3 Beginner FitPaws K9 Fitness Exercises

Earlier this year, Annie and I started something I’ve always wanted to try together, dog agility classes! I had a feeling she would absolutely love it and seeing her excitement as she zooms through tunnels and flies over jumps is the best! During the summer months, our agility dog trainer takes a break since the Florida heat is too intense for our dogs to train in. During this break, I thought, what better way to keep Annie fit and in shape than to try something else that’s always looked fun, dog fitness classes!

In our dog fitness classes, I was introduced to some really cool canine fitness equipment from a brand called FitPaws. FitPaws dog fitness equipment is designed to build your dog’s core strength, improve balance, increase flexibility and so much more!

Since we’re having so much fun with dog fitness, I wanted to share 3 easy dog fitness exercises you can do using FitPaws dog fitness equipment! Whether you have a dog athlete that’s an agility dog, NADD dock diving, UpDog dog frisbee competitions, FastCAT, FlyBall or you’re interested in making your dog stronger and healthier (because dog fitness isn’t only for dog athletes!!), you’re going to love these fun, dog fitness exercises. Let’s get started!

P.S. Want to join over 100 fellow K9 fitness lovers (of all levels) for weekly exercises, tips and more? Join my K9 Fitness With Caitlin Facebook Group to start learning more about K9 fitness today!

What is Dog Fitness & FitPaws?

First things first, what exactly is dog fitness and who is FitPaws?

Dog fitness is a way to exercise your dog, using specific exercises and equipment to build hind end awareness, a stronger core, better balance, increased flexibility and so much more. What’s amazing about K9 fitness, is that as you keep learning more with your dog, you will be blown away by what your dog can do! In one of our dog fitness classes, Annie literally stood on a basketball inside of a dog bowl. Blew. My. Mind!

Now, who is FitPaws? For a little over three years now, I have been a huge fan of FitPaws, but I never fully understood the extent to which you could use their equipment until I started our canine fitness classes. FitPaws has many different pieces of dog fitness equipment that target different muscles in your dog’s body to make your dog stronger and healthier. Plus, what you’ll see in these exercises, is that the equipment can be adjusted to be easier or harder, which is incredible! You also don’t have to buy a million pieces to do many exercises, which this dog mom on a budget appreciates.  

K9 Fitness Exercise 1: Front Paw Targeting (Paws Up)

One of the first K9 fitness exercises you will learn in your dog fitness classes is front paw targeting. This dog fitness exercise is Annie’s personal favorite, to the point that I have to say her command word slowly or she gets super excited, ha! The front paw targeting dog fitness exercise helps your dog with the following:

• Improved core and limb strength
• Improved coordination
• Better joint health
• Senior strengthening
• Builds a better bond with your dog

For this dog fitness exercise, I’m going to show you how to do it with two of FitPaws dog fitness equipment pieces: FitPaws Balance Ramp and the FitPaws Regular K9 FitBone. When initially starting out, start with the FitPaws balance ramp since it is flatter and an overall easier place to start. Diesel is on the FitPaws balance ramp and Annie is on the FitPaws K9 FitBone.

*2024 Update*: Instead of starting with the Balance Ramp, my beginner piece would be the FitPaws Balance Pad. This is a more stable piece of equipment, extremely versatile for all levels of exercises and while it has no inflation, it still provides a balance challenge that’s more comfortable for beginner dogs!

Here’s some quick information about the equipment:

• For the FitPaws Balance Ramp, it comes with a replacement plug and a little tool to remove the plug (to add or remove air). The air pump is sold separately. *All of the equipment comes with only a little bit of air inside so you can inflate to your dog’s skill level*. You will need this air pump to inflate your FitPaws balance ramp.
• For the FitPaws K9 FitBone, it comes inside a large drawstring bag with an air pump. For the K9 FitBone, you don’t need to put a plug inside to inflate/deflate. This dog fitness equipment piece has a small hole that keeps the air locked in.

