Teach Your Dog to Sit Pretty

We're getting ready to start another agility season, and so last week Rocco and I visited his doggie chiropractor to make sure he's feeling good and all nice and aligned before competition heats up!

Good news is he needed just some minor adjusting, and as a bonus, his vet/chiropractor who is also certified in dog physical therapy gave us some good strength-training exercises.

As she says, strength = speed... so Rocco is building up muscle power so he can run fast (and run clean) on the agility course!

Today we're sharing one of the exercises she gave us...

Sit Pretty or Beg

Sitting pretty is a great core strengthener and we also think it looks pretty cute, so I started teaching it to Rocco when he was just a wee pup. 

How to teach it

There are a few methods. Experiment to find the one that works best for your pup.

• From a sit, lure your dog's head up and back with a treat. Allow him to nibble the treat while in the position.  Tip: keep your hand with the treat low to encourage your dog to hold his hindquarters in the sit position.
• If your dog needs more support while learning, position him in a sit in the corner of a sofa. Then, lure his head up and back with a treat while he leans back into the sofa.
• Another option is to position your dog in a sit while you stand directly behind him. Lure him into sit pretty position with a treat so that his back rests on your legs. Then steady his chest with your hand if necessary.

Tip: Start slow, only asking for a few moments of balancing in position, and reward your dog in the sit pretty position. Be sure to reward the behavior while it's happening, not after it is finished! Add duration and distance once your dog masters the trick!

Rocco IS sitting pretty, though it's hard to tell through all the fluff! Here he's sitting facing uphill.
In the photo at the top of this post he's sitting facing downhill.

Our vet gave us a few additional challenges to make Sit Pretty a little more challenging. Once you've mastered the trick, here are a few more things you can do to increase intensity.

• Change up the surfaces 
• Start on a flat and level surface
• Add more challenge with a balance disc or FitPAWS Donut, or use a pillow 
• Sit Pretty on a hill facing all four directions -- uphill, downhill and both sides

We have a slight hill in our backyard that we've started working on, and Rocco's practicing on the Donut, too.  One more note: It took Rocco a good long while to master this trick. He couldn't hold the position until he was two. We're still working on duration and some distance (he's three now!). 

The donut is challenging, but Rocco can handle it! 

Can your dog sit pretty? Let us know in the comments below!

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and My GBGV Life to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the hop.

Happy Fit Dog 4th of July!

First we hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July holiday (if you're in the U.S.).  You might want to get outside and enjoy the day before the start of all those loud fireworks. They sure are pretty but they also are pretty much hated by dogs across America.

It's also the first full week of K9 Kamp, and we hope you're all playing some really fun backyard fitness games! We can't wait to see what you all are doing and try some of your games ourselves!

This week, we set up a backyard obstacle course, and had a little fun of our own.  We used a few items we had for agility and conditioning, and some of these are also in our colossal K9 Kamp giveaway prize pack.  Find more about our giveaway and enter here.

Rocco works on his balance and core conditioning on the K9FITbone. This is one of the really nice items in our giveaway prize pack, contributed by the nice folks at DogTread.  We also have been working on front paws and back paws on the FITbone. This item is so versatile I even used it myself to do some planks and hip lifts!

Behind Rocco is the FitPAWS Balance Disk, you'll see him spin around on it in the video below!

We've had this FitPAWS wobble board for a while and Rocco loves to bang around on it! I think it's what helped make him fearless on the agility teeter.

When designing a backyard obstacle course, there's no need to be fancy! We used this box that the FITbone came in!

Rocco learned his agility tunnels easily by using this tunnel from the Kyjen backyard agility kit when he was just a puppy. He still loves running through this fun play tunnel. Petco kindly donated this item to our K9Kamp prize pack!

This is what our course set up looked like. We added a few agility jumps too.

Take a look at Rocco in action! We got a few style points taken off, because for some reason on this day, Rocco didn't like the corner of the backyard where the first jump is placed.  We also typically take more time to balance on the FITbone, to help build strength, stamina and body awareness.

It also was a really hot day, so hydration and cool down was really important. After our run we headed in for a cool drink from our PetSafe Drinkwell Fountain. This one is similar to the one in our K9 Kamp prize pack, donated by the nice folks at PetSafe.

Rocco's pony holder matches the fountain! How funny is that?!

Special thanks to all our prize pack contributors: Petco, PetSafe, DogTread, For Love of a Dog, Jones Natural Chews and Smart Cookee.  Get more details about K9 Kamp and enter our giveaway here!

Happy 4th of July! Do you have any fun activities planned?

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

How to Use a FitPaws Wobble Board for Agility Training

When Rocco was a wee pup -- not too long ago! -- I bought a couple of items from FitPaws to help him feel comfortable walking on a variety of surfaces as well as for balance and core strength training.

Today I'm going to show you how we've used the 20" FitPaws Wobble Board to help prepare Rocco for the agility teeter AND to teach a two-on, two off contact.

When Rocco was just a few months old, he practiced walking across the Wobble Board. He felt the motion of it tipping and also learned to balance in the middle. He learned that it was fun to hear the noise it made as it tipped back and forth -- getting him prepared for the motion and noise of the agility teeter.

The folks at FitPaws say that balance training can help dogs with body awareness and self-confidence as they learn to master a changing and unstable environment. Puppies can be started early with balance training, like Rocco did, giving him a good head-start on getting in top condition both physically and mentally!

Check out how some other pups use FitPaws Wobble Boards for balance and core strength training and then see how Rocco practices his two-on, two off contact technique in the video below!

Rocco knows that "feet" means that his two rear feet should be on the board while his front feet are off.  That translates to him learning that he should pause briefly in that position on the bottom of agility contact equipment -- the teeter, A-frame and dog walk. That technique is used to help dogs understand they need to drive all the way to the bottom to each piece of equipment and not fly off from potentially unsafe heights!

The Wobble Board adds the extra challenge of motion, and by starting early, Rocco gained lots of confidence on things that move. How does your pup feel about things that move underfoot? 

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!) and to help combat pet obesity. Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

When a Dog Show is More Than a Dog Show!

This past weekend was a HUGE weekend for dog events in Atlanta. We managed to make it to a few events, including the all-breed dog show in Jonesboro, Ga.

First, we stopped at the Havanese ring, of course!

In case you didn't know, Havanese come in all sorts of colors. Meet Cookie, above, and keep an eye out for her. We'll be following her progress all the way to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship dog show, where for the first time, "class" dogs can compete. Cookie is entered in the 6-9 month class.

And another tip about dog shows... they also offer a great opportunity to shop for hard-to-find items.  Cosmo was ready to shop, and read on for some great finds! But first, that's our Canine Cool Hipster bag in the stroller with him. You can find out how to win one here.

We spent a lot of time checking out these nifty toys by FitPAWS, above,  from itsallrover.com. We think the peanut that Cosmo's sitting on and some of the smaller balancing discs and donuts would be great for pups starting out in agility so they can get used to various surfaces and types of movement.

We also met Johnny Boy, the famous corded poodle, who also is the cover boy on a new book on how to cord your poodle, coming out soon!

And finally, we stopped at the Pure Paws booth and picked up some extra shampoo. We tried the new H20 Shampoo that made Cosmo's coat super silky. We hear you can use in on human hair too. We'll let you know how that goes!

Then later in the weekend we headed to the USDDN Disc Dog World Finals in Cartersville, Ga. Stay tuned for more photos and fun from that event.

Now, let's see what everyone was up to this weekend!