Our girl, Moxie, has just turned 2 years old and she's matured very nicely. Physically smile. She's still a little pooky when it comes to new experiences but she's getting much better and with that in mind, we discussed completing her AKC Conformation Championship with our best friend and handler, Kimm McDowell. Kimm was here for the Eukanuba Championship (she lives in Michigan) and had a chance to both work with Moxie and show her and she feels that Moxie would have an excellent chance to finish in the mid-West. So, reluctantly, we are planning to send Moxie with Kimm at the end of February.

I say "reluctantly" because we hate to have our dogs away from us. On the other hand, we've stayed with Kimm, know how the dogs are treated, and realize that getting away from us might be the best thing for the maturation of Moxie. However, Kimm's caveat was that Moxie had to be in better condition. Easy to say but not so easy to do.

Moxie is a very athletic 90 lbs. She can run like the wind and she can run all day. I'm a very un-athletic 64-year-old guy with bad knees. I can't run at all smile. I can bike. Moxie is afraid of the bike. With all that said, this week we embarked (pun intended) on Moxie's conditioning program. On Tuesday, she and I trotted for over 2 miles. She found it refreshing. I found it exhausting. Yesterday, with my knees aching and my back in spasm, I decided to bring in my conditioning assistant -- Sundance. Sundance adores Moxie and they play in the yard constantly. Usually with Moxie hanging off of Sundance's cheeks. Yesterday, I employed a soft frisbee into the mix and here's how it went.

As usual when I toss the frisbee, Sundance is the one who gets to it first and he's the one who tries to bring it back to me.



But whatever Sundance has, Moxie wants. And the tug-of-war begins.



Sundance always lets his girlfriend win and it's off to the races.



Moxie is very fast and Sundance is 130 lbs. So she flies and he chugs along after her.



But eventually, she stops and he snatches the frisbee away.



And the game starts again!



After 30 minutes of this type of activity, both dogs were ready to call it quits. As was the soft frisbee which was given a decent burial. Moxie got more pure exercise in this half-hour workout than I could possibly have given her in an hour. Plus, it was fun for both dogs. Not to mention the photographer smile. After these guys finished their session, I took out the puppy, Scampy, and played ball with him for about 20 minutes and then spent another 20 minutes practicing stacking for his show debut in early March. So stay tuned for Moxie's excellent adventure to the Heartland.

Jim


Jim Garvie
www.jagphoto.biz