About

This project was created by four canine therapy specialists, passionate about animal welfare and best practice in rehabilitation, conditioning and training. Kirsti is a specialist canine rehabilitation and massage therapist who also trains and competes her own dogs in agility. Alex is a canine exercise rehabilitation and massage therapist who also trains and competes in agility and parkour. Kirsti and Alex run canine fitness and conditioning workshops together. Nikki and Katie are veterinary physiotherapists and hydrotherapists with a specialist canine rehab clinic in West London. Their combined experience of 26 years working professionally in canine rehabilitation led them to develop Conditioning Your Canine. The aim of this project is to provide a progressive series of safe, effective exercises that can be recommended by canine specialists to support rehabilitation and/or conditioning goals for dogs of all lifestages and abilities.

All exercise programmes are created by your supporting therapist specifically for your dog and should not be shared with any others as this could be harmful or inappropriate for another dog to complete.

Why ‘Conditioning Your Canine’?

The inspiration for this project is twofold.

Firstly, seeing the positive impact a good home exercise programme can have on our patients’ rehabilitation and recovery from injury, inspired us to produce an online aid to support owners with this element of their dog’s treatment plan.

Secondly, our belief in consent-based training drove us to develop a programme of exercises where the dog is involved and engaged with the conditioning process, and where owners feel empowered to complete the exercises with their dogs without force or intimidation.