Yoga at your own risk

On weeknights it can be so difficult to find time to go to the gym. I usually rush out of work and head home right away, to where the dogs are usually pretending they've had an even rougher day than me. I hate leaving them to go work out after I've already been gone all day, but I also need to do something after sitting in front of a computer all day. So to tackle this dilemma, my sister and I decided to try out a home yoga dvd. Yoga is all about relaxation and meditation. We knew in order to get any quiet time, we've have wear the dogs out first. After work, we took the Newfies and her Rottweiler for a swim in our pool to get some energy out. We always throw the ball all the way across the pool and make Thatcher and Blaise take turns bringing it back. Blaise used to be able to keep going much longer than Thatcher, but Thatch has been getting back in shape with this new form of exercise. He's been bouncier, happier and has much more endurance. We've been counting how many times they each go after the ball, and tend to lose track around 25. Boden will fetch a couple of times in the shallow end, but doesn't enjoy swimming far distances. Instead, he prefers to sit on the pool ledge and watch the other two. So after they finally got tuckered out of swimming, we went inside to set up for our yoga time.

Because Boden's front leg is still bothering him and he's gimping around, we allowed him to stay in the room with us while we did yoga. We can't leave him and Blaise alone unsupervised because their wrestling gets pretty wild, and I don't want Boden's leg getting worse. We gave Blaise and Thatcher bones and blocked them out of the room with a baby gate. With all the dogs seemingly settled down, we started the dvd and tried to get into the zone. We got about two minutes in, when Blaise started whining outside the door. We told her to hush and pressed on with our "relaxing" flow. She then proceeded to cry for the entire 40 minutes. Nothing would stop her. Every 30 seconds or so, we would just hear this sad, pathetic crying. And that's just what was happening outside the room. Mr. Boden thought my yoga mat was placed on the floor for specifically for him. He kept rolling around happily, right under my legs, forcing me to awkwardly stretch around him and fight for my balance. At times he would playfully bite my hands or ankles, assuming that I was on the floor just to entertain him. So I can't quite say our yoga practice was a success, but at least we have plenty of room for improvement. Making through five minutes without having to scold a dog would be a good start. Until next time.