Canine Fitness in St. Charles, MO
Power Up Your Pup’s Fitness!
All dogs need movement! All dogs benefit from strengthening exercises for enrichment and health. Veterinary clearances for regular activity are required to enter into an exercise program.
We do not diagnose injury or illness and we do not do rehab.
Nearly half of dogs are overweight. Is yours one of them? We can work with you to come up with a diet and fitness plan to help with weight loss which will keep your dog healthier for longer!
Is your dog is starting to lose muscle or needs to gain muscle. We can come up with a conditioning plan to target the core muscles or limb muscles where there may be some imbalance or weakness.
How it Works
After your initial contact, either by phone, email or the contact form, I will provide you with an option to pick a time for a free consultation that will normally last 15 to 20 minutes. We will discuss issues you want to cover, your dog’s history, veterinary release form, and options for meeting, either at your location or in public.
Pricing for this program is $1200 for the 8-week package.
These programs are 4 1-hour sessions over 8 weeks. This will help you and your dog stay on track and make progress with meetings every 2 weeks. There will also be weekly check-ins and the ability to ask questions between sessions if any arise.
What Else do I need to get started?
You do not need fancy equipment to get started. We can use objects in your home and will be starting exercises on stable surfaces. Two platforms are preferred, and these can be human aerobic step platforms or homemade platforms as long as they are equal height and non-slip.
Fitness balance discs are next on the list to start building into more advanced exercises. These can be made for dogs from companies like TotoFit or FitPaws. Human balance discs that you can find on Amazon or in fitness-related stores will also work.
If you want a total package, a set of 8-12 cavaletti poles and a range of inflatable pieces of equipment would be best. For general strengthening, this is not required, and we are able to modify exercises around what is typically found in a home. We will also have equipment available for use during our sessions with you and your dog.
Important: Before beginning a fitness program, we require sign off from your vet. Please download the form below and bring it with you to the vet.
Liz is amazing at breaking training down into small steps. She is also good at offering options based on how your particular dog learns. For example, I was trying to teach Trooper to side-step towards me by watching training videos and following steps shown on the videos. None of it was working for Trooper. Liz watched what I was doing and from there was able to break it down into small individual movements based on how Trooper would best learn. We worked on one movement at a time and within a few weeks, Trooper was side-stepping like a champ!
Patience was my biggest challenge. I want Trooper to learn tricks and techniques without breaking them down into small individual pieces. Liz taught me to practice one small step at a time and reward and celebrate before moving to the next. This has made a tremendous difference for both Trooper and me.
Liz understands and is knowledgeable about so many aspects of dog training, from obedience, exercise, trick training, freestyle, agility, rally, scent, etc. She uses all of this knowledge when training. For instance, one of our moves in freestyle is backing up. Lately, Trooper didn’t seem to enjoy backing up like he did in the past. Liz suggested that we work on some strength training for his back leg muscles and showed me some exercises. It seems to be working!
— Joanne and Trooper