Week 3

Building the Fitness Behind Our Contacts

This week was all about taking a step back and rebuilding the foundations. Since Sunny injured his paw (a small piece of his paw pad came off), we made the decision to cancel our agility competition, give his paw time to heal, and adapt our training instead of stopping completely.

Rather than working on the contacts themselves, we focused on fitness exercises that support contact performance. The goal wasn't speed or obstacle training—it was building the body awareness, balance and strength that good contacts rely on.

Most of these exercises are useful across all three contacts. Reliable A-frame, dogwalk and seesaw performances all require strong hind-end awareness, core stability, controlled weight transfer and confidence in body movement.

Every session followed the same routine:

• Warm-up: Figure 8s and cavaletti.
• Two sets of each fitness exercise.
• Cool-down: Gentle stretching.

These short sessions were done on a non-slip surface to keep Sunny comfortable while his paw continued to recover.

The Contact Project: A-frame training 

For the A-frame, we focused on hind-end awareness, controlled weight transfer and strength.

• Backing up to a target — 5 reps

Backing up requires the dog to coordinate the hind limbs while moving backwards rather than relying on forward momentum. For Sunny, the target gave him a clear point to work towards and encouraged him to pay attention to where his rear feet were going. Proprioceptive and postural-control exercises are used in canine rehabilitation to challenge the dog's ability to control its body position and maintain stability (Millis & Levine, 2014; Lutonsky et al., 2025).

• Front-feet pivoting — 3 reps each direction

Sunny placed his front feet on a target while moving his hind feet around it. This exercise encourages independent movement of the hind limbs and requires controlled weight shifting and postural adjustments. These are useful physical skills for a dog that needs to control the position of its body while maintaining stability. Research on canine postural control shows that proprioceptive training can improve measures of postural stability (Lutonsky et al., 2025).

• Sit to stand — 5 reps

Sit-to-stand is a functional movement that requires coordinated use of the hind limbs. Research examining this movement in dogs has shown substantial hindlimb joint movement during the transition, while more recent electromyography research demonstrated activation of hindlimb muscles including the vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions (Yoshikawa et al., 2023; Yoshikawa et al., 2025). For our purposes, we kept the movement controlled and asked Sunny to stand without immediately stepping forward.

• Cookie shifts — 4 reps

Using a treat, I encouraged Sunny to shift his weight in different directions while maintaining control of his body. Weight shifting is closely related to postural control because the dog has to adjust its centre of pressure and redistribute load between its limbs. Balance and proprioceptive exercises are commonly used in canine rehabilitation, and recent research has demonstrated that proprioceptive training can improve postural stability in dogs (Millis & Levine, 2014; Lutonsky et al., 2025).

The Contact Project: Dogwalk training

For the dog walk, our focus was balance, foot placement, lateral control and hind-end awareness.

• Side stepping — 4 reps each direction

Side stepping asks the dog to move laterally while maintaining control of the rest of the body. The exercise challenges mediolateral weight transfer and coordination, which are important components of postural control. Research on canine posture and balance highlights the importance of controlled postural adjustments for maintaining stability, while proprioceptive training has been shown to influence measures of postural stability in dogs (Hyytiäinen et al., 2024; Lutonsky et al., 2025).

• Individual paw lifts — 3 times each paw

Sunny lifted each paw individually while keeping the other three limbs on the ground. This creates a simple balance challenge because removing one limb reduces the available base of support and requires the dog to redistribute its weight. Individual limb loading and proprioceptive control are relevant components of canine rehabilitation and physical conditioning (Millis & Ciuperca, 2015; Millis & Levine, 2014).

• Stable platform stand — 5 seconds

Sunny stood squarely on a stable platform and held the position for five seconds. Even a stable surface can be used to practise controlled posture and body awareness. More challenging balance exercises can increase the demands on postural control, and recent research demonstrates that proprioceptive training can improve postural stability in healthy dogs (Lutonsky et al., 2025). We deliberately used a stable platform rather than an unstable surface. At this stage, the goal was controlled positioning rather than making the exercise unnecessarily difficult.

• Backing up — 5 reps

We included backing up again because it gives Sunny another opportunity to practise controlled hindlimb movement and rear-body awareness. Rather than thinking of it as an exercise specifically for the dog walk, I see it as one of the foundation exercises that can be used across all three contacts.

The Contact Project: Seesaw training

For the seesaw, we focused on weight transfer, balance, individual limb control and controlled transitions.

• Side stepping from a platform — 4 reps with each front paw

Sunny keeps both rear feet on the platform and one front foot on the platform. He then moves the other front paw sideways to touch the ground before bringing it back onto the platform. This creates a controlled weight-shifting exercise while Sunny maintains his rear-foot position. The movement challenges balance, proprioception and controlled loading of the limbs, while also requiring him to maintain awareness of where his rear feet are positioned.

For our contact training, I particularly like this exercise because it combines rear-end stability with controlled movement of an individual front limb. It is not intended to replicate a contact obstacle directly; rather, it gives us another way to practise the balance and body awareness that are useful when working on narrow or changing surfaces.

• Stable platform stand — 5 seconds
• Individual paw lifts — 3 times each paw
• Bow → stand → bow — 4 reps

This exercise gave us controlled transitions between positions rather than simply holding one position. Transitions require coordinated movement of several limbs and changes in weight distribution. Sit-to-stand research in dogs demonstrates that these types of functional transitions involve substantial hindlimb movement and muscle activation (Yoshikawa et al., 2023; Yoshikawa et al., 2025). We kept the movement slow and controlled rather than asking Sunny to perform the transitions quickly.

• Cookie shifts — 4 reps

What's next?

This week was all about building the physical skills behind our contact work. The exercises weren't about practising the contacts themselves. Instead, we focused on body awareness, balance, controlled weight shifting and strength — all skills that can support the work we do on the obstacles. Sunny's paw is still healing, so we're keeping things controlled and low-impact for now.

Next week, we'll see how these fitness exercises translate back into our contact training and whether Sunny can use those skills when we return to the equipment.

See you in Week 4! 🐾

References

Blake, L., Looney, A., & Merrill, C. (2024). The impact of cavaletti height on dogs' walking speed and its implications for ground reaction forces.

Holler, P. J., Brazda, V., Dal-Bianco, E., Lewy, E., Mueller, M. C., Peham, C., & Bockstahler, B. A. (2010). Kinematic motion analysis of the joints of the forelimbs and hind limbs of dogs during walking exercise regimens. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 71(7), 734–740. https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.71.7.734

Hyytiäinen, H. K., et al. (2024). Posture and postural dysfunction in dogs: Implications for veterinary physiotherapy. The Veterinary Journal, 306, 106107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2024.106107

Lutonsky, C., Affenzeller, N., Aghapour, M., Wegscheider, J., Peham, C., Tichy, A., & Bockstahler, B. (2025). Improving postural stability through proprioceptive training in dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 12, 1645875. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2025.1645875

Millis, D. L., & Ciuperca, I. A. (2015). Evidence for canine rehabilitation and physical therapy. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, 45(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2014.09.001

Millis, D. L., & Levine, D. (2014). Principles and applications of therapeutic exercises for small animals. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, 44(6), 1131–1157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2014.09.005

Yoshikawa, K., et al. (2023). Kinematic characteristics of canine hindlimb movement during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit motions. Veterinary Sciences, 10.

Yoshikawa, K., et al. (2025). Surface electromyography of the gluteus medius, vastus lateralis, and gastrocnemius muscles during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions in normal Beagles. [Journal details to be confirmed from the final published record].