Stacking Box

Just a quick DIY post today. I've been working on teaching Ptera to stack properly, mostly so she is more comfortable when being measured for jump heights. I have been attending conformation classes to help with the being-handled-by-the-judge part of things, but having Ptera understand how she is supposed to stand in the first place is an important step. To help with that, I built a stacking box, with the purpose of showing her exactly where to put her feet.

Making a stacking box is pretty easy. Tools needed for this were a saw, a drill, a staple gun, and scissors. Supplies are wood (I had cheap 1x4s that were for a different project that ended up changing plans), screws long enough to attach your wood together, a piece of a yoga mat, and some staples long enough to attach the yoga matting to the wood. How much wood or yoga mat you need depends entirely on the size of your dog. You want the box to be longer than your dog, and somewhat wider than their stance. I just held my wood up to Ptera and guessed. If you don't own a saw with which to cut the wood, get your measurements before heading to the hardware store, and ask them to cut the appropriate lengths. Generally, they won't do cuts with less than 12 inches on either side, and sometimes they will charge for more than 2-3 cuts, depending on where you go. You want two long pieces, and four short pieces.

Drill, saw, cut boards, and screws

You start off by making a box out of the two long pieces and two of the short pieces. I didn't predrill any holes, and did end up with a little bit of splitting on my wood. You can predrill or not. Either way, I highly recommend starting the screws in the short end piece first, before attempting to attach them to the long pieces. It makes the entire process much easier.

Attaching the short piece (with screws already started) to the long pieces to form a box

Once you have a box made of two short pieces screwed to the ends of the two long pieces, it is time to place the other two short pieces. These are the parts your dog's feet will be on. The first piece can be attached to the front of the box.

Short piece for front feet is attached to the box

Once the board for the front feet is in place, carefully decide exactly where you want your dog's back feet to be. I put Ptera up on the table and had her measure (which holding the loose board so it didn't slip), but you can also measure with your dog standing in a proper stance (especially if you have assistance so someone can measure while you hold the dog in place).

Getting the right placement for the back foot board

Once you have the correct placement for the back foot board, go ahead and screw that one on as well. At this point, I also lightly sanded down a few splintery areas from cutting and where the board had split while drilling. This is also the point where you would add stain or paint, if desired. I left mine raw, for now.

All screwed together

Next, cut some matting (I used a small piece off the end of a yoga mat) just wide enough for your dog's feet when in a proper stance. Attach the matting using a staple gun (you could also glue this, probably, but I am too impatient to wait for glue to dry). Make sure to put the matting exactly where you want your dog to put their feet. The boards are to give your dog a rough idea of where their feet go, the matting is exactly the correct place. Having a different texture so your dog can tell when they get it right is a good idea here, and the yoga matting also helps keep them from slipping.

Yoga mat added with the staple gun

Now, you are ready to use your stacking box.

Learning how to use the box.

Wordless Wednesday: Balance

Balance and focus

Fit Friday: SUP

SUP stands for Stand Up Paddleboarding. And that is the new sport that we are getting involved in. Last weekend, I picked up a board, and then on Monday, I headed to the lake with the dogs in tow and board strapped to the top of the car.

On the dock, ready to go

I had never been on a SUP before, and my only previous experiences with surfing ended badly, with lots of falling and getting gashed open by the fins. But really, other than the look of the board, paddleboarding is totally different. For one, you can do it on flatwater.

Jacketed and ready

Ideally I will be comfortable enough with the SUP that I can take it on the river. For my first time, though, I thought the flatwater of a lake would be better. We went up to Foster Lake by Sweet Home and headed down to the boat dock. The SUP I have is 10'6" long and probably 30+ lbs if I took a guess. Large and sort of awkward to move around with, but doable for one person. It may have been insane, but I brought the dogs down with me right away and we all hopped onto the board. I started out kneeling at first, to get the hang of it, and to let the dogs get the idea of what we were doing.

Pallo standing, and Koira in a down while out on the board the first time. 

