I invented a new exercise game with Ranger. I’m calling it “It’s All About You; It’s All About Me”
Mind you, I’m completely out of shape. Walking around the block has felt like an effort lately. So, this probably works best for someone like me or someone who is in medium shape versus someone like my brother who runs further than I drive every day.
I’m going to guess that our total mileage today was probably 1 mile (yay!)
When Ranger and I leave the house, it’s all about him. We walk/jog to a huge park/rec center that is probably less than 1/2 mile away. The rules are that he can stop and do whatever. It’s sort of a warm-up for me.
When we get to the park, we roam the soccer and baseball fields. He is still allowed to stop and smell. When he does, however, this is when I do a slow lunge or a squat (is that called isometrics or yoga? I don’t know. I just try to do quality over quantity.)
As soon as we get back to the road home, it then becomes all about me. So I try to jog, very slowly (pit pat pit pat) all the way home. Ranger doesn’t get to do his stops.
And, you know what? He seems to get it!
It could be as simple as a horse excited to get back to his barn, but he doesn’t mess around on his jog home. He will maybe make one pit stop, but that’s it. There are a lot of dogs that bark from inside their yards and he ignores all and just continues forward.
When I first started doing this, I would walk him on his harness so that if he pulled hard on our way home, I would just keep going. I mean, I would slow down a little, but I didn’t let him dawdle. I *would* pull him to keep going. Now, if I’m in a hurry and don’t take the time to put on his harness, I don’t worry about his pulling. He now has a pretty nice loose-leash walk and I’m not pulling on him on the way home. He just does a nice trot all the way home.
Because it’s a game, it has become fun and I find myself getting up and out earlier in the morning. That NEVER happened before.
Here’s to fitting into my old wardrobe!!
