Personal Training

As most dog owners and trainers know, a tired dog is easier to work and has better manners in a kennel situation.  Our facility at ECAD is not conducive to free-running the dogs outside.  We are equipped with dog runs, but they aren't large enough for the dogs to get up to full speed.  We are lucky to have been given an old treadmill that allows us to run the dogs indoors.  Unfortunately, most of the dogs who were taught to run on the treadmill as younger pups have since forgotten or developed anxiety about it.  So last week, I decided to devote a significant amount of time (as well as sacrificing my lower back), to becoming a doggy personal trainer.  I spent 3 full days running 15 dogs each day.  Some of the dogs loved it, and jumped right on for 15 minutes at 4.0 speed.  Other dogs required three people, one in the front luring with kibble, another holding the rear legs up to "wheelbarrow" the dog, and a third with an arm behind the back legs to keep them moving forward.  Needless to say, maintaining that position for 15 minutes with a bucking/peeing/crazed dog is quite a work out.  The miraculous part of this whole training exercise for me was to see that by the second day, the majority of dogs got back on the treadmill better than they got off the day before.  It was like they needed to sleep on it, come to terms with it, and then they could love it.  I have dogs who were miserable the first day, who I literally had to hold upright, who are now running full-speed ahead with a huge grin on their panting faces.