High Five for Fitness

If you are short on time, high five is a quick and easy exercise is great for developing strong shoulders and upper arms. Especially useful for dogs that like to jump or participate in agility-like sports.

What is High Five?

High Five is when the dog reaches for your hand in either a seated or a standing position. It strengthens both abduction and adduction muscles – those that pull muscles towards the body and those that push the muscles away.

Where Can I Do High Five Exercises?

High Five can be performed inside or outside. Start with a level surface. Conditioned dogs can advance to using an unstable surface like a balance disc for this exercise. Try using Disc or K9FITbone for front paw placement.

High Five Guidelines:
1) From a sit position, lift one paw to your hand.
2) Say “High-Five” and reward placement with a treat. Your Dog will associate paw placement with treat and start to reach on his own.
3) Move placement of treat to change height of leg and extension to target different parts of the muscles.
4) Strive to keep the pastern (wrist area) straight. Work both sides evenly.