It’s a Dog’s Life: Exercise and Keeping Fit

Teddy ponders over the idea of exercise and keeping fit, and enjoys some gentle activity on a mini break, as Helen Stockton, his human translator, enlightens

There seems to be a preoccupation, amongst some people, with keeping fit. Fit for what, I’m not entirely sure, but it seems to involve a lot of specialist equipment and clothing. We see Lycra-clad cyclists on complex-looking bikes shooting past our house on a regular basis. Then there are the joggers in their specialist kit, with headphones to distract them from their pain, and trainers so complicated and state-of-the-art that a second mortgage is required to purchase a pair.

Sabastian Sawe, who won the London Marathon in under two hours, wore a pair of trainers that only weighed 99 grams. That is less than the weight of the banana long-distance runners eat to sustain their energy levels. Plimsols have come a long way!

Us dogs have our own specialist equipment for our exercise. The apprentice, Bear, and I have harnesses that our leads attach to, and these are quite fancy and suitably expensive, with matching collars so that we coordinate nicely. This is of no concern to us, but it seems to please ‘Her Indoors’. We both have leads, although Bear’s is plastic-coated steel as she has a habit of chewing through them if she gets half a chance.

She’s escaped several times by deploying this method when secured to pub tables and ‘Them Indoors’ have been suitably distracted. She’s also been known to chew through other dogs’ leads if their owners have stopped to chat, which is a bit embarrassing for ‘Them Indoors’.

I have a buggy for when I get tired on longer walks, now that I’m a bit senior, and we also have a bicycle trailer that tows behind ‘Her Indoors’ bike so we can enjoy the wind rushing through our ears and barking at anything unusual.

Recently, we went away in our motorhome to the New Forest, and the site we were staying on had a dog agility area with some special equipment. There were weaving poles, tunnels to run through, jumps to leap over, a climbing ramp and a see-saw to walk along. Bear, who has youth and fitness on her side, was too busy charging about to engage sensibly with the different challenges, although she did eventually go through the tunnel, as did I. I was prepared to give the climbing ramp a go, but my four-wheel drive failed on the incline.

I had more success on the seesaw, although ‘Her Indoors’ did hold the other end so that it only tipped slowly as she didn’t want me falling off. We also enjoyed the secure dog walking field where Bear and I could trot around and play, off-lead. After all, keeping fit is supposed to be fun too, something I suspect people occasionally forget….