Benefits:

• Proprioception

• Rear Assembly Strengthening & Weight Shifting

• Core Strengthening

Equipment:

1. Start with larger pieces of lower, stable equipment. To prevent your dog from hopping, I recommend using a fairly flat piece of equipment, like a bath or yoga mat. The texture should be distinct and different from the regular ground you’re working on. 

Prerequisite:

1. Your dog should understand rear foot targeting and be able to stop independently with their back feet on a piece of equipment and maintain good form. 

Set-Up:

1. Start with placing a low piece of equipment a small distance in front of you - make sure there’s at least a dog’s length of space between you and the equipment.

How To:

1. Start with tossing a treat behind the equipment and having them rear foot target. Do a couple reps of this to remind them about rear foot targeting criteria.

1. Once they’ve warmed up, you can move a bit farther away from the equipment. Don’t move too far! Just a small paw step away. This time, when you release them off the equipment instead of tossing a treat behind the equipment, ask your dog to come forward into you for the reward. After rewarding, just stop and wait. As soon as your dog takes a step backwards - reward! You should be sitting close enough that the step backwards should be basically onto the equipment.

2. Reward your dog heavily for the step or two backwards onto the equipment. Then call them into you again, reward and wait. Once your dog takes a step or two backwards onto the equipment - reward! 

3. Repeat this step a few times to the point that after you call your dog into you, they’re almost immediately backing up onto the equipment.

4. After a few successful reps, begin moving farther away from the equipment and asking your dog to back up even farther. 

5. Troubleshooting

1. If your dog is trying to anchor themselves too much to the equipment as you call them into you, then scoot back just a bit more so they have to come off the equipment to be rewarded. 

2. If your dog pauses for a very long time, reward ANY movement backwards, even if they don’t necessarily end up on the equipment. You can encourage the backing up motion by rewarding on the ground between their two front paws, just a little bit under their body. This will force them to have to physically back up a bit to reach the treat.

3. If your dog is hopping, try using flat equipment. If you’re already using flat equipment, move closer to the equipment to decrease distance and speed.

4. If your dog is favoring one side, then turn the equipment so it’s sitting at a diagonal towards the side that is not favored as much. This will ‘force’ the first foot they target to be the weaker side. Make sure to turn it to both sides and perform equal reps on each side to ensure the dog remains even.

5. If your dog backs up crooked, try this exercise next to a wall or create a chute using cones or other objects you have around the house.

Goal:

1. Your dog should come to you and stop once their rear feet touch the equipment. They should be perpendicular to the ground, parallel to each other and be able to maintain a level topline.