I've just had a ttouch practitioner come out to sort out my daxie pup's behaviour as he is really fearful but she seemed more concerned with my ageing springer & that he needs more to do. She feels that as he is so quick to learn that he would benefit from doing some doggie dancing. As he is 12 years old & has bad arthritis in his elbows & 1 hip (she does know), I have to say that I am not totally convinced. Can anyone recommend  a dvd or book for some simple moves that I can teach him? He does really love to learn things so if he is able to do any moves without experiencing any pain, I am sure that he would be quite keen to learn, but I am at a loss at what I can teach him that won't hurt. If anyone has any other ideas as to what I can teach him then I would be pleased to know. He loves to find any toys that I have hidden for him but he has had to give up chasing his beloved ball. I have one of the wooden games with the blocks that you have to move around which he loves but I can't think of anything else to try him with. He knows what a clicker is but I'm not very good at thinking up things to do with it.

Get the book 'Learning Games' from Learning about Dogs.  As well as giving examples of what you can teach it explains how you need to build up the muscle tone etc in a dog for it to cope with different moves.  For you, it will mean this AND checking that you are working within your dog's comfort zone .....there may be some exercises that your springer just can not cope with. 

As he is a gundog and presumably likes to use his nose what about teaching tracking and scent discrimination?

HTH

Hi Gunner, thanks for your sugestion, I will look into the book you mentioned - it sounds exactly what I'm loooking for. I'm not sure about the tracking as it needs to be done at home as I am unable to get out & about with him but I could improve on his hide a toy game & start hiding it round the garden I suppose

>Can anyone recommend  a dvd or book for some simple moves that I can teach him?

Richard Curtis dancing with dogs is good and even has a routine at the end which you can put to music if you like. You can do the moves as fast or as slow as you want so it can suit everyone, even slow dogs.

'Dog Tricks' by Mary Ray is quite good, got a copy on ebay last week for about a tenner, cover price is 12.99. It has most of the moves she uses in her routines and has loads of photo/pics to show you how to start luring and then refine it to less and less hand signals.
Chris