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**I apologize in advance. I couldn’t stop the Mama from making ball jokes. Oh so many ball jokes. I’m embarrassed for her.
Woo hoo! Welcome to the second K9 Kamp Get Fit wth Fido Challenge! It’s play With Your Balls Week!
Or if you prefer – Balls to the Wall Week. This week at K9 Kamp it’s all about the balls! Tennis balls! Racquetballs! Exercise balls! Soccer Balls! Those awesome blue balls! (Get you mind out of the gutter. Yeesh. I was talking about a Dodgeball.)
We be ballin’ at Casa de Kolchak.
No really, we play ball all the time! It’s a great way to sneak in a little exercise while having a great time. All that running around after a ball is a fabulous cardio workout. Cardio is great for you and your dog, not only does it burn off some of those extra calories, but it also strengthens your heart, increases your lung capacity and helps reduce the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. (Bonus cool points if you know what sentence comes next.) They say that get the most out of your cardio, you should do it for at least 15 – 20 minutes, three to four times a week, so that’s your challenge this week!
Grab your balls and let’s get sweaty!
Here are some fun ways you can enjoy playing ball with your dogs this week:
- Fetch it Yourself! One of our original K9 Kamp challenges, Fetch it Yourself is one of our favourite games at Casa de Kolchak. In a safe, off leash area (or with your dog on a very long leash) throw a ball for your dog. Instead of waiting for them to bring to back, you’re going to chase after them, racing to the ball. Retrieve the ball from your dog (who I am sure beat you there) and repeat. (If your dog isn’t a fan of fetch, consider playing Catch Me If You Can Instead)
- Tone & Toss Chase your dog around the yard to get your heart rate up. Once you are good and warmed up, throw the ball for your dog. While you wait for them to retrieve it, do lunges, squats, jumping jacks, mountain climbers or burpees.
- Keep Away Grab a soccer ball, kick ball or dodge ball. Kick the ball around the yard, running and encouraging your dog to run with you. Make a game of seeing f you can get the ball past your dog n a “goal”. (We bounce it off the fence). As a fun and totally silly game, this is totally awesome with an exercise ball! Make sure you’re running around with your dog, not doubled over in laughter though! Alternate picking up the exercise ball and throwing it with kicking it to get a great all over workout.
- Play Belly Ball. Have you ever heard of this? Belly ball is a game that combines basketball, soccer and rugby. The object s for the human to core a point by trying to get the ball to go under and through their dog’s belly. See it in action here. It looks like so much fun.
What kind of game gets your balls bouncing? We hope you’ll tell us all about the fun games that you play with your balls!
Join us next Thursday as we host the K9 Kamp Blog Hop! We want to hear all about how you and your dog went balls to the wall: what you did, how it went and anything you learned. Plus, we put the “wag” in Swag at K9 Kamp! You could win great prizes for completing the K9 Kamp challenges!