It became obvious recently that my corgis aren't in good enough shape. They tire too easily to do the fun performance events like agility and herding.
Here's a list of activities to help in conditioning. I'll sort them by something.
I want to make this blog my training journal. For now, lets just make a goal of doing some sort of physical conditioning every single day and put an entry on this blog of what we did.
Very effective:
- Herding. Although they don't spend much time in the pen with the sheep, they are running the whole time. (At least they are now. When we learn how to herd rather than chase this may change.)
Ideas for activities:
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Puppy Ping Pong at the park. Really good running for Dancer, Tango gives up after awhile. Requires 2 people to be effective.
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Recalls at the park. Works really well, but lots of down time while I walk to the other end of the park. Both dogs will run when called. Dancer runs faster. When I do both dogs, Tango is more interested in running after Dancer so he doesn't run as fast as he can.
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Playing tennis ball at the tennis courts. Works pretty well. Currently, Tango gets tired and gives up after about 7 minutes. Not as much fun as chasing sheep :)
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Running with me. Hmmm, well, that does require me to actually run too. Kinda sucks. Of course, if I started with a run/walk a couple of days a week, we'd both slowly improve our fitness. Of course, he should be able to run faster than I do, so this will never get him running as fast as he can.
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Jump chutes. Can be done in the yard, in the hallway or at the park. This is an interesting one. Kind of combined training and conditioning work. Shouldn't do this too often because the jumping can be hard on the joints. (Nice thing to do in bad weather, however.)
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Long hikes with lots of hills--like at my favorite wilderness park. This is a good one to do for all of us. Should add this to my repertoire for weekend activities.
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Roller skating: I used to do this with Dancer and tried to do it with both dogs. It is a bit scary because if I fall... Maybe a way to start training on the Dirt Dawg.
Other things I could do with more training or additional equipment
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Bicycle on the river trail. That would work, but I'd really need a safer bike for it. Also, I wouldn't do it with Dancer because she'd chase after other bikes.
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Scootering. This could be brilliant--particularly for Tango. I have a Dirt Dawg scooter. he has a custom harness that I think fits him well. Need to train him to pull. Would probably have to do it on the river trail so we'd have long, straight distances.
Other things that I'm not going to do for various reasons:
- Treadmill. I don't have a treadmill, so i'd have to buy one. Don't really want another piece of exercise equipment hanging around.
- Swimming. Don't have access to a facility for swimming.
Not very effective--don't put them on the list of things to do.
- long walks with Charlie--he strolls and they need running
- agility class -- not enough sustained running
- obedience class -- lots of heeling, but not much running
- Tennis ball in the house or even the back yard. Doesn't last long enough. The hall isn't really long enough. We all get too bored.
Labels: conditioning
