Transcript from the video:

Dog fitness Question number 10. My dog is fearful of objects stepping on a curb. I’m not sure I can do any fitness training with them. Well, fitness training is also about behavior training, really listening and bonding with our dogs, listening to those cues of what is working for their body and what is not working or what object they’re afraid of,

and why is that? I always remember in rehab, working with the fitness treadmill, and this dog is trying to go up the ramp, but he wouldn’t go up the ramp. And my mind was like, okay, why? Why is he not wanting to go up the ramp? And the owner’s like, I’ll just pick him and put him up there.

And I was like, no, I want him to walk in. I want him to have the confidence to go into this. And when I watched him, I realized I was like, he doesn’t have any confidence in his back legs holding him. because when he walks up that ramp, he has to put weight, he has to, as he picks up this front foot,

he has to put weight on those back legs. So if he doesn’t have any confidence in his back legs holding him, he doesn’t wanna pick up that front foot. So I made it less of an incline. And you know what he did? He walked right up that ramp, and it was just proving my theory that this dog didn’t trust his back legs.

So he didn’t wanna walk up the ramp. But once I lowered the ramp, he was able to walk up it. And over time he learned to have more confidence in his legs. And eventually he could go up the steep incline of the water treadmill ramp. And I always remember that. So as you’re working with your dogs, notice there are little subtleties.

You know, which leg isn’t working right? Which, which obstacle are they not wanting to go up and over? And then think back to, okay, what are the mechanics of that and what can I do to change it? I work with treats, as we talked about motivating your dog. This is where it comes with motivating your dog, whether it’s treats or toys,

or it’s you. Some dogs are motivated by you and you getting excited and happy for them. So when you’re working with a dog that’s fearful, just take it in baby steps. It may be just stepping on a phone book for, for their elevated stand because they don’t trust their body to hold them. And then as they get more confidence, you’ll see them brighten up and be like,

I got this. And they’ll just step right on it. And you’re like, yeah, you got this. So then you, next time you can be like, Hey, let’s try that aerobic step that’s, you know, a couple inches tall. And then you’ll see again, you’ll see it in their face like, I got this. And you’re taking that fear away.

So it’s watching their behavior and those subtle cues to help you help them so that they can build more confidence. And then what’s gonna happen over time, this happened to my mom’s dog, is they have a wood pile and birds hang out on the wood pile. Well, they have an Aussie, she just ran right up that wood pile. But mom said,

I wasn’t worried about her because I knew she had the body confidence. She was placing her feet and She got down and knew she wasn’t gonna injure herself because we’ve been doing exercise. That’s the difference of a confident dog. And so when our dogs are fearful, just like when we’re fearful, our dogs are there next to us to tell us it’s okay.

You got this. We’re there for them when they’re afraid and saying, it’s okay. You got this. And exercise. I, I get teary-eyed because that’s the side effect of exercise. It helps bring them out of their fears and build up confidence. And that makes me so happy. So let me know how it goes, and I love to hear your stories.

All right, so that you and dog can live your best life.