I've been writing a lot about addressing behaviors and associations that will support the success of our trip, but if we're going to hike 15 or so miles a day for a few days and carrying a good percentage of our body weight, we're going to have to work up to it. 

I'm no stranger to endurance efforts, having a background in triathlon, marathons, and ultra distance, topping off at 50 miles. 

The triple secrets of being able to complete any kind of endurance event are:
1. Taking the time to prepare your body through gradual increases of duration and intensity with periodic breaks in throughout.
2. Proper mental attitude, meaning both the confidence that you will be successful and having a plan of how you will handle things when they go wrong.
3. Proper nutrition and hydration. Too few calories at too much effort and your body makes you stop.  And of course, we need water, even more than food. 

This post will focus on preparing our bodies for the task at hand. Here's the general training strategy:

1. Weekly mileage increases should, on average, be around 10%, working towards a target of a single hike equal to the anticipated longest day of hiking (about 16 miles) and a longest run of a bit more than half of that (actually, I have a 10 mile run planned for late March near the Delaware Water Gap that should be pretty exciting for the two of us). Our final pre-trip hike is scheduled on a 16+ loop from Hell (well, actually around Hell, MI).
2. Amount of weight carried will be added by about 25% at a time, reaching 100% within 4 weeks of the trip.
3. Physical activities will include hiking with equipment, running, body awareness exercises, and strengthening.

Obviously getting hiking miles in with our actual equipment is the best kind of preparation, so we've been building our miles. 

I don't have the time to hike as many miles as I would like, so I'm choosing to up our activity level doing something that is more efficient and that Sparkle and I both enjoy: running! We're starting out with a couple of one hour runs a week, throwing in as many hills as we can, which is a challenge where we live. Delaware Water Gap 10 mile prep run I have planned (because it's on the way to a training conference), the hills will matter because there is a lot more elevation change there as opposed to the CL50, which is good, because it should make the actual CL50 not seem quite so hard.

I'm using the Omnijore by Ruffwear to connect Sparkle to myself. I like it because it keeps her safe, is comfortable for both dog and human, and is designed to distribute weight evenly across her body. The leash stretches, so there is there is no chance of her pulling and then coming to a jarring stop. There is also an emergency release system so that if I need to quickly disconnect her, I can do it almost instantly, and with one hand. It also allows me to carry a phone, keys, poop bags, and water for us.

This is the route we took on a recent training run. Despite the small elevation gain, the hills that we did climb were quite steep and the trail was quite muddy, thus slowing our progress.  

I've started doing the 7 minute workout 3 times a week and highly recommend it. Do yourself a favor and make time for it! I've also been getting Sparkle both on various natural objects such as downed trees to build body awareness and confidence as well as on exercise balls. 

Work on building your dog's own fitness. One easy way to get started is to use the information associated with Dog Scouts of America's K9 Fitness Merit Badge, which was developed by Harmony Dog Training!

We often tell our students that success is not always linear. There can and will be setbacks. We have to plan for these and be patient with ourselves and our dogs.

From the outset of this experience, I have shared that Sparkle has some fears, particularly around sounds as well as some discomforts with body handling. She also does not like when its dark outside because she's often surprised by things and she doesn't like surprises.

Much of our training has focused on helping reduce or eliminate these fears. The primary process that I'm using is called counter conditioning and desensitization. The basic concept is that when your dog is relaxed, you pair increasing levels of something that the dog finds unpleasant with something that they like. The most common way this process fails to work is when we work with our dogs when they are not feeling ok or when we push too far too soon.

As you should know by now, I'm not going to intentionally force Sparkle into situations she's not comfortable with in hopes that she'll "get over it." That being said, in the past few weeks, I have been challenged to create an environment for her in which she's able to feel safe outside.  You see, the neighborhood we live in is near two active train lines, a major hospital, and a highway. I have always thought that it was a quiet neighborhood because none of the sounds associated with those things happens all of the time or are generally very loud right by our house. Sparkle's reactions to them have caused me to reconsider.

A combination of factors such as bad weather leading to more accidents (and more sirens), increased train traffic (more train horns), and dogs and people suddenly appearing in the dark have led to increasingly stressful outings for her, and by extension me.

We've been working on her issues inside, as you're about to see, but I have been challenged to do the same outside as effectively as I would like. The kicker is that the effects of stress are cumulative, so even if only one of the things she's worried about happens on a given day, they all add up if they happen in successive days. This is known as trigger stacking.

Think about how it feels if you're running late to work and you miss every light and at the last light, the person in front of you doesn't start to move when the light turns green. How much self control will it take to not lean on your horn in that situation vs if you weren't in a rush and you had made all of the previous lights.  It's the same sort of situation where Sparkle has been frequently on edge even before we leave the house. 

Unable to provide Sparkle with a several day break (which is how long stress hormones can take to leave the body), she has actually regressed in her behavior. What I will be focusing on now will be trying to do more fun high intensity things outside, and doing a better job of limiting exposure to things that worry her by taking shorter walks and having a higher percentage of the time be about ball play, which is her top reinforcer. I will also be taking higher value treats. Her favorite treat is string cheese, so I'll be packing that more. I may even switch to using our treadmill to get her more exercise inside while she de-stresses.

The good news is that our work inside has been going well. Here's what we've been working on:

Sparkle has a number of sound triggers such as train horns and gunfire and also has difficulty with sudden sounds in general. In this video I'm using an app to help her get more comfortable with a few of these sounds. Prior to starting to record, I had relaxing background music and a white noise generator playing. I then played the sounds at a volume where she just barely registered but still remained relaxed, so I was looking for just an ear turn in the direction of the sound. I paired the sound with string cheese and over time increased the volume.

I've been working on helping Sparkle feel more comfortable with body handling. One of the things I may need to do on the trip is pick her up if she gets tangled in something or bogged down in mud or is injured. It's also a good thing to be able to do if we're at the vet and she needs to be lifted on a table. I used the same principle as with sounds where I started off with her relaxed and then paired the start of the lift with string cheese and worked up to lifting her a small height.