Staircases build better dog butts
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Strong and flexible butt/lower back muscles are critical for working dogs – but especially for performance dogs who face 15-20 agility obstacles which must be leapt over, climbed and descended in every course, and many times that number in every practice. My Madi is a pretty square little southern belle, and she sometimes isn’t quite as flexible nor are her rear and lower back as strong and muscled as I’d like them to be. Those weaknesses show up in her preference to jump 12 or 14″ rather than 16, and when she doesn’t quite make it from the floor to the back arm of the couch, or struggles just past the mid-point of an A-frame climb. If she doesn’t have enough space to get up a good head of steam going into that frame, when she can’t get enough momentum, her little butt sometimes struggles with the task.
Stuck indoors by the 3+ feet of snow we’ve had since the days before Christmas, with its occasional frosting of melted crust and ice, there’s no safe place outdoors for cavalletti. Walking in snow does help strengthen soft butts and lower backs, but it also makes for cold wet miserable southern belles and dog trainers with numb feet. 
But I live in a two-story condo, and I’ve got a built-in gym that both the southern belle and I can use many times every day – the 13 carpeted steps on the stairway between my first and second floor landings. My stairway isn’t designed for guilded debutante presentations, but it’ll do for a canine (and human) Stairmaster.
Almost from the beginning, I shaped M.’s down contacts on the last three steps of my carpeted stairs – this winter, I’m shaping fast climbs and building better butts by sending M. to the top of the stairs whenever I think about it. I’m also working a separate control and shoulder-strengthening exercise by dropping treats on alternate sides of the stair risers. M., for whom food is the sun and the moon, will patiently move on her own from left to right, one step at a time on her stairway descents – careful lest she miss a dropped treat. And since I have to climb the stairs to bait them, my butt is getting a few more daily challenges, too.
M. is already leaping more easily from the floor to her perch on the sofa arm, and traveling up the full flight of stairs more smoothly, even when she starts from a stand at the foot of the stairs with no run-in momentum. I don’t know if my butt is showing significant improvement – but hers is!
How do you keep your dog in shape during the dark days of winter, when working outdoors may not be safe or possible?
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January 15th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
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February 4th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Hey great post. I loved the wording and I think you’re onto something here with your own version of homemade agility training equipment. I had a question regarding the stair climbing though related to a dog’s health. I have a chocolate lab and I’m always concerned about her hips staying strong and healthy. How would you regulate the amount of exercise climbing stairs gives to be positive health wise and not detrimental? What would you use as a gauge? Thanks for the advice.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I am always very concerned about joint (and back) health – and stair work can lead to stresses and strains if the human end of the leash isn’t careful. It’s extremely important to teach your dog to do this exercise one.stair.at.a.time – no bounding up the stairs or crashing down them!
M. used to throw herself at the stairs. I put a light show lead on her, something strong enough so that I could leverage her to be more deliberate about he climbs and descents. Lucky for me she’s a chowhound, and she would happily slow down her climb to grab the puffed cheese curls she saw on the steps. It took her about three tries to realize that when you’re busy looking left and right for snacks, you get treats. Since that slowed her down naturally, I could reinforce what I wanted right from the beginning.
You could also bait the stairs with toys.
And yeah, I’ve done this same exercise with gordon setters twice times M.’s shoulder height.
That took more time, but it did happen.
I would start with one climb up and one down – nor more than a run of 15 steps in either direction. And if your dog is truly not in good shape, overweight or already experiencing hip or shoulder trouble, half that, done a couple times every day, is the way to start.
M. will soemtimes do the stairs three or four times in a row – on her own. I have a rule that I’ll let a dog do that kinds of exercise as often as s/he willingly chooses it without any prompt from me. But I will only send a dog at that kind of exercise one or two times in a training session. If I have three five minute training sessions spread out over the day, I may do one set of stairs (once up, once down) in each of those training sessions.
Hope that helps.
February 5th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
It does thanks so much. I have a desire to purchase a mult-story home but am concerned how Haley, my little girl will handle the stairs as she gets older. You’ve helped me feel more comfortable about it knowing that if I work with her, she should be okay with them. Thanks again.
Give Madi a hug for me and high paw from Haley.