Okay! So, we're back at it, thanks to epidural spine injection #2, July 8, 2011. Injection #1 lasted over a month. #2 will hopefully last.....forever!! As before, I will obey all physical therapy rules, and do all of the exercises as often as possible. Yeah! Will use my recumbant exercise bike faithfully. Will continue to work on my new hybrid handling system, aka. "Lumbar-Friendly Dog Agility for Ladies of a Certain Age." Hopefully will not confuse my young doglet, Riff.
Riff was happy to play at the field today. We got some nice distance work done. I'm still all jazzed, because I could walk with a pretty long stride! Still can't jog AT ALL, but Riff seems to be getting used to me falling behind, and cutting across the course to get into a new position. Which, in some circles, is known as layering. Layering is regarded by many as a mortal sin. Has Riff even noticed the layering? Is it still layering when your dog seems so far away? I need to give the whole concept some serious study....
Riff is also getting use to giving me the toy after I've tossed it for him, instead of playing tug. (Rule # 1 - no tugging.) 'No tugging' is pretty weird for me, too, after spending two years encouraging a good STRONG tug. I liked playing tug. He's a very powerful boy, though, so no more tugging. We play "touch" games now. (Whenever I remember not to grab the toy, as if I were going to play tug. He trained me well.)
So! I'm working on training him to stand on his hind legs and drop the toy in my hands after our goofy little touch game is over. (Rule # 2 - no leaning over.) I want him to put his front paws on me softly, even when he's revved up and excited. The only draw-back is my shirts are getting pretty darn dirty, pretty darn fast. I take solace in the fact that most agility people don't seem to care too much about appearance. Paw prints on boobies isn't too bad, is it? Heh heh. This is not a fashion-oriented sport! Except maybe for shoes. People really care about shoes. And I've seen some mighty cute socks, too. With paw prints on them.
;-)
3 comments:
Oh hooray! I'm glad you get to play again!
And I think layering is totally legal when you can't run. There are no rules when you can't run.
And I pretty much always have paw prints on my boobies when I play agility with my dogs. If agility was fashion-oriented I would have been bounced out long ago! ;-)
Hope that does last forever!
Something else I've done with the dogs when my shoulders or back are giving me real problems is tug with the feet. Not all my dogs have bought into this, but I'll stand on one end of it and kind of tease with my other foot, or drag it along the floor (or ground) with my foot. Hard to explain exactly.
Thanks, Jo...I love the No Rules idea.
:-)
LOL, Elf...I have played tug with my feet - sitting in a chair, with a ring that Riff loves around my foot. He almost pulled me out of the chair, though. Hadn't thought of standing on it...
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