I don’t know about you, but I love a good challenge. Not the crazy challenge like tugging with your dog for an hour (you try tugging with a 90 pound lab, I spent more time on my ass than I do at my job and that’s saying something.) No I like the type of challenge that pushes me to do a bit more than I normally do, which is why I jumped at the chance to participate in K-9 Kamp this year.
This year’s K-9 Kamp was “Do More.”
Peggy’s e-mail said, “Do half an hour more than you’re doing now, two to three times per week.”
Jodi’s said, “Do half an hour more than you’re doing now, three to four times per week.”
I listened to Peggy.
Last night we sat around the campfire and held paws and sang Kamp songs, and reflected on the last three weeks of Kamp.
Okay, it was really me, holding their paws, they could have cared less.
There’s a lot to consider when taking up exercising, especially when you’re doing it with your pet.
Sampson and Delilah are older dogs, 9 and 7 1/2 respectively, they walk every day and maintain a healthy weight. The challenge was to do more than we were currently doing. I tried to do this in two ways.
The first was to increase our walking time. Our walks during the week typically last between 25 minutes to half an hour. Since our park is fairly small we can normally get to the entrance from just about anywhere within the park in five to ten minutes. Normally at the 25 minute mark I head for the entrance.
To add some times to our walk, I rounded up. Let’s say we got to the park at 5:41, I would note the time as 5:45 and not turn for home until we’d actually hit 6:15. In this manner I added anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to each of our week day walks.
On the weekends I wouldn’t turn for home until we’d hit the forty five minute mark.
I also tried to add a bit more intensity to our walks. The great thing about our trail system is the difficulty of the trails. We have easy trails and hard trails. Normally during the week we stay on the easy trails, leaving the harder ones for the weekend. But this was K-9 Kamp and we were supposed to challenge ourselves, so we made sure to hit the harder trails four and five times per week.
We also used the obstacles we encountered to challenge ourselves.
No more sneaking under the fallen tree!
Why do you keep saying, “Up, down, up down?”
No, I would have to say our biggest obstacle this year was the weather. The first weekend it was so hot and humid the dogs barely wanted to walk for half an hour. On those days I really had to limit their walks, and make sure to stop for water breaks as well as making sure the little pool was full for when we got home. Those days we kept our walks to 30 minutes.
Ah, a nice refreshing dip.
The next weekend it rained. We had a lot of rain. Normally speaking Sampson and Delilah don’t mind walking in the rain, but we had a couple of really bad, rainy days. When my dog stands in the back of the car and looks towards the park and you can see him debating getting out of the car, you know it’s crappy weather!
We did get wet a few times.
We had so much rain in the month of June that by the 15th we were already at 75% more rain than we normally get in the month of June! This made for some really wet areas on our walks and some of the paths actually had water running down them.
Sampson didn’t mind, he took the opportunity to cool off in some of the running water.
Zoomies count too, right?
When I first got the challenge I thought, how can I do more? I mean we walk every day. But a few minutes here and there add up. We added about 2 hours more per week to our walking routine.
Which I think is pretty darn good.
How about you? Did you take the challenge? How did you do?
Many thanks to Jodi Chick and Peggy Frezon for including us as a featured blogger in the K-9 Kamp Challenge. Don’t forget to visit our hosts to share your Kamp experiences and enter in a chance to win an awesome prize valued at over $200!
Hi Y’all!
I just want to say…watch who you’re callin’ old! I turned 7 this past March, and I can race and leap with the 6 month olds! (If you don’t believe me check out some of my earlier posts).
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
We were lucky, it did not get hot until this last week but since we do our big walks early it was still ok…with a little swimming on the way here and there.
Well done to add in the extra time – especially with the weather. We had nice weather this month. Not looking forward to it getting hotter!
I’m so proud of you guys! You’re doing great! We’re not exercising here, but we have taken the step of eating two green smoothies a day as replacements for two meals. That’s a big step for us. We’ll get to exercising soon!
Well done, especially as the weather really wasn’t playing along at all. If those dogs don’t want to get out the car, then there’s really a problem. I must admit that I far prefer walking in our cooler winters than in the heat of summer.
Doing really well even if the weather isn’t helping you. All those extra minutes add up quickly.
Great job increasing your time. It does all add up.
Good job on working up slowly – important for seniors. We don’t get much rain here in California, but my guys do the same thing – they’ll stand at the door and look out and say “What’s that stuff” – kind of weird for Labs! Thanks for joining our Hop & K9Kamp>
Everyone seems to have done very well. We could not join as we have to sneak out in the morning whilst Pip is asleep she being too old now to go to the park. It makes our walks now an hour and a half and we have to get back to her as she gets stressed. Hope you have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
Great job of working in extra exercise. I wish we had more interesting places to walk around here, (not that I have the time…lol). We have had wonderful weather. I am not looking forward to the heat this weekend.
Congratulations!! Challenges are always a good way to get moving 🙂 I love the video of them playing . . so cute!
The hot weather was our biggest challenge which I tried to meet by finding indoor activities but I did the “add a few minutes here and there” thing too…we got out of the house 5″ or 10″ earlier in the mornings which does add up at the end of the week…Gizmo & I loved Kamp and will try to make the good habits stick
I’m pretty sure I could watch zoomies all day long and never get tired of it.
We had to rely on indoor zoomies on many rainy days too! You guys did a great job!
Your pals,
Diane and Rocco
I admire you! Weather was a huge issue for us here, too. I tried to do more when we were out, but there were some days we just couldn’t get out. *sigh* I keep telling myself that there’s always next time.
Good job on working in that extra exercise!
I feel too much pressure from myself whenever I set those kinds of goals. I’m usually more successful if I don’t think about it too hard. 😉
Wow…i feel guilty…so busy at work i havent really done anything with them but play ball…tomorrow im home all day…going to obedience class with luke..breakfast with donna and meadow, and they are at class too. Ill get ambitious and take them for a walk and then set up their pool while i do gardening…i like the idea of increasing things ten minutes a day…good job jodi!!!! Love the photos
Haha I’m glad you listened to ME! hehe. It shows the difference between me and Jodi. She’s an overachiever!! 😉 You did fantastic at K9Kamp.
Good for you taking the challenge and sticking with it. Your a trooper and I’m proud of you! I hate rain so that makes me extra proud of you!
ROTFLMAO, perhaps the October challenge will really be getting Peggy and I to issue the same task, eh?
I think you guys did a great job getting your kamp time done. Hiking can be a real challenge! I know it made me sweat until I looked like you did after you got caught in the rain. LOL! Thank you so much for sharing kamp with us!
Of course zoomies count!
That’s great. It’s amazing how tiny small things can add up. Of course, we think whatever you did was going to be awesome because you were hiking 🙂
Great job guys!! I applaud you 🙂
We got a lot of exercise running around the ring last weekend, all day for two days makes for very tired people and dogs 😉
I really loved the “holding paws around the campfire picture.” 🙂
But I think you need to out fit Delilah with a camera so we can se you jumping over the downed trees.
Oh dear no Pamela. I don’t JUMP over anything. 🙂