What is body balance (fitness for fun)?

Body Balance is a wonderful way for your dog to learn body awareness (proprioception) to develop, improve & strengthen:

Balance & co-ordination,
flexibility,
stamina and muscle strength,
improve overall fitness
Along with improving our human / dog communication & handling skills.

Everything is based on the dog’s free choice – we don’t use ‘cues’ (commands). This enables the dog to ‘process’ their environment in their own time

This provides the dog with ‘agency’ which is so important. Agency simply means that the dog determines what they do, if they want to (or not) as the get to make their own choice.

‘Agency’ is extremely powerful (great learning for the humans too) as it provides multiple benefits especially in the areas of confidence & resilience, making it excellent for dog’s that are anxious, reactive, easily over excited or get worried about new things.

By combining a range of different exercises (with and without equipment) along with a other enrichment based activities we are able to improve and maintain their psychological & physiological wellbeing from a ‘whole of body’ approach.

Who’s it good for…Every dog!!!!

It’s fantastic for dogs of all ages, (some limitations apply dependent on dog’s age, illness or injury) & we are able to tailor & adjust the activities to the needs of individual dog.

If your dog does have known health issues seek advice from your vet & other animal professionals to ensure your dog is suitable to attend & any limitations that may apply.

What is it good for?

Body Balance is great for developing & maintaining stamina and muscle strength, flexibility & co-ordination, gait improvement & body awareness.

Building & improving confidence, focus and attention (for both dog and handler) dog/human communication, and a stronger relationship between the dogs and their people & includes various exercises & activities such as:

- - cavaletti – for gait improvement and rear muscle strength, builds coordination, stamina and develops rhythmic trot
  - steps/bricks/ mats/foot pods – develops body and foot placement awareness (great for teaching dogs to ‘stack’ ‘hands free’)
  - balance pads & cushions – balance, core strength
  - peanut balls – balance, core and rear muscle strength
  - plank work – balance, flexibility, co-ordination focus and attention

These sessions are specifically aimed towards pet dogs (& also fantastic for working dogs) , taking a whole of body approach & in addition to the health & fitness benefits, these fitness for fun sessions help develop confidence, focus & attention and helps to build a stronger human/dog relationship.

Body balance sessions

Sessions are provided individually (no ‘group classes’) & tailored adapted to the individual dog/s (multiple dog sessions are only available for dogs from the same household).