Fitdog Friday: Chewy Gets His White Belt in Martial ARFS

Chewy recently started classes at The Martial ARFS, a dog obedience/fitness/agility school near us. By recently, I mean almost two months ago, but we have only been to 4 classes. I guess that kind of makes us delinquent students...

Ready for class!

Come on, what are you waiting for? Let's go in!

Chewy loves going to doggy school. Then again, he loves to go everywhere. Sometimes he even tries to go to other people's houses when we're on walks. He just bounds up their stairs and heads toward their front door!

After 4 classes, Chewy is more accustomed to the FitPAWS equipment. He is still a little hesitant at times, and might streeeetch his body to avoid putting all 4 paws on the balance discs in the quest for treats. However, it is a big improvement compared to his previous favorite tactic of running around the side to get to the food.

Four paws!

Being a Golden, Chewy is QUITE food motivated, so he can be lured into doing most things. Moving the treat slowly over the equipment gets Chewy on the discs and working his core muscles to maintain balance.

Will work for treats.

Chewy was much more confident about doing doggy squats this time. The upside down Bosu ball under his front paws works his core and makes him shake a little, so he would always be very reluctant to do anything other than stand. The prospect of Goldfish was just too tempting, though, so he agreed to pump out some squats. The squats are essentially a sit, but with front paws on the ball.

Doggy "squat"

Master of the wobble board!

Chewy's favorite piece of equipment is the A-Frame. We were working on jumps, and he was like "Nope!" and ran back onto the A-Frame. I think he likes the "I'm king of the world!" feeling, as he always pauses to look around when he reaches the top.

A-frame with obstacles

Chewy received his white belt at the end of class. I'm pretty sure humans get white belts in martial arts classes before they even learn anything, since they need something to keep their robes together! But I guess because doggies don't wear robes to martial arfs class, they have to show some skill first. Chewy had to do five squats to earn his.

Bandanas are for chewing, right?

Zen doggy

We are joining the FitDog Friday hop hosted by SlimDoggy,
Peggy's Pet Place and To Dog with Love.

Dog-Friendly Long Island: Dog Days @ Old Westbury Gardens

I recently found out that Old Westbury Gardens, the former estate of a super rich guy in the early 1900s, has Dog Days when dogs are permitted on the 200-acre grounds. They happen two weekends a year (spring & fall), and the spring Dog Days take place this weekend, so of course we had to go!

We packed up a picnic basket so we could enjoy lunch outside in the nice spring weather, Chewy included.

Salmon rice balls with cucumber garnish for Chewy

That's for me!

Look how nicely I'm sitting. Can I have some right now?

Chewy was super excited to get going. He had been sniffing Chewy-friendly food all morning and he only got to eat a few accidental droppings, so he probably knew something exciting was happening.

Let's go!

When we got there, there were dogs EVERYWHERE. The most dogs I have ever seen in one place (in person). Of course, that meant we had to greet almost everydoggy there.

Please don't give me kisses...

Sneak attack of butt sniffing!

Chase me!

Martial Arfs, the doggy school we just started going to, had an agility course and some other dog fitness equipment set up, and in true Chewy fashion, he cheated at the first obstacle.

I'll just go around this jump...

The second time around, he did jump over it.

Horse jump!

The tunnel, on the other hand, was just not gonna happen.

This does not smell right...

After Martial Arfs, we explored the grounds. There was a pond, many flower gardens, and lots of fresh grass for Chewy to roll around on.

And lots of walking meant lots of water breaks.

At first, my parents wanted to eat at the picnic tables. Chewy decided the best spot for him was under the table.

But Chewy was finding all sorts of things to chew, so we got him out of there...

Lots of dirt on his nose!

...and laid out our picnic blanket.

There are so many rice balls over there and I only get this one?

After finishing his lunch, Chewy decided it was snuggle time on the blanket.

PET ME!

When we got home, Chewy could barely keep his eyes open. It was a great day!

Monday Mischief: Cheating at Dog School

A few months ago, I stumbled across the website for a new dog school on Long Island called Martial Arfs. They combine some principles of martial arts with dog training to provide fun mental and physical activity for you and your dog. They offer a variety of classes, such as obedience, agility, and disc dog. Instead of belts, the dogs get colored bandanas to mark their progress.

I was SUPER excited to take Chewy to Martial Arfs, even though my dad thought it sounded too gimmicky. Chewy has more energy than I know what to do with, and it would be good for him to learn some discipline. But then I broke my finger and that plan was put on the back burner.

Since my finger has now almost reached its normal range of motion, I took Chewy for his behavior assessment at Martial Arfs yesterday. And he was a BIG FAT CHEATER!

First up was a series of inflated balance discs set up like wobbly stairs. The goal was to get Chewy to put his front paws on one disc and his back paws on another. Kibbles were used to lure him up the steps, but instead of getting on them, he would just run around to the side and try to steal the kibbles (sometimes successfully)! Eventually he did get two paws on the bottom step, and when it was time to lure him onto the middle step, he would either stretch as far as he could to reach the kibbles, or get off and run to the side again.

Super stretch mode

He got a little frustrated that he wasn't getting kibbles with his cheating methods, so he decided to go off and explore. Being the mischievous dog that he is, he almost collided with some giant balance balls in the back and scared himself silly.

DANGER!

After a few more tries on the steps, he managed to put one front paw on the middle disc. Then we moved on to a "balance beam" supported by balance discs on both ends. Chewy was very hesitant about getting on the board, and again decided running around to the side of the board was the best way to get the kibbles. Eventually we got all four of his paws on the board, and he shook SO hard. His tail was still up, so I assume he wasn't too scared, just very physically challenged. I guess his core strength is not as good as I thought it was. (He can stand up on his hind legs for minutes without holding onto anything!) He was not willing to take any steps forward on the board, and I had to sit on the floor and promise snuggles to entice him to jump off the side.

Why is the kibble so far away?!?

We moved back to the wobbly stairs, and this time Chewy got his front legs on the middle disc and his back legs on the lower disc with ease. I guess he gained some new perspective on the balance beam and decided this was a piece of cake. The photographer (my dad) was slacking a bit in his duties, so I don't have pictures of Chewy's accomplishments.

Chewy passed his assessment, and we will start taking classes next week! He was pretty tired when we got home, but after a power nap, he was back to his old hyper self. I don't know if we'll ever burn through all his energy!