Taking Nadi (my dog) to the gym!

My dog wants to go with me everywhere. It doesn't matter where it is. It may have something to do with the size of my apartment as it is quite small and there is nothing for her to do other than lie down and sleep. Of course being a small breed she doesn't really have a problem with me but she does try to make me feel guilty whenever I leave the house without her. She knows the tell-tale signs that I am about to go. Maybe I put on a new shirt, maybe I put my wallet and my phone in my pockets but whatever it is, she has learned that these things generally mean that I am about to open the door and go outside and she gets into the "ready" position to look at me with those big eyes of hers and more often than not, this guilt trip works and I end up taking her with me.

Thankfully I live in a city that is very welcoming of pets for the most part and no matter where you go you will see people there with their dogs. It is quite common with expats as well as the local population. On our Thursday bowling after-parties, 3 different sets of people bring their dogs with them and unfortunately one of those people is not me because Nadi gets easily annoyed with other dogs especially if they are young and wont leave her alone.

There is a gym on the top floor of my building that I recently started using on a regular basis and even though I skip a lot of the tell-tale signs, Nadi still knows that I am going somewhere and she wants to come with me.

Once we get up there, I wouldn't say that she does a whole lot. She mostly just looks at me and follow me from machine to machine and I bring one of her toys up there with us so she can chase it and get a little exercise of her own. Thankfully, after years of training (sort of) she always brings the toy back. She'll do this almost endlessly until she runs out of juice.

This is when she normally just lies down next to the retrieved toy and enjoys the very powerful fan that they have in this gym room. I think that our apartment is a lot more comfortable because we have air conditioning as well as a total of 5 dog beds that she can choose from. Oh well! She doesn't really seem to mind being on the ground, I think she just wants to be with me as much as she can and it makes me feel good as well.

The quest for the most comfortable place to lie down seems to be a never-ending one and lately she has taken to lying on the treadmill to catch some much-needed rest. While we are up there she will chase her rope toy maybe 15 times across the room, which doesn't seem like much but it is worth mentioning that if drawn to scale, this would be like you or me doing 30 sprints across a basketball court - while holding a rope in our mouths.

The thing that I love about Nadi and most other dogs is that she is just so excited to do ANYTHING. Even though we do essentially the same thing in the gym that we would do in our apartment, she just loves going up there and the funny thing is that when it is time to leave the gym to go back to the apartment, she has the same level of enthusiasm to return to exactly where we just were.

I think we can learn a lot from a dog - they just live in the moment and are happy about almost anything other than baths and going to the vet. Me on the other hand, I am almost perpetually and permanently unimpressed and uninterested in doing almost anything other than go bowling. I envy the dog to be honest.