We are sad that the FitDog Friday blog hop is ending today, but it has been going strong for three years and things always have to change – that is life. We first joined the blog hop a couple of weeks after it began, with a story about walking Kobi. The blog hop inspired me to get my lazy butt at the time out the door and moving, and it has often inspired us over these three years.
The hop was started to raise awareness of having fit and healthy dogs, and I know it got us thinking about it a lot more. I think you’ll find that many of the blogs that frequently participated will still be posting about health and fitness for their dogs. I know we will.
We wrote in every season about walking, playing games in the yard, and weight control. The hop often posted challenges and we participated, trying new things as well as sharing our usual routines. I wrote about running with the crew, playing ball in the yard with the whole crew, which in the beginning included our golden retriever, Moses, and then later about Luke joining our family and getting the girls moving even more. We shared about the swimming pool, swimming ventures in ponds and rivers, and we got out hiking and explored new places.
I often complained about the weather and changing seasons messing with our routines. Those routines were often challenged and changed by our aging girls both coming down with arthritis as well as Luke’s knee issues which made it impossible for me to have a running partner with this crew (I will still run, but I take the dogs for my cool down walks instead). We started a series on Clicker Training with Luke on FitDog Fridays, always remembering that dogs need mental as well as physical stimulation for optimum health.
We won two awards – The Pack Variety Award, and the Best Team Award, both last year. We will always be proud of those awards!
As things change, we are facing a big one of moving to a new home now, and that has definitely put a huge disruption into our routines. But as always we will rise to the challenge and figure out new ways to stay fit while we’re transitioning into our new home. I am sharing a short video of the crew playing in our new yard. Please excuse the videographers bad work – multitasking is not my thing and trying to throw the ball while taking video was challenging! I never even attempted video back in the early days of FitDog Fridays.
I haven’t had time to worry about the annoying up and down spring weather. I was luckily able to find all the clothing I needed in boxes to transition from warm one day and cold the next. The warmer days we’ve had finally inspired me to take a break from unpacking and make time for some walks. We’ve been checking out our new neighborhood and exploring our woods. We have a lot more woods to explore in the future, but right now I stay within sight of the house until we get some marked trails so I don’t get lost out there! There are also more pretty roads to walk other than our own street, and when the weather finally warms up long term, there is a big pond down at the bottom of our hill about a mile away where I hope to find places to take the crew swimming until we can get our own pond put in.
Life is full of changes; and all we can do is roll with them and I feel that these changes for us are going to be good ones. We’ll get where we’re going in time, we’ll have a fenced in yard again, and we’ll have our own pond to swim in. In the meantime we’ll keep adjusting and improvising like we always have done! Some things change, but others don’t; health and fitness is always going to be something we strive for even if we do it in different ways at times.
We want to say a huge thank you to our hosts SlimDoggy, To Dog With Love and MyGBGVLife for inspiring us through this hop for the last three years. Please visit other blogs through the links below to learn more about keeping your dogs fit and happy!
Looks like you’re already having fun exploring your new home. Hope you feel settled in soon.
BTW, you might want to add a GoPro with a head attachment to your birthday wish list. That’s who you catch fun playtime videos.
What a great idea, Pamela! I can see that coming in handy for lots of fun videos!
Change is inevitable right? Looking forward to reading more of your new fitness adventures!
Change can be good. A pond now that sounds like much fun!
We can’t wait for the pond! We were hoping to have it this year, but we will probably have to wait until next year. We just didn’t make the money on selling our other house that we hoped to. 🙁 But we’ll get there!!
Cool picture of The Pack!! It is so good to get out and have fun with our pups. We are excited for summer and hot weather!!
I really love your attitude in weathering all of the changes that are facing you! Your sunny and hopeful attitude is how I know that you’re going to sort it all out like a champ! <3
Cricket’s barking cracks me up! I love Luke catching the ball and Cricket returning with it. LOL!
Cricket does get mad when her siblings mess with the routine though, and don’t give the ball right back! On rare occasions Sheba will bring me the ball, but as a rule Cricket is always the one that returns it to me! They are so funny.
You are so good to keep you and the dogs active-and these photos and that video are so cute and awesome!!
Cricket cracks me up. She doesn’t need a big yard to have a blast!
As long as there is a ball, she will make it work!
I’m going to miss the hop, too! We’ve all shared so many fun adventures with each other!
We didn’t hear that the hop is ending so don’t really know why since we haven’t participated for awhile. You are right though, it really made you get up and do something with your dogs! Love Dolly
I don’t really know why it ended either, Dolly, but I guess maybe the blog hops can be a lot of work for the hosts? We’ll just have to find something else to keep us motivated!
I’m sad to see this series go… You’ve done some amazing posts! But I know you’ll come up with something wonderful in the future. I can feel it!
Jean from Welcome to the Menagerie
Thank you, Jean! We are going to do our best! 🙂
I am so excited for you to have your own land to explore and to make a dog paradise! I’m so looking forward to reading about all of these projects and watching the dogs delight in them!
We are so happy your team participated so frequently in FDF. It’s always good to learn how other folks keep themselves and their pack fit. Best of luck in your new home – I hope you and the dogs – have many happy years there!
We like to play crazy games with mom like hide and seek BOL
Lily & Edward
Thank you for joining us at FitDog Friday all these years! We’re sad to see it come to an end but look forward to hearing about your new adventures!
Thank you for being a great participant. It is sad to see the hop end, but change is part of life and can be a good thing. Who knows what will be next! Enjoy discovering all the new things around your new home!
I agree this land is made for digging tunnels… maybe you find an ole mice nest or a mole-village Luke? Let me know if you found a “trashure” then I come and help you at the eggs-cavation site :o)