Sunday, February 6, 2011

Strengthening the core

Last week I talked about how I was continuing to train Wall-e the sit-up/beg trick. I have been trying to train Mika to do the trick too, but not with much luck! She doesn't seem to have the physical ability to do the trick. Last summer, she could balance with me supporting her for about a second, but now she can't balance at all. I guess maybe that's because she's not as well-conditioned now as she was in the summer? So because of that, we've been getting back to working on the exercise ball. I realized a while ago that our ball is too small for Wall-e (it's a round exercise ball, not a dog one), but it's just big enough for Mika to stand on without having to arch her back. We did some basic ball exercises today and yesterday; standing, sitting, and lying down. We only worked for five minutes each time, since we're just getting back to it. Soon Mika will have the abs of a body-builder again :) I remember back in 2009 when we were preparing for Regionals, we did ball work 3-7 times a week for months and months, and it was amazing to see how much Mika's condition improved. Then I started getting lazy :) No more of that!!

4 comments:

  1. Ball work is a great idea for Mika! Ricky loves it!

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  2. You're always doing great stuff with your dogs. My eggball is collecting dust! Did use it once recently during the cold snap to get a bit of exercise. Maybe we'll go do a session right now. Thanks for the inspiration :-)

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  3. Why isnt it that you can get your dogs in shape once and it lasts a lifetime? LOL,, why cant people get in shape one time and it lasts a lifetime, hahahah, wouldnt that be fantastic! Your doggies are lucky to have a person always helping them be their best! How is the new kitty doing?

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  4. I haven't used any ball work but it seems it's a good exercise. I really admire how you set up your goals and train your dogs.

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