Gromit's Personal Goal
Gromit and Chewie are brothers but not biological siblings. They look somewhat alike except for that thing where one is white and the other one is black. They are somewhat alike - they both enjoy food, a good romp at the park, and alerting the household that they have successfully chased the mailman each day. They are both very aware of their environment and what changes second by second. A misplaced magazine or pen will get a sniff or nose poke and will be noticed almost immediately. On the other hand - Chewie has a drive for retrieving that rivals most purebred labs. Gromit has a pension for fun and the sport of a good game of keep away and is easily diverted or distracted.
My sister and I are biological siblings have many things in common. Characteristically we both have blondish hair, pink skin, are about the same height and have the same cheekbones of my mother. We share mannerisms and expressions. We laugh at the same things, sometimes talk in unison, and feel a sense of responsibility to our families, employers and community, although the order of importance of these things gets mixed up sometimes.
However, my sister Lisa is a runner - a true runner, a real athlete. So when you look at us together she might seem quite a bit thinner and finer boned, ahem - the speed and drive in her stride is much stronger and driven than my casual approach to trying to stay healthy. Kind of like the difference between watching a graceful doe and a clomping moose running in the woods - both can run - one is an animal of beauty and the other....well it can clumsily destroy things in its path and let's just say, when it takes off, can make everyone a bit scared. I am the moose - Lisa is the doe.
I remember the winter day I started running as an adult. I was considering doing a triathlon. I had been swimming and knew I loved biking but running meant I had to actually feel my whole body with every footstep. I was terrified. If I was going to achieve my goal though, I would have to run.
I decided that I would start with trying to make it from my house to the end of the block and then walk a bit. Night time would be best as I didn't want everyone to see the mortified look on my face when I realized how much work it was going to be lift one foot up after the other one was safely on the pavement from the first stride. I hoped that I would make forward progress with each stride but would not worry about the time to get to the end of the block - just success that I was getting closer with each step. In early winter, at about 7 at night, I put on some old sweats and my tennis shoes and snuck out the back door of the duplex and around the front of the house to the sidewalk by the street. Then I stood there dumbfounded watching my breath in the cold November air. Now what? I took a deep breath, which instead of relaxing me, was more like a big gulp of air before trying to see how far across the pool you could get on a single breath. After what seemed like forever I picked up my foot and finally I jogged to the end of the block. I did it and thought hell, why not try the next block.
It wasn't pretty - I wondered why my hands were swinging back and forth, before realizing I had elbows and shoulders that controlled them. In those first runs I remember how my shoulder moved forward first and my hips and feet kind of came along for the ride. I remember being incredibly surprised when I found out about stretching and in particular what a big and long muscles it was that ran from my butt to my knees - hamstrings, gluteus - really quite amazing.
I was hooked I needed a goal - doesn't everyone?
There was a big race in the Quad Cities that was seven miles and occurred as part of the Bix Beiderbeck festival. Bix was a young jazz cornetist who had a genius for melody and jazz. Davenport, IA celebrates the very short life of Bix and his contribution to jazz with a big Dixie Land Jazz Festival accompanied by a large 7 mile run/walk race. I talked Lisa into doing this with me. It was before she started 'really' running.
Lisa and I agreed it would be a fun goal to train and run together. The biggest benefit would be that we would get to visit my parents. The race had about 20,000 participants and the line up was very long. As we stood waiting for the start gun to go off, the clouds above us let go with a big downpour. Lisa started laughing and looked at me and said that she couldn't believe we had trained all spring and most of summer and driven 8 hours to run 7 miles in a downpour. I laughed too, what else could we do. When the gun went off it took us about 10 minutes to get to the start line. The rain was off and on and it was wet the whole run. There were so many people that the sweat and water made us slide against each other if you bumped someone Still there were bands along the course playing music and people out to cheer us on. We finished in the hot steamy soggy weather of a Quad City late July. Lisa has gone on to run multiple marathons and qualify for the Boston Marathon and completed ultra runs on the West Coast with teams of strong runners. I did complete triathlons after the Bix run with her. I guess we both achieved personal goals.
