Unfit, Overweight & On Drugs October 25, 2005
That’s our Miss Emmylou!
I took Em to the vet tonight for a vaccination (way overdue) so that she can go to the dog training workshop with me in November and to see about getting something to give her during thunder storms, fireworks and so on to keep her calmer.
The vet reckons she’s borderline obese! I always knew our dogs were carrying a little bit of extra weight, but that surprised me. And if Em’s overweight, then Indi definitely is, so the diet and exercise program starts tomorrow morning!
I’m going to try to walk Em every morning. Mark will try to walk both dogs during the day when he’s home and Finn’s at childcare. On the days that Mark doesn’t walk them together I’ll walk Em and he can take Indi out after Finn’s gone to bed (ie. we’ll tag team). The trick will be not to get overambitious and ruin it by trying to do too much too soon. Little walks - 15-20 minutes at a relaxed pace to begin with - and then we can build up.
As for the drugs, Em’s on clomicalm and we’re doing a de-sensitisation program using Cam Day’s CD. The idea is to have her take the drugs for 3 months while doing the de-sensitisation program and, hopefully, she won’t need them after that. It will probably take a lot longer than that to actually get her over her fear of loud noises, but the drugs should help get the process started.
With all of this I’m going to cancel my gym membership. If I’m walking a dog every day (which I should have been in the first place) I’m probably not going to have time or energy to go to the gym and I shouldn’t need to either. If I do feel the need of a gym I’ll join one in the city next year and go in lunchtimes - it’d be a better use of my time and money than wandering the shops looking for stuff to buy.
I didn’t know they made CDs for dogs.
I reckon walking the dog is much more interesting than staring at a gym wall anyway!
yeah, but at the gym you don’t have to be prepared for the peanutness that accompanies bunny sightings and being barked at by other dogs.
Lil the dog became overweight at some point, but with daily walking and rations, she has trimmed right back down again, and she even seems happier. No thanks to me, though. It was all Troys hard work.