Important Note: For all of these exercises, make sure your dog is not on a slippery surface. Whether you’re on carpet, outside on the grass or on a mat, keeping the equipment from sliding will keep your dog safe!

Here’s how to teach your dog the Front Paw Targeting K9 fitness exercise:

Step 1: Grab some tasty high value dog treats and add a little air to your FitPaws balance ramp.

Pro Tip: With ALL of the FitPaws inflatables, more air equals more challenge. So, when you’re first starting out, you don’t want to have too much air because the inflatable will become more wobbly which requires more balance and strength. Now, making sure there is enough air so your dog doesn’t flatten to the ground is just as important, ha!

Step 2: With a treat, invite your dog forward onto the FitPaws balance ramp until their front paws are on it. Immediately reward when they put both feet on.

Pro Tip: When first starting out, only ask your dog to hold for 3-5 seconds before asking them to leave the FitPaws balance ramp. Also, there is a specific form you are looking for in your dog. You want your dog’s back to be flat with a neutral spine and for your dog’s front paws to be directly under their shoulders. Both Diesel and Annie in all of these photos are showcasing what to look for! If your dog ever has a roached back or they’re having trouble balancing, immediately pause and assess if you need to remove some inflation or take a break.

Step 3: Practice a few times in a row, rewarding every time your dog puts its paws on the FitPaws balance ramp. You can then start to add a verbal command each time you ask. I use “Paws Up” but some people use “Toes”.

Once your dog is comfortable on the FitPaws balance ramp, you can then start to add a new shape and surface like the FitPaws K9 FitBone. In my dog fitness classes, we practice front paw targeting on many different surfaces to build our dog’s confidence and give them new and exciting challenges to build their strength.

For the FitPaws K9 FitBone, repeat the same steps that you did on the FitPaws balance ramp, keeping the duration the same and rewarding immediately after. 

For Annie, since she has more experience with front paw targeting, I actually add more air to her FitPaws K9 FitBone because it requires more balance and core strength to keep her paws in place. What’s cool, is that I can add even more air to it than what you see in the photos to make it even more challenging! 

Important Note: When doing any K9 fitness exercise, it is important to recognize when your dog is tired. When it doubt, you should always rest your dog. Below are the 4 signs of fatigue in dogs you should be looking for:

• Leaving work
  • If your dog is leaving to go sniff, drink water, or scratch their collar, you need to examine if the exercise is too hard, if reinforcement for the task is too low or if they’re mentally/physically tired.
• Improper form
  • If they don’t have a neutral spine and are struggling, the exercise may be too hard for where they’re currently at fitness wise.
• Excessive panting
  • If your dog looks like they’ve been to the Sahara desert for weeks and you’re doing an indoor dog fitness class with air conditioning, you need to rest your dog.
• Shaking/Wobbling/Lack of Balance
  • If you see any of these, move on to a different exercise that works with a different muscle group or immediately rest your dog.

K9 Fitness Exercise 2: Dog Caveletti Spin & Flip

The next two exercises actually use the same FitPaws dog fitness equipment piece: the FitPaws agility kit. One of my favorite parts about the FitPaws agility kit is that it is an incredibly versatile piece of dog fitness equipment. Besides doing K9 fitness exercises, the FitPaws agility kit is also used as agility dog equipment for dog agility training at home!

For this dog fitness exercise, your dog first needs to know how to do the Spin or Flip dog trick/dog fitness exercise. If your dog hasn’t learned this yet, check out my YouTube video below that shares visual walk-throughs of every FitPaws exercise we’re doing in this post and how to teach your dog to spin and flip for this dog exercise.

Now that your dog knows how to do the spin and flip dog trick/dog fitness exercise, below are the steps for this dog fitness exercise that adds an extra challenge.

Step 1: Grab some high value dog treats and your FitPaws agility kit.

Step 2: Put together only one pole from your FitPaws agility kit and put it in the lowest hole on one cone only (see photos below).

Step 3: Place your dog in a sit or stand next to the cone.

Step 4: Ask your dog to spin or flip (you can start in either direction) over the slightly raised pole and immediately reward when doing so.