Honestly, they settled in quickly and seemed to take it in stride. Koira did jump off the board a few times to swim, but it seemed more like she just couldn't stand sitting still and had to do something more so than her not liking being on the board. She figured out that to get back on she just had to swim over to near me and I would help her up with the handle on her life jacket. There was a bit of barking and whining, but again, I think it was from excitement and wanting to do something rather than being scared or not wanting to be there.

Riding the nose

Pallo tried out sitting at the front of the board and at the back of the board. At the front, he got dripped on by the paddle when I switched sides, and at the back, I think he was a little less steady. I know he knocked Koira into the water once by deciding to change positions and actually walking underneath her instead of trying to go around- Koira didn't seem to mind much though. Neither me or Pallo ended up in the water at all!

After a bit of a jaunt out with me paddling on my knees, I took the dogs back to the dock and set them up in the car in the shade while I took the board out by myself to see if I could stand up. At first, it seemed totally insane that I would feel stable doing this, but it was only a few minutes before I started feeling more confident while standing. I then went back and got the dogs for another ride out. With me standing, they actually had some more space on the board. The longer we were out, the more stable I felt. I know I was using a ton of muscles though because I was sore the next day!

She was loving watching the ski boats go by with skiers or people on floats.

Overall, we had a ton of fun. I know I got a workout, and I am sure the dogs got some great core conditioning going on with constantly maintaining balance. I am sure that the more we go, the better we will get too. I do plan on picking up some non-slip pads of some kind for the board, though. The dogs seemed like they were slipping a little bit, and when Koira tried to get back on after taking a swimming break, she had a hard time getting traction with her feet, even with me helping her via the lifejacket. Plus, her claws made some marks on the board while doing that, which I would like to prevent in the future as much as possible.

WW: Our Monday Adventure

Guess what we did on Monday.

FitDog Friday: Koira Update, and a Conditioned Labrador

Koira's injury recovery is going really well. This past week, I reintroduced her to two flyball exercises. The first one is a recall over jumps, sometimes referred to as a runaway. Basically, one person sits on the flyball box and holds the dog, while the dog's handler runs down the jumps to the other end. The dog is released to go over the jumps and is rewarded by their handler at the other end.

Recalls are a big part of the training game to get the dogs used to going over the jumps every single time. The pattern is always the same: flyball box, then fifteen feet away is the first jump, then each of the four jumps are placed ten feet from each other. We also use recalls as a warm up before running the full course. They are something we can easily do in a tournament setting during our designated 1 minute warm up time, so they also translate easily to competition.

For me, they are also one of the first things I reintroduce a dog to after they have had an injury. My teammates are all aware, of course, of Koira's injury, so watched her very closely for me for any signs of her looking not right. Koira looked just fine to everyone, if a little overly happy at being back! I am cautious about rewarding her with a tug now, since her injury was to her neck. I know when dogs tug a lot of pressure and force is put on their neck muscles. So I am trying to come up with alternate ways to reward her that Koira still finds rewarding. Food doesn't work in flyball for her- she just doesn't find it rewarding enough. On Sunday, I rewarded with a tennis ball, which seemed to work well. On Thursday, we did a few quick runaways as well, and I rewarded with a toy, which she seemed to like even more than the tennis ball.

While we cut practice short on Thursday this week (I was still feeling a bit under the weather from a bout of food poisoning on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning), I did do a few wall turns with Koira on Sunday before practice was over. I took it easy and tried not to do too many, but Koira seemed happy, had high, snappy turns, and looked good both during and after.

I do think that Koira will be back in flyball, and sooner than any of us thought when she was first injured. But, I don't want to push her. The absolute earliest time she would be in a tournament at this point is July, and that will depend entirely on how she is doing leading up to that point. It is much better to miss a few tournaments (or even a lot of tournaments) and have a healthy dog than to bring her back too soon and injure her, possibly worse than the original injury was to begin with.

In the mean time, we will continue with a slow, steady reintroduction of activities. Along with flyball recalls and wall turns, I plan to start reintroducing fetch this month as well. Koira has been doing free running (that is, running without it being controlled by me) for the past month. Her muscling is coming back in nicely, though she is still a bit on the light side. We'll start with light, short sessions of fetch with plenty of free running before and after to make sure she is moving loosely and warmed up. My current plan, if everything goes smoothly, is to start full runs in flyball in May.



