K9 Kamp Challenge Week 3: Just One Doggon Minute to Win It

Soooo, I’m really sleepy today. No good reason, I just never figured out how to go to bed on time like a grown up.

However, it’s that time again and I’m ready to update all my rabid readers (all two of you) on our progress with the K9 Kamp Challenge, where Mufaasa and me try lots of different ways to get ourselves fit.

The lastest challenge was titled “Just One Doggon Minute to Win It,” and as usual it was easier to get the pup moving than myself. At work when I’m making my lunch or putting on a cup of coffee, I will throw a ball for him or do some training, just to get him moving and shaking (and hopefully work him enough throughout the day that he doesn’t get bored and start stealing everyone’s garbage. I’ll let you know if that ever works). I’ve also been continuing our Frisbee training at meals (retrieve the Frisbee, get a handful of food, etc), though I’ve been varying that with just simple training. Silvia Trkman has some great tricks that you can work on, and the bonus of this approach for me was that I’m already up and feeding him, so why not get some training in at the same time?

One of the things I’m trying to get him to do is to do a down, and go straight into a “sit pretty” position. It’s great for the core muscles—pretty much like a human sit up. I’ve also been teaching him a “bounce” trick, but that’s more to get him reved-up for training. But I’ve also started asking him to do it from the “sit pretty” position, which forces him to think more about his hind end instead of just pushing off with his front legs. He gets some impressive height this way, and I’m hoping it’ll help our contact work too.

Of course, all our hard work was compromised juuuuuuuuust slightly yesterday. We were having a pizza party at work in honour of our Senior Editor who’s scheduled to become a dad this weekend (babies always come out on time, right?). Anyways, our retired general manager (we’ll call him “D”) showed up, and let’s just say, Mufaasa has this guy pegged. When he still worked here Mufaasa was stealing out of this D’s bag like EVERY DAY. Sandwiches, apples, you name it. So, D is sitting in his chair, having come cake, and Mufaasa has been staking him out the whole time. D leans forward for something on the table, lowering the hand that held the cake slightly, and Mufaasa assumes that this is an invitation and just grabs the whole slice.

Yeah, my dog has terrible manors…with other people. But that’s ok, ’cause he’s getting pretty good with the Frisbee outside, so I just made him run a bit longer to make up for it. Also, everyone who I work with finds these antics hysterical, so he pretty much gets away with murder on a regular basis.

Now, I did actually have a plan for me, and it’s one I’ve been trying to get started on for a while, so the gilt of having something to report on my blog was apparently a good enough incentive to get me moving. There’s a 5lb weight that’s been sitting in the top drawer of my desk at work for like six months. I see it occasionally and think, “Oh, yeah, next time I take a break I’ll do a couple of reps with that.” Yeah, that never happened. BUT, since I am a super awefull procrastinator I’ve started using the Pomodoro technique to try and keep myself  on task, and it’s been working pretty good. Basically, you work for 25 minutes, then take a break for 5 minutes. Repeat until you worked four sets of 25 minute increments, than take a longer break. So, instead of checking my gmail for the eighteen billionth time, I grab the weight and do some simple exercises. I’m not seeing much results, but it’s not a huge weight and I’m really only giving it 5-10 minutes at a time a day. Still, the goal is to tone my arms, not look like some sort of crazy muscle bound monster, so I’m sure it’ll start showing soon (if I can keep myself on the Pomodora train, that is).