Push-Ups
A very versatile exercise, the Push-Up is used to increase both a dog’s front-end strength and stability. Much like our previous exercises, we want the dog to perform this with controlled and confident actions.
To begin, we’ll have the dog in a Stand position and placing a Nose Target on the ground out in front of them between their front feet (please read the 102 if you’re not familiar with a Nose Target is).
Next, we we’ll want to signal or cue our dog to move and touch their nose to the target - again this motion should be as controlled as plausible.
The focus of this exercise is to encourage our dog to bend at the shoulder doing a push-up and NOT bending at the elbow into a down or crouch. This distinction is important, as this is what separates this exercise from the Down-Stand that we worked on previously.
The Push-up is a great exercise to build front-end strength and especially so in the shoulders if performed correctly. For dogs participating in sports (like Flyball or Dog Agility) the shoulder area is always a big area of concern as these muscles are constantly under duress when competing and pushing off and/or landing.