As a final note, unrelated to this particular post but certainly of relevance to my post last week, a flyball friend of mine who runs a lab agreed to send me a few photos of her dog. Labs seem to be one of those dogs that everyone wants to see fat. Even when people think their lab is in shape, they tend to be fat. This is a purebred lab, not a mixed breed. And she is in beautiful working condition. This is the most singularly impressively in shape lab I have ever seen.

Notice in the front views that she has a distinct separation between her neck and her shoulders. They do not just meld one into the other. Her chest is gently curved at the bottom, not straight across, and it doesn't extend down below her elbows. Dips and bumps along her chest are obvious but not huge, showing anatomy that is well built but not skeletal. Her muscles are well developed and visible, even when standing.

In the straight on picture above, you can see a bit of her well muscled hips/thighs showing around her shoulders, but no stomach fat. At this angle the chest is still well developed, muscles are still obvious, and the neck and shoulders are still distinct from each other.

And now the full side photo. You can see well developed muscles all over this dog. Her shoulders are well defined enough to separate the main muscles in the area just by looking. Her last couple of ribs are lightly visible. She has a distinct tuck up after her rib cage, leading back to a well muscled rear. While you can't see the spine or hip bones, they are both felt easily without having to dig around or search.

THIS is what a well conditioned lab should look like. Another pound or two would even be okay, though this dog is certainly not underweight. But an extra pound would make maybe the last two ribs lightly visible instead of the last four, which wouldn't be a bad thing. When you have a highly conditioned sporting dog, you spend a lot of time wondering if they might need to gain another pound or two, or lose a pound or two. But their weight, when actively competing and in condition, should not vary by significantly more than that. Five pounds would be way too much for this dog to either lose or gain.

In closing, I will clarify that not every dog needs to look like this. This dog is an active and very successful flyball competitor, and does other sports as well I believe. Your average pet lab doesn't need this kind of conditioning or definition in the muscles. But the pet lab should not be significantly heavier than this, either- the main difference shouldn't be in the visibility of the ribs, tuck up, etc, but in the definition seen in the muscles. A pet lab isn't jumping and twisting in a way that another few pounds adds tens or hundreds of pounds of pressure on the joints on a regular basis, so can be a couple of pounds heavier. A senior should reasonably kept in shape but with a few more pounds, in case of injury or illness where a bit (a small bit!) of extra weight acts as a buffer if they can't eat for a few days. But it should never be enough extra weight that the joints are being put through tremendous extra pressure or the heart will have trouble pumping blood through the increased mass.

Fit Friday: Injuries and Pred

I've kind of been missing in action. Not a whole lot is happening around here. Koira is feeling pretty good. She really wants to romp and play, but is still on rest for another 6 days or so while we finish off the prednisone.

Unfortunately, her recovery is going to be long. Really, really long. Not only did she have the neck injury (which needs to be treated carefully even if she doesn't think so) but the prednisone had some pretty severe side effects for her. There is the normal constant hunger and the drinking excessively. Which means extra peeing and pooping as well. But Koira has also had some pretty severe muscle wasting. In the past 2 weeks, she has lost 3 lbs.

Photo of Koira taken on Wednesday, after almost two weeks on prednisne

The vet says the muscle will come back once we stop the steroids and can start exercising. However, I'm worried about doing many activities at first with Koira so... soft.

For comparison, here is a photo of her from last summer.

The lines are from a structure analysis. But you can see the muscle definition and tone that is lacking in the recent photo I posted above.

The photos are slightly different- the one above is a forced stack (I placed her in position) while the one below is a free stack (she naturally stopped like this at the park). And of course the lighting is different with cloud cover versus full sun. But I think it is still very obvious to people used to analyzing dogs that Koira has lost a lot of tone, and her muscles are very soft.

We're off to a flyball tournament this weekend. Koira won't be running due to her injury. Pallo won't be running due to his mental problems. I'll be boxloading for one team and running a teammate's dog on the other team. My dogs will be spending the weekend hanging out in their crates.

