Body Awareness

I have started Rundle on a bit of body awareness work.  This is to help him with learning balance and how to control his body as well as building core strength.  Body awareness is especially important in large breed dogs as they sometimes can have difficulty knowing what the rear half of their body is doing.  Puppies of any breed and large breed puppies especially, must be monitored in their physical activity so they do not put too much strain on fast growing joints and bones.  I am careful to only introduce exercises that put no stress impact on Rundle's joints and I never force the activity beyond what he is physically capable of doing.

Here is a short video of Rundle working on the balance disk.  The disk is not inflated too much so there is little rocking motion but there is enough that Rundle needs to work to balance on it.  I do not force him on the disc, rather I wait until he gets on and then I reward.  I want the interactions with the disk to be fun and totally initiated by Rundle.  Once he is more confident on the disk, I will start asking for specific behaviors (sit, down, stand) but for now all I want is for him to offer to get on the disk.