Switchback Mountain

Having extended the hill workout portion of the controlled walks so that we are now going up and down the closest hill three times per walk instead of twice, we added switchbacks to our repertoire this week. If there's anything crazier than walking up a hill very, very slowly, it's walking up a hill on a diagonal very, very slowly. The entire neighborhood probably thinks I'm nuts. Viva continues her "Stop, Drop, and Roll" routine on the switchbacks, so every now and then we have to start the hill all over again. Maybe we should charge admission?

This week's protocol is not all bad news on the speed front, however. Viva has graduated to trotting through the ladder. What seemed like an easy tempo progression grew vaguely complicated in its execution when V took it into her head that she could get through the ladder and claim her cookie even sooner if she jumped a few of the rungs. Hmm. Don't quite like the look of that. I shortened the leash and lured for a time, and she quit leaping. Hey, a trot ain't a gallop, but it ain't a (controlled) walk either . . .

Then there's the teeter. You would have thought a truckload of bacon had materialized in our backyard from the look on Viva's face when I set the teeter up this morning. Viva hadn't encountered an agility obstacle since her injury back in May. She was VERY happy to get six passes at it, despite the 90 degree heat, and looked like she could have kept at it for hours. I'm happy to see both hind legs engaging as the board tips. We're making progress.

For the curious, Viva's daily reconditioning menu consists this week of:

20 squats (sit to stand, moving hind legs only), twice daily
20 leg lifts (balancing on left hind leg plus both front legs for fifteen seconds at a time), twice daily
20 left circles, twice daily
20 right circles, twice daily
10 trips through the ladder at a walk
5 trips through the ladder at a trot
6 passes at the teeter
2 controlled walks, 30-45 minutes long each

and, even though it's only July, a partridge in a pear tree.