That said, we'll have to come up with a conditioning plan for the future. I need something low impact and gradual. Swimming would be ideal, but with it being winter, we would have to drive up to Portland for an indoor heated dog friendly swimming pool. Four hours of driving round trip seems a little overboard, even for me. But... if that is what she needs... On leash walks (with the leash attached to a harness that puts no pressure on the neck) will obviously be another part of our rehab.

The long and the short of it is, injuries happen. They suck. Completely. Sometimes the treatment causes additional problems as well. But, you just have to suck it up and deal. Move forward. And that is what we are trying to do.

Conditioning Progress Report

Well, it has been a week since I first posted the fitness conditioning plan for Koira. I'm hoping to get her into great shape for our upcoming flyball tournaments at the end of the month.

Our first week went great. Friday we went to the park for a while. The dogs ran and had a good time, as planned, followed by a rest day on Saturday. Saturday was a rest day more because I was scheduled for double shifts than because the dogs really needed a rest, but it worked out.

Sunday we took off to the park again for some more free running. The dogs had a great time and we ended up spending a few hours walking all the way to the far end of the park and back. We also spent some time walking through the wooded trails there, rather than just walking through the main fields.

Monday was another day of double shifts for me, but I didn't want to make it yet another rest day for the dogs. Instead, I made sure to get in our ball work in between shifts while I was home for a few hours. I cleared out the house of extra stuff this past summer, including the exercise balls I didn't use much. I just kept one egg shaped one. It is smaller than the ball I used for the dogs most of the time, but is the one I use myself, so I kept it. Since it is smaller, it took Koira a lot longer to start feeling steady on it compared to the larger ball. I think she got a great workout doing simple stand, sit, and down on the ball.

Tuesday was my birthday, and I had plans to spend the day at the beach. That is exactly what we ended up doing. It ended up being my mom, me, and the dogs out at the beach for the day, but we all had a total blast. We found a few whole sanddollars and some awesome agates and fossils and the dogs had a great time running around and playing on the beach. It was a little chilly in the morning, but became a gorgeous blue skied day in the afternoon.

The dogs and my mom walking on the beach

Wednesday was scheduled as a 20 minute walk when I originally posted our weekly plan. On the advice of a friend, I cut that down to a 10 minute walk and did extra stretching, since the beach and park and ball are all pretty intensive. I do stretching and massage on Koira almost every night before bed, but I made extra sure to really work on her Wednesday. Her shoulder is still a bit tight, but she seems to enjoy the body work.

On Thursday we woke up to about 3 inches of snow on the ground. By afternoon, we were up to 8 or 9 inches. I was still determined, though, and headed out to the park with the dogs for their run time. Instead of driving to the park, we walked there. This particular park is a good 20 minute walk away, so we often drive to give the dogs more time at the park itself. There was no way I was driving in the snow for something that silly though, so me and the dogs all bundled up and headed out. I think we were gone for a total of 3 hours or so, walking to the park, around the park, and home.

Walking to the park

At the park shortly before starting our walk home

Overall, I think we have been doing really well. The dogs are certainly napping a lot! Scheduled for today is some flirt pole fun- we'll get to see how the flirt pole works with 10 inches of snow on the ground. One week down, three to go!

FitDog Friday: Conditioning Plan

Next month, Koira will be running full time in start position for the first time in her flyball career. I have high hopes that her turn will remain decent. When she gets tired, though, it may drop a bit. In order to keep her running easily and keeping a nice turn for as long as possible, I decided to put together a conditioning plan for the weeks between now and then.

This is our mocked-up conditioning schedule for the next month and next two flyball tournaments

I don't do so well with strict regular schedules, or with just winging it. So instead, I tried to cobble together the best possible plan based on my work schedule and the amount of free time I should have each day. The basic possible activities I used were free running, flirt pole, on the ball, leashed walks, and flyball practice. I didn't want to do something like Monday free running, Tuesday flirt pole, etc, because that bores me, and I have to think it bores my dog as well. Instead, I set it up with us doing free running at the park on the days we have the most free time. Days where my free time will be limited are leashed walks or flirt pole work, and days when my free time is likely to be after dark are on the ball days. Rest days are for those days when I will be working double shifts or right after tournaments.

