Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Exercises for You and Your Dog

I mentioned Petfit.com in a previous Healthy Weight, Healthy Pet post. Its Training Room has videos of seven activities we can do with our canine companions. Trainer Gunnar Peterson was entertaining and motivating in the videos. Check out the video on Dog Squat Tease, especially in the beginning with one of the dog, Kuma, just chilling :).

Elaine and I had a chance to try some exercises from Petfit.com this past weekend. Some of the exercises did not give Elaine much of a work-out (although they had me huffing and puffing!).

Power Dog Walks with Intervals was one of those exercises. While I am busy side-stepping and high-stepping, Elaine was just ambling alongside me. Things improved for Elaine after I went back to the more traditional 5-minute-jog / 1-minute-walk alternating intervals for 30 minutes.

Fetch Abs worked great for me --- I'm still feeling the effect this evening --- but did not do much for Elaine. She did not fall for any of the fake throws and just stood there watching me struggle with my crunches. I must have amused her with my grunts because she did not go for any of the fetches like she normally would when we play fetch.

We did not have access to stairs so did not try the Dog Stairs. The Dogstacle Course was a little too ambitious for us. The video makes it seem to be more of a workout for the human than the canine exerciser though. Maybe we can try it later and I can get Elaine to jump over some obstacles so she can also get a workout. You have to know Elaine to understand that last statement was a joke.

Dog Tag and Fetch Races were fun for both of us. The chasing and scrambling got Elaine panting and me breathless. Make sure your dog is not toy aggressive when you introduce him/her to Fetch Races. Elaine knows her "Give" command and has never been toy aggressive with me. But during the excitement of the chase, she did growled and bared her teeth when she and I reached the rope toy at the same time. It only happened once and she did back down when I claimed the toy with my foot. The growling may be all part of her playing but still, I want to mention it and add that warning to Fetch Races.

Our favorite is the Dog Squat Tease. We modified it into a combination Squat Tease and Fetch --- I toss the rope toy, Elaine chases after it while I'm doing my squats, she comes back with the toy, I do the Squat Tease with her then toss the toy again.

Elaine taking a breather after our Squat Tease and Fetch

The last video, Health Tips, includes a brief demonstration on subjective body score evaluation. Overall, I like the Training Room at Petfit.com so far. I'll take a look at the cat activities and report them in a separate post.

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