Contrast

I just came back from a short stint in Bali for my brothers' wedding. It was very different to any other place that I have been before. Hot, humid, loud, vibrant, cheap! 

As I do on my holidays, I always keep an eye out for animals and take any opportunity to visit places with animals I haven't seen before. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time there (I was only there for a few days), and the monkey's any other animals I hadn't seen before were too far to travel too. 

What I did see was a few tied up cow's, cats and dogs, and some squirrels. Of these, the squirrels were the healthiest looking. 

The dogs and cats were mostly wandering. Some had collars, most didn't. All looked mangy - they all had dreadlocks or lots of patches of fur missing.  The one exception was a Husky being walked early one morning by an Australian who lived in Bali. 

Whilst the wandering dogs looked to be a reasonable weight, it was also apparent that many had mobility issues.  Many had obvious lameness, lots not so obvious lameness.  At the wedding, the dinner after was on the beach edge. Three stray dogs were curled up in balls in the sand on the beach, as a sleeping spot at the end of the night.  

For me, it showed the contrast in the care that our New Zealand dogs have. It is very usual to see a dog looking particularly mangy and uncared for, wandering, or obviously lame (and not being treated for this).  We don't have as many parasites and our climate isn't as favorable in relation to the manifestation of skin conditions.  

Looking ahead

Today in my Facebook memories one came up showing some of my early DIY fitness equipment work from two years ago. 

Yesterday I was lucky enough to present at the national APDTNZ conference. It was a real honor to be asked, and to be presenting with two very well known international trainers Nando Brown and Jo Rosie Haffenden of the School of Canine Science. 

While I present daily to my students at school, and have run quite a few workshops now, this was quite a different audience to what I'm used too! I was a little nervous, and as I tend to do, completely over prepared... I figure it's better to have too much to talk about than not enough! 

It was also a new type of audience for me. This is a group of pet dog trainers including obedience, vets, puppy preschool and daycare providers. Not the agility based audience that it more normal for me. 

My three guys were demo dogs in my first presentation, where I talked about reasons why people should be more aware of fitness, and how people could incorporate this into their daily lives with their dogs. Then my three demonstrated some fitness skills. All three dogs were amazing, but people seemed pretty impressed with wee Deo! 

I then worked with three pet dogs, where we did assessments of potential weak areas and structure and started training some base fitness skills. 

I got lots of questions and positive feedback after the presentation, so I've very happy that people gained some knowledge and are excited to learn more about canine fitness. 

In New Zealand we are in the somewhat unlucky position of being relatively small, and really far away from the US and Europe. This means that we are very limited in the availability of courses, and professionals. We have very few qualified animal physios, chiropractors, hydrotherapists, and rehabilitation experts. There are very few qualification available completely online, and it costs lots of money to get professionals to New Zealand to present, or help train. 

 So where to from here? I'm counting down the days till I travel back to the US to complete the hands-on section required for my CCFT and FitPaws master trainer qualifications. I'm sure after that I'll find something else to spend my time and money on.... just haven't quite decided what yet (though I do have a few ideas)!!