By David Tepera, September 4, 2024
One of the benefits of owning a business, is we get to take our dogs with us. Even my son Dylan, brings his rescue mix-breed Buddy, who’s been a part of the fitness family for over three years.
Now, we have doggy gates to keep our four-legged family members behind while we train our clients. But, when the training numbers are low, Buddy gets to roam with the clients. Everyone loves the doggies, especially Buddy. He even has his picture set up as the employee of the month.
Well, last week was a difficult time because Tina and I had to put down one of our senior rescues named “KK”, which stands for Kahlua. All the clients that were close to her got to say their “goodbyes”. I’ve never seen more tears in a gym as everyone gave her lots of love and hugs.
How many of you business owners take your family pets to work? I actually know quite a few.
How many of you exercise with your pets? Do you walk your dogs in the mornings or evenings? Do you go to isolated parks and run with them or go hiking? Do you play fetch and wrestle in the yard? What type of activity do you get from owning a pet?
One of the few times I’ve seen my wife Tina running was her chasing KK down the street when she got loose. You see, KK was deaf and had dementia. Even though her ailments were sad, it was still funny watching Tina on a dead-sprint. This is not volunteer exercising.
There are not that many interesting studies about dog owner activities. One USA study found that only 27% of dog owners walked their dog for at least 150 minutes per week. It is proven that dog owners will partake in more physical activity than non-dog owners, just ask Tina.
If you don’t own a pet or have the resources, then animal shelters are always in need of dog walkers. When the kids were in middle school, we would take time to walk the dogs at the League City Animal Shelter.
Well, besides the sad week of losing our oldest family pet, we also got to cherish the wonderful memories KK gave us. For all you animal lovers, you understand that our pets are also our children.