Why you should add cavaletti to your canine fitness regime now!

Cavalettis are one of my favourite exercises for canine fitness. They are a great strength workout 🏋️ engaging legs, core, and back muscles for strength, endurance, and overall agility. The focus is on precision and balance and this build great neuromuscular connections and good biomechanics through the whole chain of movement.

Negotiating the bars requires coordination, care and focus, which helps improve balance and proprioception (awareness of their body in space). 

Walking or trotting over cavalettis isn't just a physical workout—it's a balance and proprioception challenge. These exercises require dogs to finely tune their body awareness and coordination. Each step over the poles demands precise coordination between muscles, nerves, and the brain, fostering agility and neuromsucular connections for functional movement. 

Together the strength, flexibility and improved co-ordination and proprioreception help reduce the risk of injuries in active dogs, particularly those involved in sports.

Beyond the physical benefits, cavalettis require focus balance and clarity and as a result provide valuable mental stimulation, and are a great enrichment activity as a result, meeting our dog's needs and keeping their incredible brains sharp and engaged, as well as improving focus and attention.

Cavalettis are also super adaptable, Whether your dog is a seasoned athlete or just starting their fitness journey, you can adjust the height, spacing, and configuration of the poles to suit their needs and provide a suitably easier or more challenging activity.  

On top of the benefits to your dog cavalettis are also really accessible, making fitness activities easier. It’s something you can do at home, and requires little exertion for the trainer so it’s great when you don’t have time to go out or if you are injured. 🤕 When I had ankle surgery, I was able to transition the training and cues, so that i could continue to do my rehab training with Lilu from a chair. So if you have mobility issues or illness, I love this. 

Plus it’s fun to train and great for helping humans improve their training skills!

So whatever stage you and your dog are at, i would wholeheartedly recommend adding cavalettis to your regime. 

Happy training! 

Meg