So Much Fun!!

OMG! Bess and I had sooooooooo much fun at Bobbie's Work Out With Your Dog class this morning!! I totally loved how she had the class set up. Everyone got to pick a spot on the matted floor to sort of set up their own personal area. I brought a covered pad for Bess to lay on in addition to a yoga mat for me, some light hand weights, a 6 lb. medicine ball, a light stretch band, and some water. We were totally set and ready to go! Around the facility there were seven stations set up. At each station there was a dog focused exercise. For instance, one station was an on the ball station where you got your dog up on one of the balls (we picked the peanut shaped ball because I've been pondering getting one of these because they seem longer than the egg ball that I have now) and put them through a series of stand to sit to down and back up again with some resting in between sets. Another station involved different sizes of "steps" that the dogs were to back up onto. The set that Bess and I worked on were a series of step aerobic steps that gradually got bigger. She wasn't too keen on backing up on those. I think it may have been because there was some space in between the steps. Something to work on at home!;) All the stations were really neat and fun to work through.

We started off the class by jogging around the facility to warm up. Once warmed up, we put the dogs in a down stay and the humans did lunges near their dogs. Each time we went down we would treat the dogs for being good and staying while we were doing our exercises. That was the additional bonus of the class. While the humans were doing their specific exercises, the dogs were learning to hold their stays. We alternated between human exercises and dog exercises. So one would get to rest while the other worked and vise verse. It was fabulous! And Bobbie is so great at tailoring the exercises depending on the abilities of the handlers!

I will say this too, it is definitely a work out! I was sweating at various points throughout the class. Some of the exercises I will continue to work on in between the classes because I don't want to be such a wimp. Bobbie had me pairing up with her helper for some partner push ups. I haven't done push ups in a good long while. Let me tell ya, I can feel it in my shoulders and abs right now! Basically the partner push ups are where you are facing another person and as you're both coming up you do some variation on the high five so that you have only three appendages supporting yourself. It's tricky and I had to actually go down to my knees for the last set that we did. I also did partner sit ups where we passed a medicine ball back and forth as we came up. That was working my abs too. Which I really need right now. I've been having some lower back pain at work with some of the stuff that I do and I know it's because my core muscles aren't supporting my back like they should. I needed a kick in the pants to get me doing the exercises that I know I should be doing and this class is definitely it.

I just love everything about it! Bobbie is so positive and great at instructing the class and coming up with fun things to do. Bess gets to do all sorts of exercises and get a work out along with me. And I definitely get my fair share of strength training! Bobbie has another series of classes scheduled to start after this one and I'm going to try and do the drop in classes again because I think it's so fantastic. It's going to be a little tricky because the next class will be starting right around the time that Bess should be going into season again, so that kind of sucks. We'll see!

Shortly after we got done with the class I met up with Obelisk and his dad to do some conformation training. I'm really pleased with the work that he's done.:) Obelisk is standing still better while I hand stack him and isn't terribly bothered by me moving his back feet around. Puppies can be a little unsure about that, but he's doing quite well. I also brought along a show collar for him to use with Obelisk when he's working with him so that he can get used to it. A lot of times, the first time you put this choke style collar on a puppy, they fight it and make all sorts of awful noises. He totally didn't! He just went right along with it! Happy as a little clam.:)

After that, it was time to go to Craft Warehouse with my friend Tilly. She's going to join us on the 30th (I'll be sending out the info. email this week) to try scrapbooking for the first time! After going in the store I remembered why I always had to have a game plan and stick with it. There are so many neat and new things out there that I can EASILY go over budget in a big way! I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to scrapbooking! I'm holding myself back and waiting until the 30th to start. Not that it's terribly hard with the Rose City Classic coming up!

And speaking of that, next week is going to be a doosy! I've actually been preparing some of my blog posts ahead of time because I know it's going to be hectic. I'll be working on Mon. and Tue. and then the show itself will be taking up the majority of my time Wed. through Sun. I can pretty easily put in as many hours at and around the show as I would normally at work. As they say, "no rest for the wicked!";) I'm really excited about it though!! Wed. is the double specialty, so a VERY full day of great danes. I already know that I'm going to be completely exhausted that night. I was pretty much dead on my feet after the double specialty last year. I came home, fed the dogs, immediately crashed to take a nap, slept for a few hours, got up and ate dinner, then went back to sleep for the rest of the night. Thur. and Fri. I get to show Cabo! I'm excited about that! It'll be my first time handling him, but he's such a good boy and I did get to play with him a bit last weekend, so I know it'll be fine. And then I'll pretty much be running around helping Georgia with whatever she needs. I'll try to take some pictures and video to post. I believe that it's a four point major for both bitches and dogs each day. I also wanted to watch some of the obedience, rally, and agility during the all breed days. There's so much to see and do! We will also be having a guest dane staying with us starting Tue. night. She's a bitch that Georgia is showing that's in season right now. She's stayed with us before, so it's not really a big deal to us. Georgia has two intact males that are staying with her and it's kind of unfair to the owners of the males for them to be driven nuts for five days by the smell of a bitch in season. It tends to really throw them off their game for the show ring when that's all they've been thinking about for the past 23 hours. It should be fun. So a very busy week this week! I'll be sure to update as much as I can. And wish Bess and I luck!! One of these days could give us the second major that she needs to finish (along with the some singles) and it would be fantastic to finish at Rose City!

I almost forgot to update on the Pedometer Challenge! I know I forgot to the past couple of posts but here goes:

Friday - 18,591 steps
Saturday - 7,167 (yes, I was VERY bad. My excuse is that I had a fair amount of sitting functions to attend that day!!!)

Hows everyone else doing?