Pooch to 5k – Page 7 – Running with dogs

Second K9 Camp Challenge – Play with your Balls

by Audrey

It’s time for our blog post on our second K9 camp challenge, which was to play with balls in some way to improve your dog’s fitness. Guinness is ball crazy, so this was easy. Again, I wanted to try something a bit different, something other than tossing a tennis ball down the back yard for him to chase.

So, I thought we’d start training in Treibball, which is a dog sport using big gym balls. Guinness is an Australian Working Kelpie, so he is instinctively a herding dog. I figured since I’m not allowed to have sheep (eh, husband!), then he could learn to herd a ball. It doesn’t smell the same, and it doesn’t leave those yummy little pellets on the ground, but he can still chase it.

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Canine Athletes – Helping Your Dog be the Best it Can Be

by Admin

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Clegg of Dogma Dog Massage on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Most people seek out physical therapy treatments for their dogs when they are injured or in pain. Fewer people recognise the value of massage in maintaining and improving quality of life for healthy dogs, in particular canine athletes. The canine athlete may compete in a variety of activities including obedience, agility, racing, dancing, endurance runs and many other sports. Each activity requires different types of performance and puts pressure on a dog’s body in particular ways. A Canine Myofunctional Therapy (CMT) treatment is tailored to an individual dog’s temperament, body type, health history, performance and lifestyle needs.

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K9 Camp’s First Challenge – Walking on Sunshine.

by Audrey

Our first K9 Camp challenge was on this past week. Walking on Sunshine – aimed at getting us out there and walking more with our dogs. This one was going to take a bit of thought. After all, we walk the dogs so often, and usually for a decent distance, there would be nothing different about the challenge if that was all we did. Our Walking on Sunshine had to be a bit special.

Then I had an idea. Mountain View Road!!! This road is about 20 minutes drive from home, and is part bitumen, part gravel but all difficult. It’s not a long climb but it’s really steep; it really gets the heart pumping and the leg muscles working hard. Whenever we want a hard workout, we go up Mountain View Road. We hadn’t been there for a while, and it was the perfect venue for our first challenge.

I grabbed my children, grabbed Guinness the Kelpie, and off we went.

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Cooba – Our May Running Buddy of the Month

May 17, 2012 by Francis

I was reading another running blog recently and I stumbled upon a few pictures of a beautiful red Stumpy Tail Australian Cattle Dog, Cooba. One of the pictures was of Cooba looking normal while a runner held a GPS unit in front of his face – distance of the run he’d just done: 74 km!

The runner in question is Clarke McClymont, and Cooba the Cattle Dog is his training partner as he prepares himself for ultramarathons like last year’s Kokoda Challenge, where the team he was in smashed the race record by around and hour and thirty minutes, over some of the toughest terrain in a trail race anywhere in Australia.

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It’s Time for K9 Camp

by Audrey

The Pooch to 5k folk are participating in the 2nd annual K9 Camp. What is K9 Camp? According to author Peggy Frezon, it’s an exciting opportunity to walk, play and get fit with your dog, and connect with other bloggers. Sounds like fun! We’ll be trying a new fitness challenge each week, and letting you know …

Master Dog Breeders and Associates Awards

by Admin

Pooch to 5k were thrilled to win the best dog website of the year award at the recent MDBA awards night. It’s great to see that others think the program is valuable too.