Well today wraps up the 5 week torture known as K-9 Kamp hosted by Kol’s Notes and Peggy’s Place. 

We grabbed the badge for our side bar so it was really important to me that I tried to complete the tasks.  For the record I only put myself into the raffles if I had actually completed the challenge (that would be week one.) 

K-9 Kamp wasn’t school; but I thought it would be important to share what we learned and grade ourselves based upon performance. 

WEEK 1 ) The Challenge?  Walk it off.  Walk for one hour; it didn’t have to be all at once but it had to be an hour. 

We’re good at walking.  We walk on average of ½ hour per day four times per week.  Because I felt we had an advantage I upped our walks to 45 and 50 minutes.  

What I learned:  A big ole’ dog like Sampson can walk for 50 minutes, but he needs to cool down in the pool after. 

Grade: A+

 Week 2)  The Challenge?  Fetch it yourself.  Play fetch with your pet for one hour.  Throw the toy, race the dog to the toy, pick it up and do it again. 

What I learned: Just because your dog is a retriever doesn’t mean they fetch.  I spent a good portion of this hour chasing the dummy (and I don’t mean the dog) myself.  How that looked to someone observing from a distance I can only imagine. 

Grade: C- 

Week 3)  The Challenge?  Tug with me.  Play tug with your dog for an hour (broken up into smaller time blocks if needed.) Play regular tug then drop into a squat or lunge and play tug in this position. 

What I learned: A 73 pound lab with all four feet on the ground can easily pull over a 125 pound (+) Mama in a lunge; causing the Mama to laugh hysterically and lose her breath while a 90 pound lab looks on. 

Grade: D (I only attempted this once, it would have been an F if not for at least trying.) 

Week 4)  The Challenge?  Jump around.  One hour of jumping.  Jump up and down, jump rope, jump over things,  just jump.  

What I learned: Sampson and Delilah can jump; but this white girl can’t.  The dogs jump over bushes, logs, leashes etc.  In fact, they even kind of jump a bit when they run. Me, not so much.  I finally had to resort to a little side-ways run, skip, jump.  And I couldn’t complete the entire hour.  But I sure surprised hubby with my little side-ways jumping.

 Grade: D 

Week 5)  The Challenge?  Catch me if you can.  Chase your dog then turn around and let your dogs chase you. 

What I learned: I am far better at chasing the dogs then they are at chasing me.  While Sampson doesn’t like me to get too far ahead of him; Delilah well she could care less; if there was something interesting it wouldn’t matter if I could turn myself into a steak, she wasn’t buying it.   I couldn’t catch the 30 foot leash she was dragging; never mind the dog at the other end of it.  I tried again tonight and I still wasn’t quick enough; causing hubby to say, “The things you see when you don’t have a video camera.”  (I didn’t tell him I had one in my pocket.) 🙂

Grade: B+

All kidding aside, even though we walk a lot; I’m still not in very good shape.  I also need to learn to incorporate other activities with our walks if I’m to put in a decent showing for next year’s kamp.

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