June 13, 2013

Extra, Extra... Exercise & a Mess o' Followin' Up

It's FitDog Friday as well as Follow-up Friday, so we're (mainly) following up today on how K9 Kamp is going.

Have you been to Peggy's Pet Place and/or Kol’s Notes to enter the giveaway and find out more about K9 Kamp? If you haven't, then get over there. Lots of fun things to win!

So, the K9 Kamp challenge is to work an extra 20 to 30 minutes into your pup's exercise routine 3 or 4 times per week. As I mentioned at the start of kamp, Rita and I walk a lot - about a marathon a week, between a long walk every morning and sometimes another 20 minutes a few nights a week. Adding more time sounded tough, so at first I thought we'd try upping the intensity instead.
A happy-walker makes for a happy-kamper

We tried incorporating some running into our morning walk. But a mere 2 days of that was enough to resurrect old problems. Way back in 2002, I ran the Rock N Roll marathon, and my peroneus has never been the same. (I didn't even know what a peroneus was before the marathon. And no, for you Harry Potter fans, it's not the same as a patronus. The 2 peroneal muscles are on the outer part of the lower leg.) Mine flares up now every time I run on the road.

So, the running didn't work.

Then I thought we'd add some play time after each walk. (Sometimes Rita "devil dogs" around after a walk, so I knew she'd have the energy.) We came home, and I got one of her fave toys and tossed it. She brought it back a couple of times, but she's just not a huge "fetch" girl. She said, "Yeah, that's enough" and took the toy outside so I'd leave her alone.

So, the fetch didn't work either.

You probably remember that the hubs had his knee procedure done recently, so I thought the nightly walks would be out, but luckily that was not the case! His knee felt okay, and since walking was the only exercise he could do, we started doing more/longer walks at night - we've gone every night for at least ~40 minutes.

What I thought was going to be impossible ended up being pretty easy in the end. Hopefully we'll keep this up. It'll be hard when quarter-end hits and his work gets busier, but we'll see.

So, there's the follow-up on both K9 Kamp and the hubs' knee. (It's doing okay so far. Still too soon to know if it worked though.) As for a few more quick follow-ups:

Is My Dog Dumb Or Just Not as Bored as I Thought?
Most commenters agreed (or were just being nice) and said she's smart and has me well trained. Why futz with getting a treat out of a toy if momma will do it for you?


KONG Premium Treats Giveaway
I asked folks to comment on how long they thought it would take their pup to eat the big happy gator treat. Pamela from Something Wagging left a response that made me laugh - her pup Honey has thrown down a challenge that if Rita could eat it in 7 minutes, she can do it in 6. (It's like the old Name That Tune: "I can eat that gator in.... 5 minutes." "Well, I can eat that gator in 4 minutes!" "Go ahead. Eat that gator!" And, yes, I know that reference totally shows my age!)

Anyway, go enter! It's easy and the contest is open until Wed. at midnight. (I'm sorry for all my usual UK/Canadian readers, but the folks at KONG set the rules for this one.)


As for our "Worst Walk" ever...
So, my friends work in law enforcement in California and they emailed and said this dirt bag [my words, but I know they agree!] was guilty of 2 counts of assault & battery - once for hitting me with the stick, and again for spitting on my friend. Her retaliatory slap would have been dismissed. And she said I could have waited for the bruise to come out before having it photographed, and it likely never would have gone to trial as the dirt bag would have probably made a plea-deal. And... in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation - it turns out what I wrote about grievous bodily injury was wrong. Although a bruise isn't grievous, it's the result of battery - and I was a victim of that.

Hopefully none of us will ever need to know this info - but there it is just in case! I wish I'd had someone there with me who knew about this kinda stuff!

Anyway, we haven't been back yet. We usually go to the beach MWF, so this post will go live before I've gone back. I had a little bit of anxiety (dumb, huh?) just walking in the neighborhood this morning, so I hope everything will be fine tomorrow when we hit the beach. (I guess I shouldn't use the word "hit" with "beach" anymore. Bad memories.)

I'll have to follow up on that next week. I hope there will be nothing to follow up about. Hopefully all will be well.


Are You Going to Our County Fair?
To end on a fun note - remember our entries??? Well, we won! These aren't the best pics since they're taken through the display case glass, but we got the 1st place blue ribbon for our dogs and 3rd place for our bunnies!
First Place for the dog park!
Third Place for our basket o' bunnies!
We won a wee bit of $$ too - $20 for first and $10 for third. Enough to fund a bit of fried-food eating at the fair! (I haven't actually gone yet, but my sis who is my felting partner went today and sent me the pics. She never found the 2nd place ribbon, so I'm not sure what beat out our bunnies. I'll see if I can find them when we go next week.)


Gosh this was a long post. Damn, I'm getting wordier. I've gotta cut back! I've got a word addiction!

Hope you are joining in the K9 Kamping fun!

