How has stuff changed?

I wanted a topic for writing. I guess my life isn't full enough (it needs to be more eventful like teamsmalldog). On a whim, I walked to my closet (aka: storage bookshelves where cloths should hang but books and extra crap is piled) and grabbed a Clean Run Magazine near but not quite at the bottom.

Jan. 2002. I open it up to a random page and the topic is: "Functional Fitness for Handling" The focus is on Deceleration Strength. Totally appropriate for me.

It is interesting. The entire issue is B/W except for the cover and back page. Alot more text than in more recent issues, but the topics are absolutely appropriate 7 years after the publication date.

• Nancy Gyes talks about start line stays
• Strategies for handling agility courses
• Reviews of National competitions
• Nested Courses
• K-9 health
• Plans for building agility stuff
• Speeding up contacts
• Tips for handling a dog that is faster than you
• Strategies for handling stress in dogs

Here this issue of Clean Run has sat in my closet for probably 6-7 years. Sure, handling has come along way. Yes courses have changed over the years, but there is still a ton of good information in these old clean runs. Pull one out and see what it has to say, you might learn something.

Me, I'm going to go learn about exercises that will help me get fit for my future handling needs.

PS: It even has an American Staffordshire Terrier on the cover.

Fitness for Agility

I haven't spoken about fitness for a while, but rest assured, I'm am focused. I am working out every day. Here are some of my rules for the road:

1. Join a gym. Now I will say that it isn't sufficient just to join. Paying the monthly fee doesn't mean you'll get fit -- you actually must go (I believed this for a while...then I started to go and saw a huge improvement). When you get there, have a plan of attack. Don't just do 20-30 minutes and say, "that's good enough." Plan to be there an hour or more. Do cardio on a couple machines (pick the hardest and do that for 10 minutes, then pick one that is easier for you and do for 30 minutes...build up on the hard one). I went so far as to get a personal trainer for 2 times a week (my fast food budget is paying for him...believe it or not!). He helps me with my strength training which includes lunges, step backs, squats, loads of ab work, and of course...weights for arms and legs. I pick one other day a week and do stuff without the weights.
2. Watch the biggest looser. I know it is an artificial world. They don't have to be home paying bills and making a living...but it is inspiring. Doing some work out while you watch can also help.
3. Take a dog for a walk. This does NOT equal going to the gym unless you are running with your dog. I don't run...I walk, so I am walking the fat one every day to burn some calories.
4. Write down what you eat (This is my new thing I am adding to my strategy).
5. Write down goals. Say what you want to loose and have a reward for getting there.
6. Be creative in your diet. Don't get into a rut and eat the same thing. Get a couple books and try new things. During this time a year I am finding soups especially fun.

Hope this helps. I know just writing it helps me.

The Biggest Winner

Today I weigh in. It is a weekly thing. I go to WW and stand on the scale and weigh.

Last night the contestants on the biggest looser weighed in. They lost between 0 and 8 pounds....yes EIGHT pounds in one week. Lordy. This is their fourth week. I know I shouldn't compare, but something tells me I should be doing more!

One thing on the show that was a little surprizing is that one of the trainers gave all the girls homework. The homework was to do 90 minutes of cardio. It is hard for me to image doing an additional 90 minutes in a day. I know it is a show, but does that additional 90 minutes even help? If I don't loose weight this week, I might be in the gym tonight instead of watching survivor!

So this week I've been very good on my work outs. I'm in the gym doing cardio EVERY day...not just 20 minutes mind you. The least cardio I did this week was 30 minutes (that was just one day). The rest of the week I've done 45 minutes cardio with warmup, cool down, and stretches. I also did two days of personal training with David. David knows how to kick butt.

I can see a difference these last two weeks in my body. Cloths are much looser. But the scale doesn't reflect the changes. The changes seem to be more shifting and tightening. We'll see what the scale says, but I weigh myself here and I know what my scale says.

Gotta focus on how proud I am that I'm getting to the gym EVERY day. Now this weekend I'm in Dixon, but I'm parking the car far from the rings so there will be some walking to do. I'll make sure that I actually get out and do some exercise (take Fin for a walk) other than just the agility.

