The Winners Are. . .

By katie, on July 5th, 2011%

The time has come for the first ever Lessons From 4 Legs giveaway to come to a close. The giveaway marks the six month mark of our year long Walking Challeng. I’m happy to announce a new Walking Challenge total of 1,657 miles!

That is truly an amazing collective achievement and we’ve also had many individual accomplishments over the last six months.

To celebrate all of our success I’m happy to announce the winners of the Halfway Giveaway.

Congratulations to Elizabeth, Cocoa and Oreo, the winners of the first drawing.

Together they’ve walked 88 miles since joining the Challenge in March. For all their effort they will soon receive custom made fleece leashes with matching fleece balls. Cocoa and Oreo are two fun loving poodles who live with their mom, who’s a master at saving money. Check out Oreo’s Oval Office, Cocoa’s Corner and pick a coupon clipping tip from their mom.

Our second winner is one of our best 4legged friends.

Dare and her family of five other of our favorite 4legged friends keep their mom on her toes walking and training them. They not only reported that they are current on their goal of 365 miles in 365 days, they’ve surpassed that goal by over 100 miles! They currently have over 500 miles to their credit. That’s truly amazing and we’re thrilled they have enjoyed the Challenge so much. They’ve done so well that Marie set a new goal for the year and hopes to reach 1000 miles. They’ll soon be enjoying their very own snuggle and fun pack of a fluffy mat and their own fleece tug toys.

Chispita and Beth are the winners of third drawing. They recieves this honor for doing her own post about the Walking Challenge.

Chispita and Beth set a unique goal to walk seven hours a week. They’ve so far enjoyed over 68 hours of walking fun together. For their hard work they’ll recieve a special clicker trainers package that includes a treat bag, treats and a clicker. If you haven’t read Chispita’s Walking Challenge post I highly recommend hopping over and checking it out. While you’re there why not join Fun Friday with Beth and Chispita?

The giveaway has been really fun! For you lucky winners please email me an address to send your prizes too.

We’re halfway through the year folks, lets keep up the hard work and finish out the year with a bang!

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13 comments   2011 walking challenge giveaway, 4legged friends, walking challenges   ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved

Monday Miles: Country Getaways

By katie, on June 13th, 2011%

To keep with the epitome of laziness I’ve been this last week, Monday Miles is late getting posted. But we really do want to know how the week went for everyone so lets hear those miles folks!

We managed 11 miles, bringing us to 119 for the year. We are on a country getaway to take care of Dare’s 4legged friends while she went on vacation with her mom and dad. It’s been a great trip! I planned on walking a lot down here, but there’s so much flooding our regular routes are closed and when we got down here I got into vacation mode and didn’t do near as much as I thought I would.

Magnus can fill you in on what we did instead:

"We got so lazy when we got here we didn't even walk much, instead we just laid in the shade. My poor Maizey's eyes are itchy and bad, I tried to lick them better and I got in trouble!"

"Frisbee's the best game ever! I'm the fastest boy here and always get it first!"

"This frisbee thing is great, but sometimes I just see red when I'm playing!"

"This is our 4legged friend, Twist. He's a cool kid, he likes to play frisbee too!"

"Then my Crazymomlady said I had to quit playing and learn my new Training Level's stuff. Do I really have to learn EVERYTHING on this list??"

“By the end of the days we were so tired from all that playing we had to take up the whole couch to get our rest. Tomorrow’s another day of frisbee!”

We head home tomorrow, but it’s been a great trip and we hope to get in a couple more country walks before we head back to the city.

Until then, let’s hear those miles!

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4 comments   4legged friends, monday miles, pictures photos and memories, walking challenges   , ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved

Walking Challenge: What Kind of Walk is Best For Your 4legged friend?

By katie, on May 10th, 2011%

Thanks for the great response again this week!

Besides a new high of 1083.5 we have a new personal high and amazing achievement by one of our members.

Marie, Dare and their gang set a goal of 365 miles for the year. I’m excited to announce that as of yesterday, only a little more than five months into the challenge, they met their goal!

Yup, that’s right! They have 365 miles for the year so far!

Let’s all be sure to give them a pat on the figurative blog back, and a huge round of blogoshphere applause!

