Monday, April 8, 2013

How about those resolutions?

My new year's resolution this year was to take each dog for a separate, 30+ minute walk per day. I even bought a wall calendar and asked L to give me a sticker for each day I did this. Let's check in and see how I'm doing...

Those stickers look lonely

Not so well. That's not to say we haven't been doing anything with the dogs. It's just that most days, they only get short walks, or I only take one dog out for a long walk or adventure. (No half-stickers here.) And I know it's affected Badger and Mushroom, since they're doing more zoomies. But now that it's officially, totally spring (ie: the snow has melted, and it's no longer dark by 3 PM), it's time to kick my butt back into gear and get with the program! And what better motivation is there than buying things?

Um, how about us?

We've had a few problems with our dogs' leashes - the D-ring on their Gentle Leaders would slip through the small hole where the hook opens/closes, and suddenly we'd have an off-leash dog. So we took a hint from Pitlandia and bought the Ruffwear Flat Out leash. In addition to a hook that closes completely, it also has a traffic handle and a hands-free option. The traffic handle has been helpful for keeping the dogs close when passing other people, though Mushroom is so short that I have to bend over a little to use it. I tried out the hands-free waist loop for the first time this morning and have been entertaining the possibility of using it to take Badger running on the nearby bike trail. (Or maybe briskly walking. I'm not really the running type.)

Badger is the prancing type (seriously, he prances when he walks)

Let's hope that the improvement in weather and equipment helps motivate me to stick with my resolution!

Mushroom attempts to guilt-trip me

How have you done on your new year's resolutions?

2 comments:

  1. =) So glad you're liking the new leash! We were majorly slacking on taking Athena for walks during the winter, but now we are back in the groove (sort of...). We bought the Freedom No Pull Harness and I've been more motivated to walk Athena with it. So, yes, I agree that buying new things brings motivation!

    Let me review our resolutions.....ok, I just checked them and it looks like we have been kinda, sorta working towards them!

    1. Canine Good Citizen- We want Athena to get tested in the summer...but we really haven't been specifically working towards taking the test.
    2. Obedience- We wanted Athena to get better at some of her commands like drop it. It's amazing that she has actually learned this with the help of Flyball practice!
    3. Reactivity- We've been working on Athena's reactivity towards skateboards, we borrowed one from a friend and have been letting Athena sniff it and get used to the sound outside of our house.
    4. Jogging- Athena learned how to jog! Woo!
    5. New Tricks- Nope, haven't worked towards this at all =)
    6. Dog Sports- We're in our second round of flyball and it's going great!

    All of these came from my New Year's resolutions post...

    http://pitlandia.blogspot.com/2013/01/ringing-in-new-year.html

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  2. We've had a goal to get on a walking schedule with the dogs for a couple of years now... and I have to admit, we are failing horribly. I need to revisit them on the blog again so I can be held accountable by everybody.

    Emily @ Our Waldo Bungie
    www.ourwaldobungie.com

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