Day 14 - Dog tired

In the last 14 days I have seen some incredible things. Yep, a truly amazing transformation is taking place. None of which I am more proud than the transformation taking place with my dog, Ludwig. Yes, my dog.

Lud came into my life about 5 years ago. He was a rescue dog. He was about 10 weeks old, when I brought him home. Perhaps I should say that was when I gave him my home and he was gracious enough to continue letting me live there.

Two weeks ago, Ludwig was going through a very confusing time. I would try and do these work outs and he must have thought it was play time. This complicated things, to say the least.

Try doing jumping jacks in a room with an 8-foot ceiling, from which a ceiling fan is suspended. I cannot think of a better definition for the word "focus". Add to the mix, a 75-pound black lab that thinks his purpose in life is to be involved in every single aspect of my life. It appeared as though he made the choice to take on the role of being my personal trainer.

In some ways, it was not such a bad thing. Rather than having some muscle-head arching over me, yelling at me, screaming how big of a cream puff I was; he used the popular method of positive reinforcement. For example, after every sit up, I would be rewarded with a cold wet nose being lunged in my ear. When I would go to the floor for push ups, he was right there in front of me...face and front legs down on the floor, butt up in the air and tail wagging. There were a few times that he would actually raise up as I did and lower himself back to the floor. Most of the time, he just raised up and pivoted around in a circle and whacked me in the face with his tail. I guess he was not impressed with my form.

We had our share of accidents. On more than one occasion, I hit him in the face with a flying elbow, while doing Kenpo. He just looked at me with this "What the Hell?" expression.

Now, Lud has assumed the role of a cheer leader. I brought a bedding mat in the already crowded room. Now, I tell him to go lay down while I torture myself. He will run to his mat and lay on it, after he has brought all of his toys into the room. As the workout continues and I grow tired and slow my pace, I hear a sound behind me. It is the sound of his massive tail pounding the surface of the floor.

Many times, I look at this dog and can't help but feel like he knows something that I don't. I wonder if he is thumping his tail on the floor because he sees me slacking and is trying to push me, in the manner of a surrogate muscle-head personal trainer. Maybe he thinks the workout is coming to an end and he will get his dog biscuit treat for being a good dog and staying out of my way. Maybe he just has to go pee.

In any event, he has decided to give me the room to do my thing. Even if it is to avoid being hit with a Kenpo elbow, it is still nice to have the room to work out. It's also nice to think that I have my own personal cheering section, even if he does lick his own butt.