I tried talking Gromit into trialing with me in Agility, or race/train running with me or maybe trick training. It would be fun to set a goal together....He loves any activity really, but he prefers to train using a methodology I haven't seen practiced in classes yet. It occurs to me that there might be some type of interval training considered for dogs like Gromit. He is enthusiastic and focused for limited sprints of time. Maybe an intense 5 minutes and then 3 minutes of craziness before jumping back in. Agility might include 3 jumps, a set of weave poles and then they could throw in a squirrel racing across the floor to get everyone worked up for a few minutes. A tunnel to table to A frame and maybe a steak buried under the dog walk. Gromit would love the element of surprise - he doesn't need to know there is a steak under the dog walk just the idea that there is something else that can be uncovered cleverly is what motivates him. I can just hear him - "Hey Heidi, I got my nose working with the air flow on this course. Just say go and I will find the prize in this course....."
He is not one of the kids that would raise his hand in class because he knew the answer, he is the kid that would raise his hand with the interesting question that the teacher would not have a black and white answer.
I have tried doing more walking with him where he gets to stop and sniff instead of dragging him away from trees and praying I won't dislocate my shoulder when he sees a squirrel. It has always been interesting to me that Gromit who loves loves loves to run can get every bit as tired from a short distance walk that has a million smells.
He is exhausted after a visit to the vet or the groomer or the chiropractor even though he doesn't have to move. He doesn't just check out the specialist we are seeing he goes around the entire office sniffing every knick knack on every shelf.
Gromit is recovering from his third injury either caused or exacerbated by agility. First his back leg, then his elbow and now his ankle. And some days I have to admit I feel like I look at him like my sister and I at the start line of the Bix. Is it pouring injuries and inattention? Have we done all this training and come all this way for a bunch of set backs? I forget to laugh though, I forget about the fun of training together. I may have lost sight of a goal. Trailing is not our goal. I am not sure how to figure out Gromit's goal - it is much simpler though, I think.
He will be very happy to know that we are about to embark on a dining odyssey. In an effort to get him some increased nutrition we are going to attempt to add flavors and food types to their diet. He needs some glucosamine to help supplement his diet and strengthen his joints. He will like the daily food surprises, this will entertain him.
So what is Gromit's goal? I have asked many specialists for advice but I think this one is between the two of us. He just wants to feel good, have fun and have some focus. I don't think the front window is really cutting it for him. He wants more puzzles in his life, less routine, and more happy surprises. Bursts of focus, that is what Gromit has and that is how I am going to work with him for a bit....
My sister and I are biological siblings have many things in common. Characteristically we both have blondish hair, pink skin, are about the same height and have the same cheekbones of my mother. We share mannerisms and expressions. We laugh at the same things, sometimes talk in unison, and feel a sense of responsibility to our families, employers and community, although the order of importance of these things gets mixed up sometimes.
However, my sister Lisa is a runner - a true runner, a real athlete. So when you look at us together she might seem quite a bit thinner and finer boned, ahem - the speed and drive in her stride is much stronger and driven than my casual approach to trying to stay healthy. Kind of like the difference between watching a graceful doe and a clomping moose running in the woods - both can run - one is an animal of beauty and the other....well it can clumsily destroy things in its path and let's just say, when it takes off, can make everyone a bit scared. I am the moose - Lisa is the doe.
I remember the winter day I started running as an adult. I was considering doing a triathlon. I had been swimming and knew I loved biking but running meant I had to actually feel my whole body with every footstep. I was terrified. If I was going to achieve my goal though, I would have to run.
I decided that I would start with trying to make it from my house to the end of the block and then walk a bit. Night time would be best as I didn't want everyone to see the mortified look on my face when I realized how much work it was going to be lift one foot up after the other one was safely on the pavement from the first stride. I hoped that I would make forward progress with each stride but would not worry about the time to get to the end of the block - just success that I was getting closer with each step. In early winter, at about 7 at night, I put on some old sweats and my tennis shoes and snuck out the back door of the duplex and around the front of the house to the sidewalk by the street. Then I stood there dumbfounded watching my breath in the cold November air. Now what? I took a deep breath, which instead of relaxing me, was more like a big gulp of air before trying to see how far across the pool you could get on a single breath. After what seemed like forever I picked up my foot and finally I jogged to the end of the block. I did it and thought hell, why not try the next block.