Another day in paradise, working hard and focusing on my health and well being. I am the biggest winner since I've been taking control of my life. :)

Updated: I lost 1.6 pounds this week.

Exercise Seminar

Now, you might think that I would go to an exercise seminar for me as I'm working so hard on getting fit. Today however, I did a seminar on Dog fitness.

Sarah Johnson came out and did an all day seminar (9-6pm!). She has a video out called Pilates for Pooches that is very good. The first half of the seminar was demonstrating the exercises in the video. The second half was exercise at the trial site.

Here is a link to her video: http://www.agilityinmotion.com/pilates.html

We started out the day doing exercises where the dogs pivot on boxes, walk across the boxes learning to step with each leg (the boxes were all different shapes and sizes, Dogs walked making sure all four feet were on a box before moving to the next one - hind end awareness was one of the key things here)

After the boxes, we moved to the balance balls and bosu (the bosu is for very advanced dogs and Sarah gave a strong warning to work up to it slowly).

Here Garret demonstrates the sit to stand to bow behavior.



Derede's dog Wingz was fabulous, demonstrating more advanced Bosu work.

Nick is teaching the back up onto the balance ball. He is using the xpen to help with the direction.

Here a boxer is just learning how to put his legs on the balance ball. Notice the box to the right. She can also use the box to walk onto the balance ball to make it easy for her dog.


We used the ladder to work hind end awareness walking sideways with the dogs lifting their legs over the bars sideways.

Here the dog is using two balance balls to work his core.


There were also cans attached to a board and we were teaching our dogs to lift up their front or rear legs and put them individually on the can. Fun shaping stuff.

After all this exercise, isn't the best thing to go get a massage? Well. we got to learn about our loaves of bread and kneading them. We learned about hula dancers and all kinds of interesting things. Two areas were covered, first what to do when you are at a trial (getting the dog ready to go into the ring, and then afterward when you are at the hotel room).

Each of us was supposed to lay our dogs down and slowly knead them using the techniques she was demonstrating. Here is a good loaf of bread.
An exceptional loaf of bread.
My loaf of bread. She kept trying to wrestle and play bitey face while I was kneading her. She had trouble finding her inner loaf.
All in all we had a great day. Fin had a full day with the mom with no other siblings. She was in heaven.


I recommend Sarah's seminar. I really didn't know what to expect, but was glad I went. It is inspiring to hear the stories of the dogs that she has helped rehab. She presents practical, easy to understand content that I am already applying to help my dogs have better body control. What I'm most excited about is what I learned for older dogs. I believe that the exercises that I'm going to start with Rocky will really help him.

If nothing else, this is one more fun thing to do with our dogs. If you get the chance, have your club bring Sarah out. You won't be disappointed.

Fitness for Agility

New weekly Blog entry will be "Fitness for Agility"

So, I'm on a mission. To loose weight and get quicker. Above in my fish persona, I'm the sleek blue fin tuna. Fast and tasty! But the truth is, I've been overweight a long time and as I reach new heights in the age category, my joints can't take what they used to.

I've written before about my weight loss adventures (joining Jenny, etc). And somehow, I find myself nearly a year later and not that much slimmer. So I begin the journey again. This time, however, I'm not going to measure myself in pounds, I'm going to measure myself in "Q's."

The fact is that Tazz will be faster, the faster I am. (He likes to chase me and pretend I'm faster than he is.) Although I've improved greatly in the last 2 months, I have a long way to go and I believe that Tazz will Q when I have his weight off my "butt." So my first goal is to loose a Tazz. That's a little more than four sacks of flour.

I started two weeks ago and am down 4 pounds. I've done this by simply not eatting fast food, and exercising more. Ok, Ok, I know I said I joined weight watchers, but I really didn't follow the program the first two weeks. I just did the best I could and that best was to NOT eat fast food.

One step at a time.

This week along with my fast food ban, I have two things I will add:

• write down EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth


• exercise 5 days of 30 minutes cardio (I'm choosing F/S/S/M/W because tues and thurs I go do weights)

Each Thurs I'll provide an update titled Fitness for Agility. Wish me luck, I need it!