Moku's Daily Activity Summary

Daily CHALLENGE & ACTiViTY Summary

Dog’s name: Moku

Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

Physical Fitness

Moku was a bit “limpy” after his massive hike over the weekend, so we did not work on the treadmill. We did, however, add some challenge to our swim session. Being that Moku will often just stay put on the swim steps rather than actually swimming (even after toys), I devised a way to help him “swim laps”.

This involves a super long bungee leash. I clip it to his collar at the swim step, toss a toy along the side wall of the pool to entice him, and then walk alongside the pool as he swims (see video). We went around the perimeter of the pool a total of five times, in addition to some free swimming he did (though not much). This was good, as it actually got his heart rate up a little bit. And that, of course, is the whole point of exercising!

ALSO, Moku and I have just begun our foray into the “research and design” phase of the “Frisky Fitness for Middle Schoolers” P.E. course. So we watched some “Doga” videos, and thumbed through my new book, “100 Ways to Work Out with Your Dog”. Check out today’s video for a more in-depth look at how we’ll try and piece some of these stretches and exercises together...and somehow make class out of them!

Cognitive Fitness

Today, we got into the MEMORY games on Dognition.com. We did not, however, finish playing all the games in this section. I’ll explain more tomorrow when I am able to post the results for this section.

Social Fitness

Moku played with Maggie, Ginger and Clancy today. We had hoped to get out to Beale Library for Barks & Books, but I had a severe headache, so we didn’t make it. He’ll get lots of socialization tomorrow at the Mission!

Emotional Fitness

Being away from home continues to strengthen Moku’s emotional fortitude, I believe. He also does really well both when I pick him up and when I drop him off at home. No whining or barking. When I arrive, he’s excited to see me and wiggles around a bit, but out of happy excitement, not anxious excitement. And by the end of the day, he’s so tired; he just plops down by his water bowl in the shade and conks out J .

Primal Fitness

Moku retrieved items tossed in the pool. Also, during the memory game, he used his powerful doggie nose to scent out treats that were hidden underneath plastic cups. Though the point of the game was to see how Moku solved the problem of the hidden treat cognitively, rather than viscerally or “primally”, his sniffer was definitely engaged.

Here’s a video compilation of today’s activities: