Wordless Wednesday: Spring Pole Throwback

Spring pole fun

Koira's Spring Pole

I have done a couple of pretty lengthy posts the last couple of days, so I thought I would do a simple short one for today. If you haven't yet, go check out my last two posts, about setting up a photo with you and your dog, and about editing photos in Lightroom.

Koira absolutely loves her spring pole. Whenever she is a little too excited about things (think a bad case of the zoomies!), I can set up her spring pole and she just goes crazy over it, and it takes off the edge of the crazy.

Black and White Sunday: Tugga Tugga

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!

Fit Dog Friday: Conditioning

I decided recently that Koira needed a bit more conditioning, and that Pallo could use it as well. We are coming up on a number of flyball tournaments, lure coursing weekends, and of course summer camping, hiking, and backpacking plans in the next few months. It will be easier on the dogs if they are both in really good physical condition.

Now, yes, my dogs are already pretty in shape. But right now, if I were to run Pallo full time at a two day flyball tournament, he would be dead tired by the end of Saturday and not fully recovered by Sunday morning, leaving him at risk for injury. Koira I think has a bit more endurance, but I have this crazy desire to see her totally ripped this summer. I want to have one of those dogs that even dog people stop and admire the muscles on.

I admit it. It is part vanity.

Koira diving for her toy

What this all means, though, is that I am starting a conditioning program with my dogs. I don't want to do too much of anything, but want to do enough of everything to get some good results. What this means is we will be stepping up the number of off leash walks and hikes for the dogs, slowly increasing them in length. I will also be trotting them on a bike a couple times per week (weather permitting) for 20 minutes. This is stuff we have been doing, I will just be increasing how much and how often we do them.

There are also things I plan to add to their conditioning routines. I recently built a spring pole for the dogs after a friend let them try out the one she had. They both totally loved it and got a really good work out from it, so I decided we needed one at our house. I'll share the how-to on making a spring pole in another post, but let me say it was super simple and cheap to make. I plan to let Koira use the spring pole for no more than 5 minutes at a time at first, and gradually build up to no more than 15 minutes at a time. I don't think she will ever get tired of the spring pole (though Pallo will if not continually encouraged), but I don't want to over work her on it.

Pallo with the spring pole

Koira leaping for the spring pole

Koira tugging like crazy on the spring pole, and using the tree to help

I am also planning on getting another lunge whip to make a new flirt pole. We had one before, but I don't have any idea what happened to it. The dogs love playing with it, so a new one will be being built soon. We will likely start out doing the same thing as with the spring pole- start with 5 minute max sessions, and build up to 15 minutes, and do it a few times per week. Again, I don't want to over work the dogs or have them get bored with the game, so I will always be stopping when they are still eager for more.

Pallo playing with the flirt pole

Koira trying to grab the flirt pole

Pulling is another conditioning game we will be working on. So far, I have been having Koira (in her freight pulling harness) pull an old tire across the yard 4-5 times every few days. The tire doesn't weigh a lot, but the slow and steady pulling of lighter weights can really help build condition without too much of an increased risk of injury. We might even end up competing in some weight pulls if we stick with it enough she enjoys it enough. Because Pallo doesn't like weight pull at all, I am not going to be having him do this one, though I may try again at some point to see if I can increase his enjoyment.

Pallo lure coursing at a recent CAT trial

Adding to this the other fun things we try to do whenever possible, including lure coursing, swimming, dock diving, and trips to the beach should start to make a big difference for the dogs in terms of condition. Since they also both have flyball once a week and Koira just started agility once a week as well, I am hoping I will see some big improvements by the time our next full weekend flyball tournament comes along in July.

(Also, thank you to my friend Kay who took all of the pictures in the posts on Monday, Wednesday, and today, other than Pallo lure coursing, which was taken on my camera by my friend Nicole. Thank you guys for the awesome photos!)