4 Blue-9 Propel Air Platform K9 Fitness Exercises

A great way to start adding some challenges to your dog’s K9 fitness exercises is to use inflation canine fitness equipment. I’ve featured tons of FitPaws canine fitness equipment on here, but, did you know Blue-9 has their own inflation product too? In my first AKC Fit class I learned about the Blue-9 Propel Air Platform and it was actually the first piece of inflation equipment Annie ever did sidestepping on!

Well, what’s extra exciting is that Blue-9 recently launched a brand new color for their Propel Air Platform and you’ll never guess what color it is…PINK! My favorite!!!

To celebrate this new color, I thought it would be fun to show some specific K9 fitness exercises using only the Propel Air Platform so you can start adding in some new challenges for your dog during their canine conditioning training.

P.S. You can save 20% on your next Blue-9 order when you use code Sparkles20 at checkout! The code does not apply to limited edition KLIMB colors.

Read more: 4 Blue-9 Propel Air Platform K9 Fitness Exercises

Important Note:

Before you begin any dog fitness exercises, it is important to note that canine fitness is intended for healthy dogs to prevent injury. It is not a replacement for surgery. If your dog has any underlying conditions or is currently in rehab for an injury, please speak with your veterinarian, orthopedic specialist or any other specialist before beginning the exercises with your dog to keep them safe.

How Does Inflation Canine Fitness Equipment Work?

Before we dive into the K9 fitness exercises, it’s important to first have an understanding of what this equipment actually does and how you can increase or decrease challenges for your dog during their canine conditioning training.

When you go from a stable object during K9 fitness like the Blue-9 KLIMB or an Aerobic Bench Step Platform (used both in many of my K9 fitness posts and YouTube K9 fitness videos) to unstable inflation equipment, you’re adding a stabilization balance challenge to your dog for the exercise they’re doing.

The more inflation you add, the more challenging it is for your dog to stabilize themselves and stay balanced while performing the specific canine fitness exercise. Always start on the lowest levels of inflation, no matter how fit your dog is (or you think they are). Just like when we try new workout moves or increase weight, we don’t go from zero to 100, and, some muscles and exercises are harder than others, right? We never want proper form to be compromised during our K9 fitness training and the moment you see this, or signs of fatigue, you must determine if the inflation level is too much and rest your dog.

P.S. Just a quick note as well, the air pump for the Propel Air Platform is sold separately! Just wanted to share so it’s not a surprise!

Dog Fitness Exercise 1: Front Paw Targeting

The first dog fitness exercise is front paw targeting, one of the foundational exercises in K9 fitness! The only prerequisite for this exercise is for your dog to already be doing this on a piece of stable equipment (like a Blue-9 KLIMB, Aerobic Bench or even a book or step stool).

Dog Fitness Exercise Goal: Your dog’s front feet should step up onto the Propel Air Platform while the rear feet stay on the floor.

Dog Fitness Exercise Benefits: When weight is shifted to the rear, this works the hind end. This exercise also works the triceps and biceps to stabilize the shoulders.

Proper Form: The correct position we’re looking for here is a flat back, neutral head position, front feet directly under the shoulders and feet hip distance apart.

Step 1: Ask your dog to go into front paw targeting position on the Blue-9 Propel Air Platform. Immediately reward.

Potential Issue & Solution: “My dog is afraid of the Propel Air Platform, what do I do?” If your dog is nervous to step up onto the Propel Air Platform, first check to make sure it doesn’t have too much inflation in it. The Blue-9 propel comes with minimal inflation to start, but if you added some before having your dog step onto it, creating a more unstable surface, you might scare them away from it. If it does have the minimal inflation and your dog is still nervous (totally normal!), you’ll want to start by creating a positive relationship with it. You can do this by rewarding your dog for interacting with the Propel Air Platform. To do this, ask your dog to do something they know (i.e. touch command) and toss a cookie behind them. Then, every time they come close to the Propel Air Platform, reward with your marker (clicker or verbal “yes”) and toss the treat away. Do a few sessions of this (2-3 rounds of 10 treats) and reward with their favorite activity like tug or ball tossing to end the session. Your dog will start to gain more confidence with it and start putting their feet on it!

Want to see even more K9 fitness exercises that use the Blue-9 KLIMB and Blue-9 Propel Air Platform? Check out my YouTube video below for even more tips and canine conditioning exercises!

Dog Fitness Exercise 2: Rear Paw Targeting

The next canine fitness exercise that’s another great foundational exercise, is rear paw targeting! In order to do this on the Propel Air Platform, I highly recommend learning how to do this without any equipment first for confidence building, safety and strength reasons. I’ve shared a super quick and easy tutorial of this on my Instagram account! If you have any questions about it, leave a comment on this post or the reel! Then, I would slowly add in some height of a stable object, whether that’s some stacked yoga mats, a FitPaws Balance Pad, something that starts to add in a bit of height without the instability.

Dog Fitness Exercise Goal: Your dog’s rear feet should step up onto the Propel Air Platform while the front feet stay on the floor.

Dog Fitness Exercise Benefits: This exercise works the triceps, biceps and superficial pectorals to stabilize the shoulders and forelimbs.

Step 1: Ask your dog something they know, reward by tossing a treat behind them so they have to come back to you.

Step 2: With the Propel Air Platform in front of you, using the cue you’ve taught your dog, ask your dog to go into rear paw targeting position. Immediately reward.

