A Walk In The Park

One of my favorite thing to do, besides eating treats and taking naps, is taking Mom and Dad for walks.

Walking is a cardio exercise which means it is good for your heart. It is also a weight bearing exercise which means it helps keep your bones strong. The more you walk, the more you can walk. That’s called endurance and like other kinds of exercise, waking makes the good chemicals in your brain feel happy. That’s called “improving your mood”.

Walking is very good for weight control. That means walking can help you keep your weight right or if you have too much weight, walking can help you make the too much weight go away.

Come to think of it, we dogs need to have good hearts, and bones and we like to have improved moods and controlled weight too.

Walking is magic. It’s does all kinds of healthy things and it’s fun. DixieLee and I have to get Mom and Dad to do more walking.

There are other reasons to get your humans to go for walks.

Walking with your human is a good time to build trust and bond with your human.

Walking uses up energy and that’s a really good thing for hyperactive dogs like DixieLee. When dogs have lots of extra energy they find ways to use it up and sometimes the ways they find can be very destructive. Nobody likes to come home and find a big hole in your sofa or your favorite shoes missing their heels.

Before you leave the house, make sure you are wearing your tags and you are on leash. Your human should take along some poop bags. Good neighbors always clean up after their dogs.

Don’t go for walks when it is too hot or too cold. Mom puts her hand down on the black top and counts up numbers and if it’s too hot for her hand, it’s too hot for our feet.

If you are going for a big walk, make sure your human brings water for them and for you.

So how big is a big walk? That depends on lots of things.

Age is important. Very young or very old dogs shouldn’t walk as long or as far as a middle age dog. The dog’s breed is important when deciding how long or far a dog should walk. Sport breeds can walk much bigger walks than a little dog like a Chihuahua.

A dog that has too much weight should walk to help lose that weight or dogs who don’t do many walks need to start out doing little walks and work up to big walks.

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining. It’s not too hot and there is a nice breeze. I think I’ll get DixieLee and we’ll tell Mom it’s time to go for a walk.

See  you when we get back,

Zeva

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On To Plan B

Hi.  It’s me, Zeva.  There has been a change in plans and I am taking over writing the blogs sooner than expected.  Since DixieLee was going to go to Basic Obedience School, we had planned on her writing the next few blogs so she could talk about her experiences.

Well, that plan has gone away since she is not attending Basic Obedience School anymore.  She never even made it through the first lesson.  Mom and I are pretty embarrassed but DixieLee is unfazed.  She doesn’t understand why she and Mom had to leave before the class even started.  

The place was crazy full of other dogs!  They were all playing nicely or helping their humans fill out paperwork.  According to DixieLee, she was just helping get the class started.  She was teaching the other dogs how to greet one another.  After all, aren’t you supposed to bark non-stop at every dog you see.

Part of the reason for sending her to a class was so she could learn how to get along with other dogs better.  Now Mom and Gail are going to work out some private lessons where she can meet other dogs and animals a few at a time.  

The trip wasn’t a total waste of time.  She told me she saw a cow when she was at the farm where the they have the Obedience School.  She said it was amazing.  So amazing that she didn’t even bark at it.    I’m not sure what a cow is but she says it’s really big!  

There were chickens and ducks at the farm too.   We had some chickens that lived in our neighborhood and would come over to our house every day.  We all got to be friends so she doesn’t bark at chickens only dogs.

She really does need a refresher course in obedience.  Mom thought she had “leave it” down really good.  When we play toys, both DixieLee and I let go of the toy when Mom says “leave it”.  I guess DixieLee wasn’t paying close attention because she didn’t understand “leave it” also meant that she was supposed to let go when she grabbed the pork chop bone that Dad accidentally dropped on the floor.  (sigh)

Oh well, I guess I’ll see you next week and share more adventures.  Until then,

Love,

Your Friend

Zeva

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Teaching a Not So Old Dog Some New Tricks

Hi! It’s me, DixieLee. Zeva said I could write the blog this week because I have some exciting news.

I am going to school! Yup. Just like the human kids, I am starting school today. Mom and I are going to Basic Dog Obedience class at Paws-a-tive Training in Lancaster.

I am nervous but not scared because I already know my teacher really good. Gail is the nice teacher who came to our house and even took me and Mom for a big walk once. Gail is really nice and she always has lots of treats in her pocket.

Basic Dog Obedience class teaches dogs how to do important things like Sit, Come, Down, Off, Stay and Heel. I’m already sort of good at most of those things but I am going to class so that I can get to be with other dogs and learn how to behave around them.

Since I came to live with my family, I spent most of my time with Mom and Dad and Zeva. I never got to learn how to behave around other dogs. When I see other dogs I jump and bark and pull on my leash. Mom says it makes it very difficult to take me to dog park or for big walks because I don’t pay attention to the walking.

When Zeva came to live with our family, she went to work with Mom every day. She got to meet and play with the other dogs that worked in the same building and went for walks with a dog walker and some other dogs. She even got to go to doggie day care ALL DAY some times so she knows how to act nice around other dogs.

Zeva said I can tell you all about my adventures but that I shouldn’t think that I am going to be taking over the blogging because that is her job and she does it best.

So, wish me luck. I am going to try real hard to be on my best behavior and show all the other dogs how good I do Sit, Come, Down, Off, Stay and Heel. Well Sit and Down anyway.

Talk to you soon,

Love

DixieLee

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