Canine Fitness Austin, TX
Help your dog build the strength, balance, and body awareness to enjoy everyday adventures. Venture combines purposeful movement with coaching tailored to your dog, from family dogs and sport dogs to older dogs.

Professional Certifications & Memberships












Steven Tallas, CBCC-KA, Dip.CBST, CSCC — certified in canine behavior consulting, behavior science & technology, and canine sports conditioning.
Canine Fitness
Move With Purpose
Help your dog build the strength, balance, and body awareness to enjoy everyday adventures. Venture combines purposeful movement with coaching tailored to your dog.
Purposeful movement tailored to your dog’s life stage and goals.
Also included: weekly check-ins, full phone and email support between lessons, a 10% graduate discount on additional lessons, and an optional virtual follow-up up to one month after your program.
Puppy Fitness focuses on purposeful movement and physical foundations. For everyday manners and common puppy challenges, see Puppy Training, which is a separate program.

Who It Is For
Family dogs building a fitness foundation, active dogs working toward sport goals, and older dogs needing appropriately adapted activities.
What We Work On
Strength & Stability
Controlled exercises that develop a steadier foundation.
Balance & Coordination
Body awareness activities that help your dog move with intention.
Everyday Movement
Work on posture, mobility, and movement skills suited to your dog.
Progress at Home
Learn how to practice exercises and build a manageable routine.
Confidence on New Surfaces
Explore different surfaces and equipment at your dog’s pace.
Tailored to Life Stage
Adapt activities for puppies, family dogs, sport dogs, and older dogs.
Memberships & Assessments
Memberships from $59 to $129 monthly. Ongoing structured conditioning after your program: monthly movement clinics, discounted private lessons, and at the Elite tier, nine in-home sessions with equipment-supported conditioning and no owner required. A standalone in-home Canine Movement Assessment is $250.
The Program Austin Knows Us For
Ask around Austin's agility rings, dock diving events and training clubs about canine fitness, and you will hear one name repeatedly. This is our home turf: the discipline Venture was built around, and the expertise that powers everything else we do.
We study the canine body in motion: posture, gait, stability and the entire kinetic chain, to uncover how your dog generates and absorbs force. Dogs are never taught to move sideways, backwards or through different planes of motion. So they compensate. They tighten. They can lose mobility, and with it, comfort and confidence.
Our work addresses that through the Venture Functional Movement Method: a science-driven, posture-first approach blending canine biomechanics, behavior science and functional movement principles, delivered in your home by a trainer certified in canine sports conditioning with a canine fitness credential from NC State College of Veterinary Medicine.

Respected by the Professionals
Canine fitness is where Venture's community standing shows. Steven teaches the behavior-body connection in workshops alongside fellow certified behavior consultants, coaches warm-ups and conditioning at Austin dock diving events, and is the fitness resource other trainers refer their clients to.
Agility competitors put it plainly: no serious human sport trains only by playing the sport, yet most dogs are asked to do exactly that. Body awareness and conditioning are what let dogs compete, adventure and play hard safely, at any level, at any age.
Whether your goal is a stronger sport season, a calmer household or more good years with a graying muzzle, it starts with one assessment of how your dog actually moves.

Related Programs
Everyday skills live in Dog Obedience Training. Group conditioning happens in our Movement Clinics, puppies learn everyday manners in Puppy Training, and the behavior connection lives at Dog Behavior Training.
Canine Fitness Questions
What exactly is canine fitness?
Structured physical conditioning for dogs: strength, balance, flexibility, cardio fitness and body awareness, built through purposeful exercises rather than random exercise. Think of the difference between a human who walks sometimes and one who trains deliberately. Dogs compensate, tighten and lose mobility exactly the way we do, and structured movement is how you change it.
Is this physical therapy or rehab?
No, and the distinction matters. Rehabilitation after injury or surgery belongs with a veterinary rehab professional, and we refer those cases out. Our work is conditioning for healthy dogs: building strength, stability and body awareness. For dogs cleared by their vet after rehab, we are the natural next step.
Which dogs is Canine Fitness for?
Activities are tailored to life stage and goals. Family dogs build a fitness foundation, active dogs work toward sport goals, and older dogs get appropriately adapted activities. Puppies up to 4 months old have their own option, Puppy Fitness, with age-appropriate work.
What do programs cost?
Canine Fitness, Move With Purpose, has two options. Puppy Fitness is $1,020 for 7 lessons, for puppies up to 4 months old. Adult Fitness is $1,150 for 7 lessons, for dogs 5 months and older. Every program also includes weekly check-ins, full phone and email support between lessons, a 10% graduate discount on additional lessons, and an optional virtual follow-up up to one month after your program. A standalone Canine Movement Assessment is $250, memberships run $59 to $129 monthly, and drop-in group clinics at Epic Canine are $70 after a $100 placement assessment.
Can fitness really change behavior?
Movement is part of how we train. Dogs carrying tension, weakness or compensation patterns can live closer to their stress threshold. Purposeful movement supports body awareness and confidence, which is why we include it alongside reward-based training and behavior work. Austin dog sport competitors also know us as the warm-up and conditioning coaches at local events.
Let’s Find the Right Next Step
Book a free consultation and tell us about your dog. We’ll talk through your dog’s needs and find the right training program.