As our dogs start to age, it’s important to keep their bodies as strong and supple as possible.

Adding some simple strength and mobility exercises to your dogs routine is a great way to have some fun with them, give them important mental stimulation and crucially keep them stronger for longer.

Coco the Staffy X Cattle dog shows you some simple exercises you can do at home in the video below.

Some of the exercises can be modified slightly if you have an older dog that is not as mobile as Coco.

The first exercise Coco is doing is slowly walking across a moderately unstable surface (some cushions) …

… this helps to build key stabilising muscles and improve her balance.

Then she walks in a Figure 8 pattern in and out of some cones. This helps keep her lower back more mobile and builds strength through weight shifting …

… then it’s some sit to stands to build strength in her back legs (this is like you and me doing squats).

Then she is crawling under a low obstacle (the table). This helps her build strength through all 4 legs.

If you have an older less mobile dog, the obstacle they walk under needs to be higher, so they only have to bend their legs a small amount to go underneath it.

Then finally Coco places her front legs on a chair and has her back legs on a cushion. This helps to build her core strength and improve her balance. Then she follows a treat left to right to encourage weight shifting and build strength in her back legs.

So that’s 5 simple strength exercises you can do at home with a few bits of furniture, a couple of cones and some treats.

Great work Coco!