Congratulations guys!

A Successful Walk
So what makes a successful walk for you and your 4legged friends?

One thing I’m hearing from the WC members is variety. Seeking out new places to walk, different routes and different times keeps things fresh.

But I know routine is one key to Marie’s success.

I’m finding both things to be a key to our glimmer of success, that and sunshine seems to really help.

I recruited the help of a friend of mine who has a Cattle dog mix named Hooley to walk with us once a week. That routine and commitment really gets me jump started with a good chunk of miles for the week. Each week we try to choose a new route so we keep the variety in there too.

But those are things that make the walks fun for me. What makes a walk fun for our dogs?

Debbie talked about this on Fearful Dogs’ Blog last week. If you haven’t read , “It’s Not Just the Walk” you should, it’s well worth it.

Debbie points out, “Walks for dogs are about exploring, tracking, hunting and playing. Exercising a dog on a treadmill or on leash with business-like efficiency, while they have their benefits, is like getting calories from fat by eating a chunk of lard rather than a bowl of ice cream slathered in hot fudge. The job gets done with the lard, but a lot is lacking from the experience.”

She makes a good point that could affect all of us in the Walking Challenge. While a concrete miles goal keeps us motivated lets remember our 4legged friends don’t measure success by miles.

Success to them is being with us, exploring, sniffing, and yes, even rolling in smelly goose poop (Magnus and Bert) or dead things (you culprits know who you are.)

While those things may not be high on our list of priorities lets remember Debbie’s wise words, “Dogs need exercise and when no other options are available I suppose any movement is better than no movement. . . I take my dogs out on walks because it’s what dogs like to do. It’s what I like to do with dogs.”

This week lets think in terms of what makes our Walking Challenge miles fun and rewarding for our 4legged friends. I would love to hear from you all what your favorite aspect of your walks and what your pups are enjoying the most.

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4 comments   4legged friends, monday miles, walking challenges   , ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved

This, That and Tiny Furry Sumo Wrestling

By katie, on April 29th, 2011%

It seems the only thing I write about anymore is the Walking Challenge. Which is exciting since today I finished my goal of 30 miles in a month for the first time! So click treat for us on that one, and we still have tomorrow, we might actually get caught up a bit.

We are doing other things around here. Today we took in Charley and Chloe for two weeks, so we are temporarily a four dog household. . . Whew! Four dogs, two of whom are adolescents, really keep you hopping!

Today it looked like it might stop leaking slush from the sky for a bit so I thought we should all go to the park, but of course by the time I had them all loaded into their crates in the car it was blizzarding slush from the sky.

So we drove to the park and I thought I would use the time to work on Chloe’s car fears. After c/t her for quiet and downs and other relaxed behaviors we drove around some more c/t’ing as we went. By that time I felt like it would be cruel to not let them out for a run and the slushing had let up a bit. Of course by the time I had them all out and leashed up it was back to blizzarding so we all got thoroughly soaked.

Can we please have sunshine now?

Magnus’ loves having Chloe here. It’s like a 24/7 little furry sumo wrestling match. Those two are so funny. I have video to put up, but am having technical difficulties so movie making is on hold. If you remember this WW, it pretty much sums it up though.

I am so excited for tomorrow, Maizey starts her Clicks and Tricks class. I’m not even sure what we will be learning, but I know it will be a combo of shaping and luring and. . . tricks, of course!

I decided not announce exactly what the prizes for the Walking Challenge giveaway will be until closer to the giveaway, but I will tell you the prize packages have themes and I think they are all cute as can be! Some of you have already completed posts about the Challenge and I will be posting links on Monday with the “Monday Miles” post.

So other than the new car, the fabulous gift we got from Reilly (great big thanks and a post is in the making), the new washer and dryer (it actually has a cycle for pet beds, could it be anymore perfect for me?), the fact that we might be moving, and about 26,000 other random things I haven’t posted about you are all caught up now! Okay, not quite, but at least I fit in the important things-the dogs!

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3 comments   4legged friends, classes, clicks n tricks, day to day doings, walking challenges   , , , , , , ,   Copyright © 2011 Lessons From and For 4 Legs - All Rights Reserved
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