To Exercise or Not Exercise..

That is the question, I’ve pondered recently.
Pompei is a real laid back, medium energy dog so far, he’s not been destructive, or requires intense exercise sessions as other dogs have. Looking back on those dogs behavior, I’m wondering now if I was partly the cause for that need for exercise. Tim and Ira both taught me the importance of mental exercise/stimulation.

Those two were the nuttiest dogs I’ve had to date. I spent hours exercising them physically, hoping they would settle down enough at night to allow me to study. Thankfully one of my dog-lists led me to realize these dogs needed to use their brains, where it was interactive food toys, or learning a new command, I had to keep their minds active.

Since then I’ve begun to realize the importance of keep their minds busy! Pompei is a lot like me, with his ADD brain. He has a hard time doing just one thing at a time. I’ve found that after the third lap around our cul-de-sac, we both are extremely bored, and he starts acting silly. So we don’t do a lot of “structured” exercise. We live on about 5 acres of land, so we spend a lot of time wandering the grounds, playing controlled retrieves, splashing in the pool, etc..At least one meal is either in a KONG or Tug-A-Jug, or as a training session, so he’s just not gobbling it down from a bowl.

Pompei seems to do great with this regiment as do my dachshunds, which leads em to wonder how important physical exercise really is. As you all remember we walked Pompei 8 miles on a hike, and he was crazily wired afterwards, whereas take him on a shopping trip, and he’ll snooze the afternoon away.
I’ve also noticed this another time, when we did a lot of physical exercise. He was just wired afterwards, and I had to work him mentally to get him back down to a normal level.

I’ve also started having him do more “finding” commands while out in public and he L-O-V-E-S that. He’s also devolved a reasonable pull level, which is good. I had him find the door to O’Charley’s restaurant the other day and bam he lead me right too it. Now to teach him to lead me to the handle verses the middle of the door. LOL.

Note: I’m extremely jealous of the Texas raisers who get to teach way more than we do. Ah well, when I move to Texas I’ll raise for them.

Since school has ended, we’ve had a lot of down time lately and I can see its starting to effect his “working” behavior a little, and I’m also beginning to notice something’s, that perhaps a future handler wouldn’t like to have to deal with. I do the best I can and hope that it transfers to the new person. So I have some goals for him by January 2011, which is when I'm guessing he will return to the foundation.

Pompeii's Goals 

Stays at Doors
First thing would be doors at home. My current house opens onto an enclosed porch, which means I’ll sometimes just let the dogs out, so I can get dressed and take them all the way out to potty. This means that when I open the door he just goes on through. Pompei won’t run, but his future partner may not know that, so we need to make sure he sits/stays at doors. My dachshunds do because I pounded that in their heads, but have gotten lazy with the porch and all.

Being STILL! 
I love this pup, but ever since he was a little guy, he's had a problem with staying in one place. As he's gotten bigger its more of a problem to look down and see your dog stretched out under two people feet. This past Sunday we went out to eat with friends, and I was determined to tackle this issue right away. I wasn't rough at all, but I was firm. No Pomp you are going to lay right here. It was only until we were finihsed eating that he decided I was right, and laying still was much better than this constant motion. I know a lot of this has to do with his age, and has he grows it will settle down....but we're going to help it along a little bit.

More Training Outings vs. Socialization Outings 
I was talking to a GDF grad, a while ago and she was complaining about her dog not doing certain commands all the time. Just on hear say, it sounds like he's not generalizing the commands real well, so we're going to make sure Pompei has that down pat, before going back.

In Other News
Pompei lost his manhood today, and is recovering nicely. He's also decided he'd rather deal with an itchy scar then the E-Collar. Now one thing about goofy is well, he's a little slow....

{Pompei sitting beside the car, trying to decide if he wants to move}

 We arrive home, and I lift his drowsy self from the car, and set him on the ground, where he sat until I got my stuff and was ready to go, but once I was ready too I soon realized he was staying put, so as not to wobble the cone.. 

So I helped along, making sure he avoided the porch sides, and let him go. Well on the way inside his cone got hooked on the edge of the door way, which caused him too freeze in place, until I came and helped him. To say he was freaked out would be an understatement; Texas did not know what to think about that white thing attack his brother! :)

{Pompei standing with his head against the wall, because he couldn't figure out how too move}

{Pompei laying on his bed, after I literally moved his legs from a sitting, to a laying position}

He did get over it eventually, but after he stood shaking in the middle of the floor for about 10 minutes, I took it off, and so far so good. If it gets bad, I'll put it back on but its not worth have my pup completely stressed out. Those of you who saw my facebook status about the vet, Pompei's Hips...yada yada yada...

Good news! They are fine! :) 

Now to keep him "quiet" for the next week.
Yeah. Right.