30/30 Challenge Wrap-Up + My Budding Basketball Career

During the month of January, Mom and I participated in the 30/30 Challenge created by my Adventureweiner friends at YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner.com.  The goal of the challenge was to walk 30 minutes per day for 30 days.  We had planned to do weekly updates on our progress, which we did the first couple of weeks, but we decided that actually doing the walking was more important than providing the updates.

Well, we must confess, we did not walk 30 days consecutively.  Mom got sick and the weather was super nasty, and while she normally doesn't mind nasty weather, she thought it best not to walk when it was 25 degrees outside and she had a serious cough.  So she missed five days of walking in January.  (Luckily I have a dog-walker who comes mid-day and an awesome friend named Tim who takes me out for a hike every Wednesday, so I only missed my second walk of the day those days.)

But even though mom missed a lot of days, at the end of January, she looked at her total monthly mileage and time in MapMyFitness, and she averaged well over 30 minutes per day.  Her total mileage for January was 96.94 miles and total time for January was a little over 30 hours!  So we're calling our participation in the 30/30 Challenge a success even though we didn't walk every day out of the 30.

Mom's goal for February was to beat January's mileage -- with fewer days in the month.  And she did!  Her total mileage for February was 97.32 miles!  Her goal for March is to break 100 miles.

Meanwhile, I've learned that it's important to do lots of different kinds of exercise, so in addition to walking every day, I'm learning to play basketball!  Mom and Dad have made a couple videos of me playing basketball.  You can watch the latest one by clicking on the link below.

Watch me play Basketball

I haven't been blogging as much lately, but you can always follow me on Twitter (@garth2007) and Instagram (garthriley), and/or friend me on Facebook (Garth Riley).  I've been posting more on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook because it doesn't take as much time as writing a blog post.  I'm also on Pinterest as Garth Riley, but we're still trying to figure Pinterest out.

My Latest Trick, Today's Hike, and 30/30 Challenge Update

Mom and I are taking an advanced tricks class at All Dog Adventures.  This is my latest trick: 

Garth opening frig

The next part of the trick is getting a beer out of the frig, taking it to daddy, then closing the frig door.  That part of the trick is more difficult, because once I have the beer can in my mouth, I want to run around with it and play with it.  Do you know beer cans roll really well?  They're really lots of fun.  But for some reason, the humans don't like it when I play with their beer.

It's time for our weekly 30/30 Challenge Update.  Mom and I have been doing really well, but we missed a day yesterday because mom said it was just too nasty.  (And if it's too nasty for mom, that means it's REALLY nasty.)  But we've only missed one day so far this month, and we think that's great.  And we've walked more than 30 minutes most other days, so we're still way ahead.

Today's 30+ minutes was very muddy and very fun!

Come on mom! Whatcha waiting for?

Note muddy undercarriage

The river was very high from all the rain & melting snow

Muddy and proud of it

The river was over the steps of the canoe launch

Sticks were plentiful

And the water felt great!

30/30 Challenge Update

My Newest Trick: Petit Larceny

My next training goal is earning my Expert Trick Dog Title, so I've been learning some expert-level tricks.  One of my new tricks is called "pick-pocket pooch" in the book 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance, but my mom calls it the petit larceny trick.  (In Virginia, petit larceny is "larceny from the person of another of money or other thing of value of less than $5."  Mom says her bandana is worth way less than $5.  She also knows that she better not teach me the grand larceny trick.)

When mom is not looking, I run up and snatch her bandana from her back pocket.
(The cue for this trick is mom looking away from me.)

Sometimes I have to yank it pretty hard.

Got it!  (I suppose I shouldn't allow myself to be photographed with the evidence of my crime.)

Woof Wag Walk - what defines a successful event?

My friend Hero

In early March, our local Dog Scout Troop, Troop #194, went to Hanover County's Woof Wag Walk.

We did two tricks demonstrations and had a booth selling home made dog and people treats to raise money for SEVA GRREAT, Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training.  SEVA GRREAT is a wonderful local organization that rescued some of my best friends and found them very happy forever homes. You can learn more about them (and make a donation!) on their website at: SEVA GRREAT.

Mom had lots to do because she had organized the tricks demonstration and was also kind of in charge of the booth selling treats.  (She often tries to do way more than she can gracefully handle.)  The day before the event, mom made a list of everything she needed for the Dog Scout booth and the tricks demo (tent, tables, chairs, trick props, treats, signs, etc.)  She even chopped up a bunch of extra special treats for me for the tricks demo.  (I get extra special treats like chicken and hot dog pieces when performing in front of groups of people because there are so many additional distractions.)

My extra special treats

Dad helped load the cars (I call him my roadie) and mom managed to fit everything into the two cars.  

My roadie goofing off

My roadie loading up the equipment

Supervising while they load the cars

We even got there with plenty of time to set up.  Mom learned from last year's Mardi Paws event that it's really hard to decorate a tent on a cold, windy March day, so she skipped the decorations this year and only put up signs.  (Besides, she is no longer allowed to use the step ladder.)

Dog Scout Troop #194's booth, staffed by Hero's dad, the best cookie salesman ever

So everything was going relatively smoothly (no falls from the step ladder or decorations blowing away) until mom realized that she had forgotten the most crucial item: my special treats!  Sure, we had treats for sale, but when I'm performing tricks for a crowd, not just any treat will do.  Luckily mom had packed chicken sandwiches for her and dad, so she simply disassembled dad's sandwich so I could have chicken treats.

My girlfriend Willow, and my best buds Hero, Gauis, Zen, and Wyatt were all there for our tricks demo.  Hero is kind of new to tricks and very new to performing in front of people, but he was FANTASTIC!  He's only a little over a year old, and mom says he's the best behaved one-year-old lab ever -- and also the sweetest.  Willow was her usual fabulous self, and Gauis, as usual, stole the show with his cuteness and very difficult tricks.  Zen and Wyatt were also very impressive and very, very cute.

Willow climbing out of the suitcase, after doing the suitcase trick

Gauis doing the penguin

Wyatt shaking paws

Gauis scratching his mommy's back

Me doing crawl

Willow playing the drum

Me doing roll over

Zen getting some post-trick loving

As for me, well -- I was pretty distracted by all of the yummy smells in the nice, grassy field where we were performing tricks.  I did my tricks, but dad said it wasn't one of my best performances.  But then he said that the people in the audience were all smiling and clearly enjoying the show.

Mom thinks that making people smile is one of the nicest things you can do.  And we made people smile.  So that means it was a successful event.

We also raised $175 for SEVA GRREAT by selling our homemade dog cookies.  So I guess that means it was super-successful!