Jake the Triathlete

What a busy day Jake had on Tuesday! Jake's daddy is training Jake to ride with him while he bikes. It's a slow process so that Jake gets used to the running on asphalt without burning his little pads and my hubby gets used to Jake's body language. From the reports, Jake runs faster than hubby can peddle and might make a good sled dog instead. After a 15-minute bike practice, Jake went back to his favorite summer pastime of retrieving his water dummy from the still-cold Saluda River. Jake came home tired but we weren't done wearing him out yet!

Friends of ours got some mixed puppies (we're guessing German Shepherd/Lab mix) while on their honeymoon and needed to wear their tiny butts out. Jake was the perfect candidate for this job. Brigham and Tully were wobbling around the living room, chasing Jake's tail and trying to lick all the river water off Jake's coat. Jake would dive between the two puppies and roll upside down. They would pounce on him and begin licking the wet fur. Jake would spring up and whirl around and start all over. A brief potty break outside induced a serious case of the zoomies in Jake and the poor puppies were run over in his wake. Brigham was smart enough to hide between my feet. Jake was tired and the puppies were unconscious.

But wait! Jake's not done yet. On to his agility class where everyone noticed how much mellower Jake seemed to be. The teeter totter is still scary for Jake so it took a little coaxing and pampering to get him to cross it. Jake's giving me more focus these days but still loves to cheat on the jumps. We're introducing two jumps with two additional jumps going to the right and left. They are learning to follow us with other obstacles being around. Jake takes the first two jumps and runs straight for the treat. Why go the long way when you can run straight to the cheese? And then it was traveling plank time. Jake's daddy made him a super duper deluxe version with his logo and a carrying handle. It elicited oohs and aahs from the class. Jake is so distracted in class by everything and wasn't giving me his attention so I could show how improved he is at home. We headed for the A-frame to put into practice what we're learning on the plank. Jake almost didn't get the chance to try because of his earlier failures but he did his momma proud and nailed the contact every time. He's always loved the A-frame. A video camera was present for all of class this time and all of our embarrassing handler moments are now live and in color!