Did it again. A marathon of living in my motorhome for 18 days with my dogs as we participated in three weekends of dog shows in Ocala, Florida. My Toy Fox Terriers and Toy Manchester Terriers transitioned from living in a house and playing in a big yard to confinement in an RV and exercise pens. Being in the motorhome for extended periods means more crate time and less zoomies—less exercising their minds and bodies. By necessity, I covered the sides of their ex-pens so that they wouldn’t bark at dogs similarly in pens near us and people walking by. Doing so exacerbated the boredom of only looking at each other and me.
But still, confinement for two and a half weeks is hard. Just bouncing in an ex-pen wasn’t sufficient to burn off terrier energy. Yes, my dogs are Toys, but in their minds they are big dogs, willing to chase and kill large game and always ready to run, rumble, and tumble. Exercising Toy dogs when I’m traveling with just one or two dogs and staying in a hotel is easy. We walk around the hotel parking lot, play with toys, roll a ball across the room to play fetch, and relax in the room together. But when I travel in the RV, I usually have all of my dogs with me and that means we’re a bit more crowded.
Thankfully, the Ocala show grounds are on 40 acres, so I decided to walk four of my dogs at a time. A trip completely around the grounds, according to a website where you can plan runs, is nearly a mile. Sufficient, I thought, to stretch their legs and tire them out a little bit. I’m thinking good exercise for me too, since it’s important that I fit in my show clothes for the upcoming shows in Orlando. I had brand new collars and leads so that my dogs can all match and be stylish as we went on our fitness excursions.
What I didn’t take into consideration was that the younger dogs didn’t understand the concept of walking as a pack. I also didn’t count on my new leads being flimsier than my previous ones. So, we walked and were a bit of a spectacle. The experienced dogs walked ahead of me or next to me on my left side—politely keeping their distance to avoid being tripped over or stepped on. The ones newer to this form of exercise? They crossed in front of me, circled me with the leash, lunged at dogs in ex-pens as we strolled by, tried to walk on the wrong side, and over and over caused their leashes to become hopelessly tangled. With my previous leashes, a bit better material, this wasn’t a big issue and they were easy to untangle. But the new leashes of thinner, cheaper build developed knots. About every hundred yards or so I had to stop, and holding all four leashes in one hand in a manner that wouldn’t let any of the dogs loose, use my other hand to unknot and detangle the leashes. And of course, when we walked by fence posts and trees, the boys would suddenly stop to leave their mark—each one trying to urinate where the other dogs had gone in a “do…loop” of leg lifting. We were also surprised by a few sudden stops when one or another would decide they had to poop—three dogs barging ahead and one suddenly stopped. I then had to grab a bag out of my pocket, transferring all the dogs to my left hand so that I could free my right hand to pick it up. Kudos to the Ocala club for having waste receptacles stationed all over the grounds—made disposing of the poop bags an easy task despite four dogs pulling me.
One of the most pleasant aspects of the show grounds is the tree-covered parking area in the back. You know who else likes trees? Squirrels. You know who likes to chase squirrels? My dogs. My son calls my dogs “murder muppets” because of their delight in dispatching rodents, from rats to rabbits to squirrels. Of course, as we began to walk under the trees, the little urchins spied the squirrels and the leaping, tugging, and frantic lunging to get to the prey began. Thankfully, the squirrels were quick to sprint up the trees and disappear from sight… until we walked a little farther and spied another squirrel. And another squirrel. The show ground had a lot
of squirrels.
As we came around the back fence of the Obedience and Agility area, I spotted a red shouldered hawk sitting on the top rail. He watched us approach, without fear, and my dogs didn’t notice him till he took wing when we finally came too close for his comfort. After leaving the trees, we then skirted the edge of the day parking area where my dogs saw large dogs playing in the lovely fenced exercise area the show grounds has for folks staying on the grounds. I worked to keep my dogs focused on walking forward when what they really wanted to do was go chase the Doberman Pinschers and Golden Retrievers that were running and playing. As we walked, Clayton and Ricky decided that they’d rather slow and stop to sniff; however, Astro and Rosie were still surging ahead. I stopped and untangled the leashes—for whatever number time I’d done it—only for them to immediately weave in and out around each other to tangle the leashes again.
Once we crossed the driveway and walked back into the RV area, we attracted notice from dogs in ex-pens who barked and jumped which, of course, resulted in mine forgetting their leash manners and trying to get to the big dogs to show them who’s the bigger, badder dogs. As we walked around the outskirts of the camping area, we were greeted by folks we knew and folks we didn’t know, as everyone was outside watching their dogs and visiting with their friends.
Upon our return to the motorhome, the dogs filled themselves up at the water bowl and I returned them to their crates because, while those four were done, I had to do it again with the next four. The primary difference with the next group was that while Sparkles at 11-1/2 years was willing to walk forever, her daughter Precious (the darling of my husband’s eye and just a little spoiled) got three-quarters of the way and stopped, and refused to walk farther. So, I carried a dog while walking three.
As I walked, I saw handlers go by with golf carts and bicycles, exercising their dogs at brisk trots, and I thought to myself that that seems easier. But mine are too small and would likely be run over as I drove or rode. Admittedly, I too need the exercise, so I made it my daily routine to walk around the grounds to exercise the dogs—and to entertain folks as they watched us get tangled, chase squirrels, and try to control four independent-minded Toy terriers on each trip.
It could be called mayhem. Some watching us might call it crazy. I called it a good exercise for patience with a side benefit of fitness. Thank goodness it didn’t rain.
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