My new exercise partner

Krissy and Bruno took the kids to Disney World, and Darcy and I offered to dog sit. I thought it would be fun to have a dog to walk/run with, and I also thought it would be good practice for Darcy to have to take care of a dog since she's wanted one forever. The second part of that plan seems to be backfiring, since Lexi likes to sleep in just as much as Darcy! She also likes to relax on the couch and watch the Dog Whisperer...like Darcy... I think they have found quite a friendship together. LOL

Last night, I took Lexi for a short walk because I wasn't sure how she'd do. As you can see, she's a pug and they have trouble breathing, in addition to their very short legs and potential to overheat. It was cool out today (but not freezing), so I decided to take her for a 30 minute walk. I watched her and let her set the pace. Sometimes we walked, sometimes we meandered, and sometimes we jogged. She moved at a pretty good clip for most of it, and when we got home, she wasn't panting, and she didn't run right to her water bowl, so I'm sure she was fine.

I'd like to go for a longer walk with her, but we'll see. I did some research online, and it said that if a pug doesn't want to walk, she won't. She'll just sit down in the road if she's tired. I've also read that it seems 45 minutes is about the longest a pug can walk. I don't want to exhaust the poor thing, so I'll probably keep the walks to 20-30 minutes so that she's getting the exercise she needs but I'm not wearing her out. When we got back home, we played with a towel for a while, and she chased her tail in circles for a bit, and now she is curled up on the couch next to Darcy.

I've often read that dog owners lead healthier, happier lives, and so even though I'm not a dog person, I've thought about getting a dog. I don't like the idea of being chained down to a dog, but I love the idea of having a dog to walk with, run with, swim with, play frisbee with, etc... All that stuff is fun to me. Since Darcy wants a dog sooo desperately, I'm warming up to the idea, but this little experiment with Lexi has reminded us of one problem: we are both allergic. We kind of forgot about that...

There are some breeds that are less likely to cause pet allergies, but they aren't really the breeds that I can play with the way I want to, and they aren't the breeds that Darcy really likes for other reasons, so we're at a bit of a stand still with this discussion.

Either way, I'm going to have fun playing with my new toy this week!