

Basic Canine Fitness is fun and simple exercises.  Done just 5-10 minutes daily they will change your dog around and you will see the results for yourself! AKC just announced its new FIT DOG TITLES.  We will be glad to help your dog achieve them or to simply show you the basics and teach you the ropes at our canine gym for dogs of all ages and sizes!