Free running at the park or beach for us means that the dogs will be off leash and free to play, run, and explore as they wish. I won't be controlling their movement or speed in any way other than keeping them generally near me and preventing them from bothering other people. I generally don't bring toys to the park to play with because I prefer that the dogs run and play with each other, however, some of our friends at the park like to play fetch with my dogs, and I am happy to let them do so while we visit. Park visits tend to last a minimum of 30 minutes and have been known to last up to 4 or 5 hours. 

Flirt pole work is much more intensive than free running at the park. Since I am in control of the flirt pole, I am controlling the movements of the dogs. I try to make sure they are circling both directions and making tight turns both left and right, rather than just having them chase the flirt pole around and around. The goal isn't to make them totally out of energy, but rather, to get them to practice quick movement and bursts of speed. Fifteen minutes is generally plenty of time for an in shape dog to get a good workout with a flirt pole.

On the ball stuff is pretty basic. For my dogs, I like to go through a basic routine of having them sit, stand, down, and turn both directions on the ball, moving slowly and having to adjust their balance as they go. I like to have them do slow motion puppy pushups, down-stand-down, sit-stand-sit, etc, so that they have to readjust. Koira has been getting very good at her sit pretty on solid ground, so I might see if she can give me a sit pretty on the ball. 

Koira giving me a sit pretty at the beach

Leash walks are pretty self explanatory, I think, as are rest days. Rest days don't mean we won't do any training of any kind, but it does mean we won't be focused on physical training or conditioning work. We may still work on tricks or mental games on those days.

What do you think? Think Koira will be ready to not only run full time, but in start position, for her first tournament? Dogs in start position can run up to 3 times as much as the rest of the dogs on the team due to false starts.

Our Week So Far

I kept my promise to the dogs and we got out and to the park on Tuesday. 

On Sunday, we had flyball practice in the morning, and I worked in the afternoon. We did a little bit of trick training Sunday evening, but called flyball practice good for their daily exercise.

On Monday, I was planning to head to the park with the dogs since the sun was finally out (we have been buried in a bank of fog for the past week). But instead I got to wait around the house all afternoon after work, waiting for a plumber to come by and fix my leaky sink. We did some trick training, but that was about it.

Tuesday we got back out to the park. It was bright and sunny, the sun once again having broken through the clouds. It was still really cold though, just barely above freezing. I bundled up and put Koira's sweatshirt on her and let the dogs romp. 

Running in the setting sun

Sunset is so early this time of year that it really makes it hard to get out and play for very long. By the time I get off work, we only have a couple hours of daylight left. I should just be thankful that I get off work with any daylight left at all, I guess.

In her pink sweatshirt, FitBit attached to her leather braided tag collar along with her antler tag.

 All of these pictures were taken with my new camera and new lens. I don't think I've mentioned on the blog yet, but I got a new camera a few months ago. I also purchase a new lens for a steal on Ebay and have been playing with both of them quite a bit.

Pallo in the sunset haze- you can see the cloud of his breath in the cold air

My fingers basically froze despite my gloves, but the dogs played and ran and kept busy enough to stay pretty warm. I think Koira even wanted her sweatshirt taken off at one point when she ran so much she got hot, but I think she ended up liking staying warm as sunset got closer and the temperature started dropping.

Pink is such a good color on her

 There was no ball playing on this park visit. I don't bring balls along to the park most of the time. Koira won't go play and run if she knows I have a toy, but will instead stay right by me pestering me the entire time. I am fine with them playing fetch with other people and their dogs, as long as they are all okay with it. But, with no fetch, that doesn't mean the dogs didn't run. These two are great playmates. They play a crazy game of chase, wrestle a bit, go and sniff, repeat. No matter what else may be true about Pallo, he really was a great choice as a playmate for Koira. That role he filled, and continues to fill, extremely well.

We stopped to talk to some people for a while, and Pallo was whining. When he gets really upset and impatient, he does full open mouthed whines and little mini barks.

