Purpose – Strengthens both the hip and shoulder muscles. Trains a nice square down. 
 
Criteria – All feet remain still, square drop with everything in alignment, fold back down (not bow first then lie down), parallel hocks, elbows staying in. 
 
Placement of reward – Move the food towards the dog for the down movement. If you move the food downwards it will encourage the bow more, so directly towards the dog. Then lure them back up for the stand position. 

Training tips –Initially you may want to bring them back up to the stand before they adjust their feet, so they get the concept of keeping their feet still. Remember if they have not got full mobility in their hocks and knees then this exercise is very hard. Use two props for front and back end if they aren’t keeping feet still.  
 
Increasing difficulty – Can be done on angled planks to load one end more than the other. Can do on unstable equipment as long as they can maintain the same form.