Pro Tip: Make sure that you’re not sitting/standing too close to the Propel Air Platform. This will actually block the amount of room your dog has to complete the exercise and your dog may stop and not do anything or try a different exercise that they do have room for (like front paw targeting) out of confusion.

Dog Fitness Exercise 3: Fold Down To Stand

The fold down to stand is one of my all time favorite K9 fitness exercises! This version is a more advanced K9 fitness exercise and should only be done if you’ve done the prerequisites below and your dog is confident on inflation canine fitness equipment.

Before beginning this exercise, I recommend your dog know the following:

• Nose Touch (check out my video tutorial in my K9 Fitness With Caitlin Facebook Group!)
  • If you don’t know this or are working on it, the steps below show how to teach it with a treat and with a nose touch since every dog learns differently!
• Fold Down To Stand with half inflation/half stable canine fitness equipment (front on propel air platform and back feet on Blue-9 KLIMB)

Dog Fitness Exercise Goal: Your dog’s front feet should stay stationary while their hips and shoulders rotate together.

Dog Fitness Exercise Benefits: Strengthens spinal and core muscles while teaching the dog to push up with rear legs into the standing position. This in turn also strengthens your dog’s stifle extenders.

Step 1: Ask your dog to go into a stand on the Propel Air Platform.

Step 2: Lure your dog by holding the treat at their nose (you can also use your cue for fold down if your dog has one) and then ask them to follow the treat between his front legs (towards their chest) to encourage them to shift their weight back and to a down position without moving their front feet. 

Pro Tip: Many dogs will move their front feet a bit at first. My dog Annie still has moments from time to time There’s a few ways you can help keep their front feet still, but one way is to simply touch their feet as they lower or stand and gently hold them in place. If your dog doesn’t have a lot of sensitivity around their feet it’s a great place to start!

Step 4: With a treat in hand, or using a nose touch command, place your hand where your dog should end up back in a standing position. Immediately reward when they stand.

Dog Fitness Exercise 4: Sidestepping

I’ve said it before, but sidestepping is one of Annie and Diesel’s favorite exercises! I don’t think Diesel can do it without his excited woofing, ha! My Apple watch always does the “loud environment notification” every time he does this exercise! For this exercise, if you have a larger dog, I recommend using two Propel Air Platforms, otherwise your dog won’t have enough room to complete the K9 fitness exercise.

What’s really cool about this exercise, is that you can actually combine two exercises in one. If your dog knows how to pivot and sidestepping, you can sidestep down the long side, pivot on the short and sidestep on the other long side!

Before beginning this exercise, I recommend your dog know the following:

• Front Paw Targeting
• Pivoting (if you add it on the corners)
• Sidestepping on stable canine fitness equipment

Dog Fitness Exercise Goal: Your dog’s back should remain flat, front and rear feet keep a natural distance part and the legs can spread and touch or cross.

What You Could See: Many dogs will step with the front and then the back foot on the same side of the body and is ok! Crossing also comes with repetition so don’t be discouraged if your do isn’t crossing both front and back feet.

Dog Fitness Exercise Benefits: Activates the hip and shoulder abductors/adductors and the muscles that support shoulder and hip stability.

Step 1: Ask your dog to go into front paw targeting position on the Propel Air Platform.

Step 2: Keeping your dog in front paw targeting position, slowly walk into your dog (not pushing, but slight body pressure) or give them their cue for sidestepping to encourage your dog to walk to the side. Mark and reward. Complete one long side before switching directions.

Pro Tip: If your dog has a strong targeting cue like nose touch, you can also add this in as well to not only prevent finger nibbling but improve form here. Nose touch has been a game changer with Annie and has kept her form more precise and her mind extra focused on the task at hand. If your dog also knows targeting onto an object like a stick or cooking spoon utensil, you can also use that to keep them focused as they walk sideways.

Annie was moving pretty quickly in the photos below on the Propels and so if you’d like to see a better view of what sidestepping looks like, take a look at how Annie’s feet are in this post: 4 K9 Fitness Exercises Using An Aerobic Bench Step Platform.

What’s great about the Propel Air Platform, is that you can increase or decrease the challenge of every K9 fitness exercise as needed! Plus, there’s so many different ways you use it in your dog strength training by itself or with the Blue-9 KLIMB or even other FitPaws canine fitness equipment! The options are endless!

Don’t forget to use my code Sparkles20 to get 20% off your entire order at Blue-9!

If you want to learn more about dog fitness, check out my K9 fitness blog section to find more canine conditioning exercises and more ways to use your FitPaws or Blue-9 Pet Products canine conditioning equipment. Plus, check out my K9 Fitness YouTube Playlist and follow me on Instagram to find tons of helpful K9 fitness exercise videos and tips!

• K9 Fitness For Senior Dogs: Improving Your Dog’s Balance and Stability
• 4 K9 Fitness Exercises Using An Aerobic Bench Step Platform
• 3 K9 Fitness Exercises Using FitPaws TRAX Targets
• 5 Blue-9 KLIMB K9 Fitness Exercises (20% off discount code inside!)
• 3 FitPaws Balance Disc K9 Fitness Exercises
• 3 Beginner FitPaws K9 Fitness Exercises
• 3 Easy Stretches For Dogs
• 5+ K9 Fitness Exercises with FitPaws Balance Pad