Pro Tip: For this dog fitness exercise, even if your dog knows how to do the dog trick, since we’re adding in another layer to this exercise, giving them extra guidance on where you want them to go is helpful. I had to do that with Annie initially because she thought I wanted her to just spin next to the cone and pole instead of going over it!

Step 5: Repeat in both directions and reward every time.

The whole goal of this exercise is to build hind end awareness. When adding in the FitPaws agility kit to this dog trick, your dog has to be mindful to pick up their rear feet when crossing over which is not only helpful in everyday dog health, but especially dog athletes who encounter different obstacles that may require them to know exactly where their back feet are at all times (think agility contact points, turning around on the walk it, fly ball, etc.).

K9 Fitness Exercise 3: Dog Cavaletti Raised Poles

The last beginner canine fitness exercise is the dog cavaletti raised pole exercise. This exercise is designed to:

• Build hind end awareness
• Improve stride length
• Increase range of motion in the knee
• Strengthen muscles involved in limb flexion (teaches your dog to pick up their feet)

If you’re new to my blog, I also ride horses and we use cavaletti’s in numerous exercises for similar reasons. They’re great for asking the horse to lift their feet, be aware of where their feet are and carry themselves, similar to what we’re asking of our dogs! For this dog fitness exercise, we’ll also be using the FitPaws agility kit (again, so versatile right!).

Step 1: Assemble all 3 poles from your FitPaws agility kit and grab all six cones. 

Step 2: Starting with only one set of cones and one pole, place the pole through the lowest hole on each side.

Step 3: Grab your high-value dog treats and ask your dog to walk over the pole in both directions. Immediately reward after each direction and repeat a few times.

Pro Tip: Always start with one pole at the lowest setting to get your dog comfortable with the dog fitness exercise. 

Step 4: Now, add in a second pole and set of cones, creating two poles for your dog to walk over.

Pro Tip: Make sure the distance between the poles is not too big or too small in between. A good rule of thumb is to measure your dog from the top of their shoulder to the ground. This will guide you for the distance between the poles. Currently, Annie’s set up is about one foot between each pole.

Step 5: Repeat step 3 with the two cones and reward.

Step 6: Add in the third set and repeat step 3 and reward.

Now that your dog is used to the lowest level, you can start to increase the height by moving each pole to the middle hole on your FitPaws agility kit. Once all poles are raised, you can repeat step 3 and reward your dog!

Pro Tip: Make sure that your dog is not running and blowing through it as they’re learning this. In time your dog can start to do it at a jog, but when starting out, it’s important that they do it at a walk. For Annie, when the poles are all the way at the bottom, she walks over no problem. Once I start to raise them, she gets very excited and wants to run through them. If your dog does this too, you can always grab their leash and help control their speed by walking them over the poles. I did that with Annie for a little and now all I have to say is “Easy” before we go over them if I want her to walk and she does! It just takes time!

This is a great dog fitness exercise that you can do as a warm up or cool down and you can do it multiple times a week!

I had no idea that I would have as much fun as I am with K9 fitness. Seeing what both Diesel and Annie learn and how it can make them stronger and healthier makes me so happy! Plus, canine fitness is another amazing dog enrichment idea, if you’re looking for something new to try (which you guys know I LOVE dog enrichment activities!).

If you loved learning more about FitPaws and these dog fitness exercises, check out more of my posts featuring some awesome dog enrichment ideas and other dog product reviews like my DIY dog puzzle games, Help ‘Em Up Harness dog mobility aid and more:

• TPLO Surgery Dog Recovery Essential: Help ‘Em Up Dog Harness   
• 3 Easy Dog Lick Mat Ideas 
• 3 DIY Dog Treat Dispensers 
• 3 DIY Dog Enrichment Ideas To Combat Dog Cabin Fever 
• 3 Dog Enrichment Activities Using Toilet Paper Rolls 
• 3 DIY Puzzle Toys For Dogs 
• 3 Easy Scenting Games For Dogs 

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Photography: Kate Kelley Collection