No pictures from Wednesday, but we did take a nice long walk in the afternoon. A friend of mine recently moved just a few blocks away. We've been trying to get out and take walks together a few times per week. That sort of fell apart with the holidays, but hopefully we will be getting back on track with it now. About halfway through our walk, my FitBit threw a party for me for reaching 10,000 steps (the goal to reach every day). By the end of the day, I had over 15,800 steps, which is really pretty good for a day that was spent half at work.

Oh, and I started a new Facebook group to help remind each other to get our dogs' nails trimmed every week. The group is called Thursday Nail Trims. The idea is to have a community that will help remind each other to stay on top of nail trimming. It is so easy to forget and let it slide sometimes. So far everyone in the group is pretty great- plenty of reminders to get the nails trimmed, motivational posts as people get their weekly quota done, and some great positive reinforcement when you get it all done. Of course, there is some teasing and mocking of those who forget, but it is very much in the way of friendly banter. Feel free to join the group if you think it would help you get nail trims done regularly!

Park

Reality check. Pallo is fat. 

Now, he isn't super fat, not yet. But he could stand to lose a few pounds for sure. His endurance (and Koira's, for that matter) isn't all that great right now. So, we need to work on this moving forward.

We went to the park yesterday. I realized while there that we haven't been to this park in a month, which means the dogs haven't had a long off leash walk in that long. Poor pups. 

 I tried to both give them a good workout and not over do anything, since they haven't run this hard in a while. I think they had fun. We saw a few new dogs, like the merle they are greeting above, and a few of our older park friends, like Manny in the next picture. They ran and played and fetched.

There may also have been some barking when the toy didn't get thrown quickly enough.

And my dogs may have been toy hoarders. Poor Manny has short little legs, even shorter than Pallo's. He couldn't get the ball from my guys even with faking them out and giving him a head start in the opposite direction. But I think he liked chasing them with the toy even better than having the toy himself. A good time was had by all.

Before heading home I got out the flirt pole for my guys. We didn't flirt pole for long, since they had already done some serious running playing fetch, but they both love the flirt pole. Koira gets rather loud and demanding with it which is why we can't really play with it at home. I don't want to annoy the neighbors with the shrieking barks she can make.

Overall, I think the dogs had fun. I just need to step up my game. After I got injured at work a year and a half ago, I couldn't really take the dogs to the park much. I couldn't throw a toy far. I couldn't even really take them for walks without hurting a ton just being vertical. It is easy to stay home watching movies or tv or messing around on the computer when you hurt if you leave the house. I tried to keep most of my injury nonsense off the blog, but I'm here to say, it definitely had an affect on my dogs. The habit of taking them to the park every single day, rain or shine, really fell apart then. And I can't beat myself up for the fact that I really couldn't do it. But I'm as much better as I will ever get, and my dogs need this.

So over the next few months I am going to make myself take them out- we have fun once we are out, it is just so easy to procrastinate going out, checking email, checking facebook, reading blogs. Once the habit is lost, it becomes so much harder to get it back. And my dogs need this.

Running

Over the past couple of weeks I have taken up running. I signed up for a 5k in October called Run or Dye. I really don't have any goals for the race except that I would like to be able to run the entire thing without stopping or walking. Unfortunately, due to the color dyes, dogs are not allowed to run the 5k. But my dogs are generous and have been helping me train anyway.

I didn't really start out with any specific goals in mind. I knew I needed to start running in August to get in shape for a race in October without injuring myself. I knew I should start slow and build up distance and speed over time. I seriously thought about doing the Couch to 5k program, or something similar, but I ultimately decided against it. I tend to rebel against schedules. Instead, I just made a promise to myself that I would go for a run at least three days per week.

My first few runs were just around my tiny neighborhood, basically circling the same few blocks for a total of about 20 minutes. I even stopped on the beach on the way home from a friend's wedding and went for a 20 minute jog on the sand. Then, last week, I got a smartphone for the first time. The first app I downloaded, even before I got Facebook, was MapMyRun. I thought it would be really fun to be able to map where, how far, and how fast I was running. Its helped motivate me to run in my much broader neighborhood area, covering new paths and different streets.

