Early Morning Walk

Ok, not exactly early. Coz I set my alarm for 5.55 am, hoping to bring 1 down at 6 am. But I slept at 1 am & so snoozed my alarm a couple of times. I finally got out of bed at 6.20 am, made myself a cup of herbal tea & brought Ton Ton down at 6.40 am. We walked round the park 3 times. On the 3rd round, both of us were visibly tired.

Ton Ton has this habit of lying down on the ground when he gets lazy or tired (I don't know which is which). He started lying down once on the 1st & 2nd round each but I pulled him along, forcing him to walk with me. On the 3rd round, he attempted to lie down a few more times. Even my thighs were tingling from the extra blood circulation & my legs felt like lead. I could hardly walk anymore. I conclude that we both need to build up stamina coz I wasn't even jogging. I was just brisk walking. Well, at least on the 1st 1 & a half round. After which, I slowed to a faster than average walk. :P

Climbed the stairs with Ton Ton for 5 storeys then took the lift from the 5th floor. He was like dragging himself up so I knew he was really tired. Went back home, exchange Ton Ton for Puggy & off we went. Puggy has much more energy than Ton Ton & his stamina is obviously much better. I realised I made a mistake in bringing Ton Ton 1st coz I should start out fast for Puggy & slow for Ton Ton. After bringing Ton Ton, I was tired & couldn't keep up the pace anymore. Still, I pushed on & wondered if I should do 5 rounds for Puggy. But by the 3rd round, I was nauseous & kinda giddy so I went back home. (Ooooh, I suck! I used to jog you see. So everytime I started a jogging regime, I'll get giddy & nauseous. I think it's becoz the body can't get used to the sudden increase in activity stress. It does get significantly better & disappear after a week or so after starting the jogging regime. So looks like I gotta bear with it for a while more.)

As with Puggy, I climbed 5 storeys with him. This time, we took the lift to the 6th floor & climbed the rest up. Initially, Puggy was dashing up the stairs so I knew he wasn't too tired out by the 3 rounds of walk. But he slowed & started to drag himself up like Ton Ton after 2 floors. Hahahaha! The difference between them is, Ton Ton is flat on the floor beside me now while Puggy is jumping around in his enclosure in the kitchen! I don't think I can afford to bring both on work days & I definitely won't be able to bring them at all if I'm doing OT or on call. *Off topic: Speaking of which, I was on call on Fri & thankfully, the on call phone stayed silent.*

So my plan for them is to bring only 1 each day for walk in the park after work. I'll alternate the 2 of them for weekdays. So the fatter 1 will get 3 days & the slimmer 1 will get 2 days. Then on weekend, I'll bring both. This way, 1 will get 5 days & the other 4 days of walk in a week. Of course, that's just in theory. Coz I haven't factor in the days I need to do OT. So what brought about this change?

I was bored & surfing the channels for something to watch & saw that there's this interesting show on Animal Planet. The same episode was showing at 7 pm & 12 mn. As I was out for dinner with my parents & Jeff, I caught the 12 mn slot. The show is called Downsize My Pet. A pretty obvious title isn't it? This episode is about an overweight Dalmatian & the owners signed up to help him lose weight.

According to the vet, a Dalmatian should weigh around 25 kg but Jack was 45 kg & 50% of his weight was fats. He earned the name of Toxic Jack coz when he farts, everyone just about fainted. The vet was called in to review & change the diet. So, here's Jack's daily diet. For morning, he'll get a bowl of doggy biscuits, a bowl of doggy luncheon meat for lunch, table scraps for dinner & human chocolate biscuits & sweets for supper. The vet converted it into human amounts for them to see how much they're feeding Jack in human terms. The amount Jack was eating is equivalent to a human eating a steak with potatoes & a bowl of cereal for breakfast, 2 kg of luncheon meat for lunch, big portion of scraps for dinner & lots of chocolate biscuits & sweets for supper. Jack's blood tests showed that his cholesterol was 11.6 when a healthy dog his size is between 6 to 7. His triglycerides was 4 when the normal range should be well below 2. He was at high risk for diabetes, heart, liver, kidney & joint problems.

She made the dad eat the human equivalent amount to feel how Jack feels when he was being fed that much. The dad found it very difficult to even consume the bowl of cereal for breakfast after the steak. By lunch, he could barely choke down the 2 kg luncheon meat & he gave up after 1 kg. He managed to finish the dinner of scraps & he took some of the snacks. He said he felt really terrible & kept burping & farting the entire day & now he's toxic dad. LoL.

The vet asked the daughters to feed Jack low fat, high fibre kibbles specially to lose weight. He was given 1 scoop for breakfast, 1/2 scoop for lunch & dinner. They brought in a dog trainer to start some exercise for him too. Jack lost 4+ kg after 2 weeks. He started having back aches becoz the extra weight he had been carrying round his tummy was straining his back. So he was not to jump on & off furnitures & not allowed to climb stairs as these activities put further stress on his spine. On the 4th week, he lost almost another 2 kg. At the end of 6 weeks, he weighed 36+ kg, & a total weight loss of 8 kg! His cholesterol was 7.6 & his triglycerides was 0.6! Wow! Huge difference!

I've noticed that the dogs are putting on a bit of weight & their ribs are covered with a layer of fats. They also lost their concave waist. They're not spotting potted bellies yet but I've always prefer them to have a nice waistline. I guess instead of cutting down on their food which is all that they live for, I'll increase their activities so they can still enjoy good food & yet another thing to look forward to each day. Hehe. I'll benefit from it too! :P