Squats for Dogs

Ioda keeps getting older.  He has hip dysplasia and some arthritis in his lower back.  Luckily, we live in an area with great veterinarians specializing in this sort of thing.  Basically, the vet gave us some exercises that Ioda gets to do daily.  They could be a tedious chore, but we think of them as games or a shaping opportunity.


One such exercise are doggy squats.  The goal is for the dog to duck under an object, causing him to "squat" for a few steps.  With Ioda I've been using lawn chairs and my little Ikea table.  I'd been luring (I know,  not optimal) Ioda under the table and chairs.  However, he tended to either 1. run too fast and knock his back on the undersides or 2. crawl and not duck.  So instead, I've been shaping it.  Here is our third session.

Here's an outline for how I taught this:

• Click for looking at table, etc. until interacting with table.  Each time, I was careful to throw the treat either under, or on the other side of the table.
• Click for head under, throwing the treat under the table to slightly on the other side.
• Click for head under + ducking a bit, again throw treat as in past steps.
• Once the dog has head under + ducking + a step or two under the table, click and start throwing the treat further away on the opposite side of the table.  Repeat 2-3 times.
• Now hold out until the dog is committed (nose is sticking out the other end of the table), click and throw the treat on the dogs line a body length or two from the table.  

It might take a session or two to get going completely under the table, but this is a pretty fast one to teach.  Some other nice things about this trick:

• Doggy conditioning, great for older dogs and agility dogs - Helper will be doing this one when she's off crate rest.
• You can sit on the couch and and give your dog a workout.  :)
• It's another trick your dog does away from you.  I'm always looking for tricks which help with distance.
• It will become an obstacle in my old-dog-living-room-agility course.