Spring pole - ish.

Today I constructed something similar to a spring pole. I want my dad to build me a permanent one in the yard but in the mean time this works awesomely. Pretty much I tied a rope to a rope toy and threw it over a tree branch. I control how high it is and how much give it has... the branch has some spring to it also. Sepp had a BLAST! It was also a great arm workout for me! We did two 15min sessions and he was pretty tired after each one.

The spring pole, although it looks scary is really good exercise. It's crazy to see the power that Sepp has in his jaw, but he's just playing tug.

I let him jump for it and then slowly give so all four feet are on the ground and he can safely pull back on it. I've heard that allowing them to hang [grabbing the toy while suspended] can be dangerous and allow for injury. I think different people have different opinions in terms of what is dangerous. I did let him jump and bite the toy twice and it was high enough that his feet were a few inches from the ground but I didn't keep him up there for long.

Some people consider the spring pole to be related to dog fighting. Honestly, it's just another great way to tire your dog out. If you don't have a high energy, high drive dog, you have no idea how hard it is to make them tired. It's especially hard if you aren't an athlete who runs 20miles a day and can drag your dog along. I'm lucky if I make it a mile going 4mph and that is NOT enough to tire my dog out. I do bike with them when it's nice out and there's always the treadmill - this is just another fun way to play with them.

I have not tried this game with Seth or LiLo. I imagine LiLo would be interested, but I'm not too sure about Seth.



Here are some pictures of Sepp from today: