Tired Jack

Jack's dalmation coat. Pic taken in Wanship early 2008 ona walk.

Within the last couple of months, while we were on a walk, I noticed these lines in Jack's fur. His harness makes his fur sit funny sometimes and you can just smooth them out. So I reached down to smooth the lines out. What I felt surprised me...ribs! I haven't felt Jack's ribs since shortly after I found him (before he finally ate enough to fill out again). Don't worry guys, you're supposed to be able to feel their ribs, If you can't, they're overweight. You can feel all my dogs' ribs now. Jack was always the only one that had some extra meat on him. I'm guessing it's all the running we do on our walks these days (since Boise). Now why can't I lose weight from running?

On our walks alone, just Jack and me, he wants to run just a little which is huge for him. He always refused it before. He would sit down and refuse to move another inch. I would have to pick him up or coax him onward at a slower pace. He still does it at times but not because he's tired, because he wants to go in a different direction than I'm leading them. In fact, Jack is in better shape than me these days. He continues to run past the point when I am gasping for breath. It used to be that I could take him for a walk and never have to even think about walking fast. Those days are gone.

On Wednesday night, I took all the dogs out. I was going to do a regular length walk then take Jack back home and let the other dogs do some more running. But we meandered onto the golf course (after hours) and it was much bigger than I realized. We came out at the library which means that this was longer than our usual walk. So much for taking Jack home then going back out with the dogs.

Not only was our walk 30 minutes longer than usual, there was also a lot more running than usual. I was proud of Jack. He really kept up well and didn't complain once.

But last night when I got home, all the dogs got excited except Jack. He's usually right in the throng barking and getting all excited to get out on our walk. He layed calmly on the couch while I hooked up their harnesses. I put one on Jack in case he wanted to come but it wasn't looking like that would be the case. I put the key in the lock and he decided he wanted to come anyway. So he rushed over to the door. I know how he felt though. I was tired and sore from all that running too and not exactly looking forward to it but I need to do it for the dogs. We only went out for 45 minutes instead of the usual hour.

Today it's raining and VERY cold and windy so we won't be walking tonight anyway. Jack and I will enjoy the break but the other dogs will be begging to go out.