It wasn't pretty - I wondered why my hands were swinging back and forth, before realizing I had elbows and shoulders that controlled them. In those first runs I remember how my shoulder moved forward first and my hips and feet kind of came along for the ride. I remember being incredibly surprised when I found out about stretching and in particular what a big and long muscles it was that ran from my butt to my knees - hamstrings, gluteus - really quite amazing.
I was hooked I needed a goal - doesn't everyone?
There was a big race in the Quad Cities that was seven miles and occurred as part of the Bix Beiderbeck festival. Bix was a young jazz cornetist who had a genius for melody and jazz. Davenport, IA celebrates the very short life of Bix and his contribution to jazz with a big Dixie Land Jazz Festival accompanied by a large 7 mile run/walk race. I talked Lisa into doing this with me. It was before she started 'really' running.
Lisa and I agreed it would be a fun goal to train and run together. The biggest benefit would be that we would get to visit my parents. The race had about 20,000 participants and the line up was very long. As we stood waiting for the start gun to go off, the clouds above us let go with a big downpour. Lisa started laughing and looked at me and said that she couldn't believe we had trained all spring and most of summer and driven 8 hours to run 7 miles in a downpour. I laughed too, what else could we do. When the gun went off it took us about 10 minutes to get to the start line. The rain was off and on and it was wet the whole run. There were so many people that the sweat and water made us slide against each other if you bumped someone Still there were bands along the course playing music and people out to cheer us on. We finished in the hot steamy soggy weather of a Quad City late July. Lisa has gone on to run multiple marathons and qualify for the Boston Marathon and completed ultra runs on the West Coast with teams of strong runners. I did complete triathlons after the Bix run with her. I guess we both achieved personal goals.
I tried talking Gromit into trialing with me in Agility, or race/train running with me or maybe trick training. It would be fun to set a goal together....He loves any activity really, but he prefers to train using a methodology I haven't seen practiced in classes yet. It occurs to me that there might be some type of interval training considered for dogs like Gromit. He is enthusiastic and focused for limited sprints of time. Maybe an intense 5 minutes and then 3 minutes of craziness before jumping back in. Agility might include 3 jumps, a set of weave poles and then they could throw in a squirrel racing across the floor to get everyone worked up for a few minutes. A tunnel to table to A frame and maybe a steak buried under the dog walk. Gromit would love the element of surprise - he doesn't need to know there is a steak under the dog walk just the idea that there is something else that can be uncovered cleverly is what motivates him. I can just hear him - "Hey Heidi, I got my nose working with the air flow on this course. Just say go and I will find the prize in this course....."
He is not one of the kids that would raise his hand in class because he knew the answer, he is the kid that would raise his hand with the interesting question that the teacher would not have a black and white answer.
I have tried doing more walking with him where he gets to stop and sniff instead of dragging him away from trees and praying I won't dislocate my shoulder when he sees a squirrel. It has always been interesting to me that Gromit who loves loves loves to run can get every bit as tired from a short distance walk that has a million smells.
He is exhausted after a visit to the vet or the groomer or the chiropractor even though he doesn't have to move. He doesn't just check out the specialist we are seeing he goes around the entire office sniffing every knick knack on every shelf.
Gromit is recovering from his third injury either caused or exacerbated by agility. First his back leg, then his elbow and now his ankle. And some days I have to admit I feel like I look at him like my sister and I at the start line of the Bix. Is it pouring injuries and inattention? Have we done all this training and come all this way for a bunch of set backs? I forget to laugh though, I forget about the fun of training together. I may have lost sight of a goal. Trailing is not our goal. I am not sure how to figure out Gromit's goal - it is much simpler though, I think.
He will be very happy to know that we are about to embark on a dining odyssey. In an effort to get him some increased nutrition we are going to attempt to add flavors and food types to their diet. He needs some glucosamine to help supplement his diet and strengthen his joints. He will like the daily food surprises, this will entertain him.
So what is Gromit's goal? I have asked many specialists for advice but I think this one is between the two of us. He just wants to feel good, have fun and have some focus. I don't think the front window is really cutting it for him. He wants more puzzles in his life, less routine, and more happy surprises. Bursts of focus, that is what Gromit has and that is how I am going to work with him for a bit....
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