Unfortunately, the weather has also gotten hot and humid the past week or so. I tried venturing out for a run in the late afternoon once last week, since it was overcast. I ended up having to head home less than 10 minutes into it, because the dogs were having a really hard time and I was barely able to breathe and totally dripping with sweat. So I've been running at dusk or after dark.

Starting out

I finally took my camera along last night to get some pictures. I headed out a bit before dark. Whether I run in the daylight or at night, Koira always wears her safety vest. She is a black dog, so can be hard to see, and she also likes to be out in front of me, though she is pretty good about not pulling most of the time.

Smartphone setup

I just got this little arm case for my smartphone. I like that it has a small built in pocket (meant for a house key) that I can shove poop bags into. You can also see that I had a full poop bag in this photo as well. Technically the case is meant to be worn higher up, on your upper arm, but I liked being able to see it when I was running.

Double swivel leash set up

Last week I decided to make the dogs a double leash with a double swivel set up so they stopped tangling up their leashes when we went running. I hated having to stop and untangle them. A few bucks at the local hardware store, some webbing I had laying around my sewing bins, and a few minutes of sewing later, I have a tangle free leash. The dogs can weave in and out with each other and the leash just swivels and keeps them untangled, which is awesome. I highly recommend one of these if you walk two dogs together often. It has full length leashes, as you can see in the top photo, but they each clip onto the swivel which is then attached to a small handle loop.

LED and reflective vest

Since we are running at night time, I also have a whole safety set up for the dogs. It looks much darker in this photo than it actually was yet, but it lets you see what all we have going on. Both dogs are wearing LED collars (Koira has red, Pallo has pink). Koira has her safety vest on, though I need to remember to put some new reflective strips on it. Pallo has not only a standard leash on, but also an LED leash. We end up being pretty bright when running after dark. I would like a second LED leash so both dogs could have one, but for now, this method works.

Unfortunately my motivation was just not there last night. I've been doing so great with the runs since the beginning of the month. Once I get out and get going, I actually am enjoying myself a lot. I haven't really sped up much, but I feel like I am able to run longer without stopping to walk, and that I can maintain a faster pace more consistently than I first could. But that might just be in my mind, because I haven't seen much to support that in MapMyRun- though admittedly I am jogging just barely faster than a quick walking pace, which makes it hard to tell a difference. 

But last night, man, it was just not happening. I did jog for a while, but couldn't even make it to the end of the first street without slowing down. It was still really hot and really muggy, which I think had something to do with it. I kept trying for a while, but running, no matter how slowly, felt like torture. I finally gave in to my body and just walked. We did cover over three miles with our walk, so it wasn't a total waste. But I'm hoping I'm feeling better tomorrow.

And just for fun, LED leash after full dark.

Koira doing some light painting 

PS: I am totally loving all of the reader input on yesterday's post! If you missed it or have any questions, post/subject requests, etc, please check out yesterday's post and leave me a comment. Or feel free to comment here too!

Poor Tired Pallo

Well, Pallo is exhausted after Day One of flyball this weekend! Here he is on the drive home, curled up sleeping. Poor guy was so tired that even when I gave him a bully stick when we got home, he curled up to sleep rather than eating it!

FitDog Friday: How to Make a Spring Pole

So, the spring pole is probably my new favorite way to exercise Koira. She absolutely loves this thing, and I don't have to do anything. Koira just grabs onto the spring pole and starts tugging away. From watching her, I think it is probably an amazing workout for her core more than anything else.

Do you think your dog might love a spring pole of their own? If so, the first thing you should do is make sure they are legal to own in your area. Spring poles are often classified as dog fighting paraphernalia, along with dog specific treadmills, collars wider than 2 inches, and other things that have nothing whatsoever to do with dog fighting. However, because of this, it is a good idea to check with your local animal control to make sure owning a spring pole won't get you arrested. I called my local animal control officer before building one just to make sure.

Now, don't let all that scare you off. I really do think that a spring pole is an excellent tool for conditioning your dog.

