Agility and other dog sports are wonderful for your dog, but training for those sports by itself is not enough to ensure your dog’s long-term health and wellness or to keep him at his peak performance. Dogs participating in performance sports require cross training activities, including both a conditioning program and strengthening exercises. Doing a variety of strengthening exercises will improve your dog’s performance and, even more important, will protect him against injuries.

Strengthening The Performance Dog demonstrates and explains a variety of strengthening exercises that should be part of your cross training program outside of agility (or any other sport-specific training). It includes exercises to improve jumping strength and power, improve collection and turning ability, increase forelimb and hind limb strength, improve balance, and increase hind-end awareness. Many of the hind-end awareness and balance exercises are appropriate even for puppies.