FitDog Friday: Find the Treat to Chase Away Rainy Day Blues

The beginning of autumn is bringing lots of rain to Chewytown, which means rainy day blues for this pup. 

Sigh...

Chewy's fur soaks up mud very easily, so we try to keep walks to a minimum when it's raining. To keep him from tracking muddy pawprints all over the house, I have him sit and stay on his absorbent mat. (This one is an Ikea bathmat - it was only $10 and comes in a variety of colors. It's a much better deal than most doormats marketed specifically for doggies, and probably works just as well!)

Rocking the scraggly, wet belly fur look

The lack of long walks can make Chewy very hyper, and one of the ways we burn off all that energy is by playing Find the Treat in the house. Chewy thoroughly enjoys playing Find the Treat because there might be a nibble of food around every corner! 

To start, I have Chewy wait somewhere while I hide treats out of his view. This is a great opportunity to practice the stay command, as you can have your dog stay in another room so you don't need to worry about him/her sneaking a peek at where you're placing the yums. Just make sure they don't stealthily come out and steal the treats before you're done!

Waiting patiently

I only hide a couple treats at a time and space them out around the house so that Chewy gets more exercise for less food. Chewy is very food motivated, so he pretty much runs from one spot to the next. Sometimes I like to just wander around with the treats so that the smell wafts around everywhere, leading Chewy on a wild sniff hunt. To keep the search fun, I place some treats in plain sight, some under furniture or dog toys, and some hidden behind table legs, doors or his water bowl. When I'm done hiding treats, I return to Chewy and release him from his stay. He usually knows what's going on, but telling him to "Go find it!" always does the trick. The first few times, you might have to lead your dog to the treats so they understand the game. When we first started playing, I would let Chewy sniff the treats before I hid them so he'd know what he was to search for.

And he's off!

Chewy runs off sniffing the air, the floor, around every corner...

Downward dog under the doggy bed

A quick nose shove to get under the toy

Sometimes Chewy gets distracted by other food smells, but he quickly gets back on track.

Tomatoes not for me?

When Chewy has found them all, I tell him "No more" so he knows. Sometimes he doesn't believe me, though, and has to do another thorough search of the house before settling down. He is definitely a wishful thinker.

For a low calorie option, sometimes I use baby carrots or green beans, and I even cut them up into little pieces. They are less fragrant than meaty treats, but Chewy typically has no trouble finding them all. We always play multiple rounds at a time because just one is never satisfying for Chewy the food-lover, and it also gets him running around more. 

Again?

Playing Find the Treat always chases away those rainy day blues in our house!

We are joining the FitDog Friday hop hosted by My GBGV Life,
SlimDoggy and To Dog with Love.

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.

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!