Sunday, July 04, 2010

In other news, gratitude and belly rubs

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Gratitude moment du jour: Thank God I have a dog who was raised by a police dog trainer. Loud bangs do not faze her. A few years ago, I took her down with me to the local park to watch the fireworks display. She was only interested in the belly rubs.

Exercise du jour: 45 minutes on the exercise cycle. The good part about that is that I can exercise outdoors, keeping the puppy company while working out.

Sigh. Time was when I had to walk the pup 4 miles a day merely to take the edge off her energy level. Now, she considers a wobble down the block and back more than sufficient.

Semi-star. I would've and could've, but the pup (okay, the 13-year-old pup) kept wanting me to go out front with her and see what all the noises were about. She doesn't freak out at loud bangs, but she does feel it is her duty to investigate and make sure that whatever's going on is not a threat that she needs to protect me from. (I think that she thinks that I am her personal sheep that she's been assigned to shepherd.) Eventually, she agreed to go sleep inside and not monitor the situation down the street any longer, but by that time I was done with exercise. So -- half-credit. (To me, that is. 100% credit to Tanji.)

6 comments:

English Rider said...

Our dogs seem to have similar exercise needs. The end of the block and back takes us fifteen minutes with a few additional stumbles every day. Deaf dogs do not worry about fireworks or bark at gardeners anymore. Someone told me that the aging part of a dog's life is as sudden as their growth spurts in puppy-hood. That really sucks!
I wonder if I will still bark at gardeners when I reach a similar age?

C said...

My kitty is 16 years old now. He used to go outside for hours on end exploring the woods and hunting. Now it's a good day if he makes it down the deck stairs. My little furbaby.

Happy belated 4th to you and Tanji.

Amy said...

Speaking of personal sheep, my collie uses his snout to secure all the wool socks from the laundry basket...totally ignores the cotton ones...tastes like sheep!

messymimi said...

Well, she needs to herd something. If there are any kids handy, I'm sure you could convince her to work with them instead, but if not, you probably should be used to saying "baa" by now.

Jackie said...

My little pooche (65 poung pooche that is) guards the baby. When baby cries my precious clomps her way into the baby room and lies down next to the Playard. Next thing I know, baby has scooted all the way over to the dog and is not pressing his little head through the mesh to meet the dogs.

You got to love doggies

Shelley said...

Every time you post about Tanji I fall in love with her a little more - what a good, good dog!