Now that my outdoor gym is set up, I decided to have Rocky join me for part of my workout yesterday so he could burn off some energy. I had no idea how he would react but he is having a blast!
When I took him out yesterday, he knew something was different but had no idea what was going on. He guessed that he was going for a car ride and headed for the garage, but I kept walking towards my outdoor gym.
Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. Would he run alongside me? Would he wander off on his own? Would he get bored and just lay in the grass? I started with something easy – running intervals – and he ran alongside me as if he’d been doing it his whole life.
When it was time to push the sled, I again wondered how he would react. It’s heavy and loud and completely new to him. But he ran alongside me while I pushed, jumping up and down as if he was cheering me on.
He had so much fun! We had our second workout together today and I can tell already that this is going to become a regular routine.
Since he is an amputee, I have to carefully balance his exercise needs with his injury risk. He can’t afford to injure that single front leg so I can’t let him stress it too much. I’m starting him out with 10-15 minutes of activity and will build up the time gradually while monitoring how he’s doing.
Today, he couldn’t wait to get our workout started and was nudging me outside. It was raining, so I thought he might hang back under the porch to stay dry but he didn’t mind getting wet at all. After several hard runs, he took a little break, which gave me a chance to capture today’s photo.
I have been loving my new outdoor workouts and new sled, and now I have another reason to love them. This is going to be a fun routine for both Rocky and me.