Check out the rest of the FitDog posts and get some fun ideas for keeping your pup in shape. Thanks SlimDoggy and co-hosts Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love for hosting the hop!


And thanks to Heart Like a Dog and co-host Hound Girl for the Follow-up Friday hop!

32 comments:

  1. So glad you found something that works for you, your husband, Rita and K9Kamp...its great when it all comes together. Doesn't make up for that A**hat at the beach, but let's hope next time, he gets arrested!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, next time I'll know. At least we didn't see them when we went back today!

      Delete
  2. Good luck on the beach. Have a fabulous keep fit Friday.
    Best wishes Molly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All was well today, but I did keep Rita closer to me. I might never trust folks down there again. We'll see...

      Delete
  3. Great follow up! I really do want to know what got 2nd place and beat out the bunnies. It must be majorly fabulous?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, thanks! I'm definitely going to try to find that 2nd place winner. It better be darn cute! ;)

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm looking forward to it, that's for sure!

      You too!

      Delete
  5. Jackie- ping us about your peroneal issues. We have had similar problems (even surgery) and we may be able to help you to get it better.

    -SlimDoggy Steve

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on winning the felting ribbons! Well deserved!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! We would have been crushed if we didn't win. Seriously!

      Delete
  7. hehe! Love the name that tune reference. For a little guy, Rocco is the speediest eater I know. Betcha he could beat everyone in the knocking back a gator treat competition!
    Diane and Rocco

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations on the ribbon and $$$. You have reminded me how much fun it is to enter something. Our fair is in July.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was really fun! I'd never entered anything before but had been wanting to for years! Are you entering something? Good luck if you do!

      Delete
  9. Congrats on the blue ribbon Jackie, your felt pieces are beautiful!

    Thank you for joining the hop, you did a great job with your follow-up. We've been struggling with K-9 Kamp mostly due to the weather. Oy vey, if it's not steamy hot it's pouring. LOL We'll get there though!

    I hope your beach walk today was uneventful, have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've been lucky with our weather. It's still pretty cool at the coast. Rita doesn't like it hot! (And neither does the Momma...)

      Yes, beach walk was uneventful. Phew. I was armed and ready with cell phone and my iPod in case I needed to video anything!

      Delete
  10. Honey really hopes she wins the Kong treat pack now. She can't wait to see if she really can meet the 6 minute challenge.

    (Oh, and I remember Name That Tune also. It was my favorite show when I was a kid.)

    K9 Kamp sounds like fun around your place. I wish we were having your weather. It's been getting into the 40s at night and June is shaping up very cold. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to love that goofy show when I was a kid!

      Wow - 40s at night. That's pretty crazy. Our June has been nice. Not too hot, and kinda just right. I'm dreading when it starts to get HOT.

      Delete
  11. Congrats on winning the prizes! You deserved it.
    I am still mad about that incident you had at the beach, grrrrrrrr.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! We were so happy we won!

      And, yes, I'm still obsessing about it too. Hoping to try and relax and forget about it this weekend! Perhaps a cocktail or two will help... :)

      Delete
  12. Congratulations on your blue ribbon! I saw that on FB the other day and was so happy for you!

    As for your worst walk ever, I read that the other day too and I just couldn't believe it! I don't know what I would of done in your shoes. I would of had to think about the dogs first, but if they weren't with me, and maybe even if they were, I probably would of kicked that asshole in the balls and then let the dogs piss on him! (sorry for the bad words, that just makes me so angry that someone would do that to you!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These ass-hats deserve bad words. As for kicking him in the balls... we discussed that today at the beach and all agreed that he was so fat with his big beer belly, I would have had a hard time getting past it to find his balls. One friend suggested he probably hasn't seen them himself in years! Ha!

      Delete
  13. My mom has been having foot issues for the past 2 yrs with running, she gets crabby when she can't run and usually she runs with the extreme pain hoping it will go away...not so smart! So glad you won some prizes at the fair as those things are so darn cute! Good luck on your walking, maybe carrying some mace just in case for a bit until you feel more comfortable would help!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think carrying it is a good idea. Someone said (maybe on Facebook?) that carrying some pepper spray in a canister hanging visibly from my belt might help detour any future morons from messing with us.

      Delete
  14. Hi Y'all!

    What great follow up! Glad to hear your beach walk was safe.

    Glad your hubby is recuperating so well!

    Congrats on the blue ribbon!

    Y'all come back now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

    ReplyDelete
  15. I say for sure you should have pressed charges. Hoping your next walk is uneventful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I stressed about it for days. In the end, my friend who got spit on didn't want me to pursue it, so I let it drop. Ugh.

      Delete
  16. Good for you for coming up with a Kamp activity that works for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so boring though. But at least we have lovely spots to walk here. :)

      Delete

We love comments - even just a smiley face or a LOL will make my day. (Yes, my days are pretty easily made.)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation is turned on for posts over 2 weeks old, so if you comment on an older post and don't see it show up right away, that's why.