I was wondering in the dry or humid summer heat what's your k9 doing to keep in shape for the fall /winter training and or competition training coming up?
Swimming, indoor treadmill,hicking in the mountains...????

For us here , we make our dogs swim everyday.We try to keep up their stamina and endurance to a high level.They get an hour in the pool or hard playing ,lots of laps...Sometimes once a day and sometimes twice.

On the weekends Andy gets his 3miles and some training at 6am before it gets hot and during the week I take him to the Marina by my work for a mile and a half run/walk and some training. Its 30 miles from where I live but being right on the SF Bay its 20 degrees cooler.

How cool, nice exercises!
I used to Live in Los Gatos Mountains and I miss it! I hate Vegas but I try to make the best of the heat here in the summer..

I do hiking at least once a week, usually picking a day when its nice and cool out. Other than that, we get in a 2 mile walk in the morning, and we train whatever command were working on in the evening. Right now we've been doing heel, so we walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes or so practicing.

On days when its 95+ this schedule works, its miserable to be outside when its scorching hot and the sun is blinding bright.

Well, I don't have a working or sport dog, but I would consider Oscar an athlete in his own way - he's my running partner, and we run year-round.

In the summer, we keep our runs early like Steve, around 6:30am, or very late in the day, to avoid the heat. We average 4-6 miles every other day (occassionaly it's every day), with long walks on the inbetween days. Some of the areas we run have ponds or rivers nearby, so he gets to splash around and cool off - though he doesn't seem to be a big "swimmer" per say. All of it is off leash and in pretty wild areas, so on a good day Oscar spends half his time bombing after squirrells (nothing makes him run faster than THAT). It all keeps him in pretty top shape. Last winter we did 13 miles together on the day after Christamas - and I think he could have easily gone more (though he would have been dragging one completely exhuasted human behind him :grin

~Natalya

Man those dogs are so lucky to have a pool!!! I would love one right now too.

It has been about 95 degrees here for over a month now with not much in the way of breaks from the heat. That is HOT for us. A fire just started from a chainsaw at the ski hill yesterday, lucky they got it out within the day. Probably a cool day for some of you in the US! Neither the dog nor I have access to a/c at home or at work. It does cool off at night thank goodness.

On days off we go for a bike ride on the logging roads before it gets too hot, about 1.5 hrs, with a cold creek to play in half way. Some days off we go hiking too.

We visit the river or a lake a few times a week. The river runs through town, lakes are hard to come by without a bit of a drive.
River:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=Picture261.jpg
Lake:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=fetchseries.png

On work days I will "red neck run" the dog up my work's access road, or hike up to work for about an hr. (all uphill) Then he would likely be kenneled. If I work building trails that day, he will hang out on trail with us.

Some work days the dog is able to hike with me for either full or half day hikes in the mountains. The snow is prety much gone now and there is no shade or water in the alpine. On the really hot ones he suffers some but is still glad to come along. He even whined at me the other day on this hike when we stopped up high and there was no shade
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=dontfall.jpg
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=headedtothesummit.jpg


I always bring water for him and he never seems worse for the wear. After a refreshing dip in a creek at the bottom of a long hike, he will be quite re-energized. He still wants to play that evening as well.

I nomally do ob in the evening and maybe some inside "find it" and ob fun games inside even when it has cooled off. That and a short walk, depending on if we had a big day or not.

I am dropping ob for the next month. We both need a break

We are not doing too much search training at present, maybe two a week, early in the morning mostly. I have searched him in the full heat (shorter ones) to take note of his stamina and scent abilities in the heat, but we are not making a habit of it.

Confession: I often wish he would amuse and excersise himself sometimes but he is not that kind of dog I am going to put it out there that at times I would rather flop down on the sofa and drink a cold beer instead of doing stuff with the dog!

Confession: I often wish he would amuse and excersise himself sometimes but he is not that kind of dog I am going to put it out there that at times I would rather flop down on the sofa and drink a cold beer instead of doing stuff with the dog!
Hey Jennifer, don't tell anyone....but I've actually flopped and drank quite a few times. Remember were in a confessional here. Keep this between us.

Jennifer, your pictures are beautiful!
What a lucky dog, the River, the lake, the mountains!!!
UHHH I wish for that, I'll trade you my pool?

 Quote:

Jennifer, your pictures are beautiful!
What a lucky dog, the River, the lake, the mountains!!!
UHHH I wish for that, I'll trade you my pool?

I usually don't inculde so many pictures of the less beautiful things, like the trailer park I live in, for example


Does the house come with the pool?

The dog has no idea how lucky he is.

Jennifer: Where you live is nothing short of spectacularly gorgeous! We have spent some time at Mt Asinaboine north of Banff. Is that near you?

We recently bought 6.5 acres on the Olympic penninsula (SIC) in Washington state. It's approx 60 miles from the most north west edge of the continental USA. We are having the well dug now & will put up the house asap! The bay is in front & national forrest behind us. It is certainly not any where near as wild as your neck of the woods, but it's sure a lot nicer than where I am now - Los Angeles county.