Alright, lets get into the fun part. I built a spring pole for eight dollars. These are the supplies:

1 spring
1 rope
1 place to hang

The spring I chose- it is firm but with a little give when I pull hard on it- just perfect

What I used was an eight dollar spring from the local hardware store. Many other tutorials recommend garage door springs. I found, when I looked at them, that the garage door springs were too long for the location I have for my spring pole, as well as being quite a bit more expensive. So far, this lighter weight spring is working great.

The lead rope, knotted along its length, attached to the spring with a carabiner 

The rope part of the spring pole is for the dog to grab onto. For mine, I used an old lead rope, like for a horse, that I happened to have on hand. I got the lead rope for free from the local new and used tack store since it was really well worn. If you don't have one of these just laying around, you can use any number of other things. Any type of relatively thick rope, a fleece tug toy, etc. Just keep an eye on what you do choose to use to make sure it is easy for your dog to grab onto and doesn't wear out super fast. I tied knots in the lead rope to help give the dogs a place to grip and not just slide down the rope. The latch on my lead rope was broken (running it over with a lawnmower does that apparently), so I also ended up using a carabiner to attach the rope to the spring. You can do this with your rope as well, or find some other way to attach it. Just make sure it is secure.

The spring hooked onto the swing set using the hooks previously used to hold the swings

The best place to hang the spring pole will be very dependent on what you have around and how your dog likes to use it. I chose to use an old swing set frame that I use in the summer for hanging hammocks in the yard. It is pretty low, but Koira prefers having her feet on the ground while playing with the spring pole, so it works for us. Plus, it has the handy hooks from where the swings used to attach that I could just slip the spring's hook onto and be in business. Other good places to hang a spring pole would be an overhead beam (if inside, on a patio, etc) or from a tree. Whatever you choose, give it a few good strong tugs before letting your dog at it to make sure it is nice and secure.

The whole set up- spring attached to the swing set frame, rope attached to the spring, ready for action

Then, have at it.

Koira getting started with the spring pole

If your dog is an avid tugger, it should be really simple to get them interested in the spring pole. Just initiate a game of tug using the spring pole rope, then let go so they are tugging against the spring. Most dogs who love tugging will love spring poles. The spring makes it much more fun than a totally stationary toy because it tugs back and gives when they tug.

Tugga tugga

As you can see, Koira totally loves her spring pole. I loop the rope up over the swing set frame when we are not using it to keep her from going crazy on it all the time. Using the spring pole is a seriously intense workout for a dog who is really into it.

Dogs should be limited in how long they can use the spring pole, especially at first. Start with no more than five minutes of tugging and gradually build up to longer periods of time. I would recommend no more than 15 minutes in a single session even once the dogs is used to using the spring pole. Instead, make your dog take a break and do something else for a while.

I also want to add, it is very important to supervise interactions with the spring pole. You want to check the spring, rope, and support mechanisms before every use to make sure none of them will break while the dog is playing. You also want to watch during play to make sure there aren't any problems such as broken equipment, the dog getting tangled or stuck in the rope, or other issues. Basically, better to be safe than sorry, so make the spring pole a toy with supervision only.

Also, while Koira likes having her back feet on the ground to play with the spring pole, and Pallo likes having at least his back feet and sometimes his front feet on the ground as well, some dogs will prefer leaping up and grabbing the spring pole much higher, so their entire body is dangling. This is perfectly fine, but you want to make sure you mount the spring pole high enough that the dog won't accidentally grab the spring when they jump. If either of my dogs turns into a jump grab and hang spring pole style, I will need to find a new place to put it, because it would be too low where it is.

And of course, don't forget to take funny pictures of your dog hanging on the rope! You might have to wait a while to get them totally obsessed with the spring pole first, before you go sticking a camera in their face, but once they are totally into it, you can get some pretty awesome pictures. I am trying to come up with a way to mount the GoPro on the spring pole looking down, and see what it can get.

Lastly, here is a video of Koira using the spring pole. You can see how much of a core workout she is getting when she tugs at the spring pole. Don't be fooled by the lack of major motion- this is a major workout and your dog will get tired. Always supervise, and have them drop the rope and end the game before they get too tired or get bored of playing with it. Keep it interesting and fun!