Everyone knows that having a dog is good for your health. It makes sense doesn’t it. Especially when it comes to exercise.

Dogs need walking.

People need walking too.

Dogs and people like walking together.

Komoot or OS Maps, which is better for planning walking routes?

Not taking puppy for a walk

So I knew that, when we took the plunge and welcomed a new Jack Russell puppy into our home, I was destined (eventually) for long walks across open hills with a willing and loyal companion at my side.

In other words I was going to get fitter.

How to plan a walking route with OS Maps

What actually happened when Freddie arrived home was that my exercise program went completely out of the window. Suddenly there was no wandering down to the beach for a sea swim, no foraging walks around the copse and no yoga (definitely no campervan yoga).

There was just waiting in the garden for the dog to wee.

“Wee wees!” became my only phrase. I found myself, at one in the morning, watering plants in my nightie.

Our conversations reduced to one topic, “Has he?”, “Is he about to?”, “There’s another one upstairs.” And it wasn’t long before I stopped checking whether the moisture I had just stood in was a wee or a melted ice-cube (one of Freddie’s favourite treats).

I just accepted my wet-footed fate.

My carpets are ruined, my nerves are shattered and my menopausal brain fog is back.

But I have lost weight.

Puppy weight loss

Not because Freddie loves long walks across open hills (he’s a tad little for that yet) but because we have a multi-storey house. Our dog lives on the middle floor, the garden is on the bottom one. Every twitch, bark, whimper or paw has me running down a flight of stairs.

And then I have to run back up again.

To check that the wee that didn’t happen in the garden hasn’t happened in the hall, in the lounge or (please no!) up yet another flight of stairs in my office.

It’s completely exhausting.

But I’m completely in love. 

Which is just as well because with work and dog, there’s not much room in my life for much else at the moment. If anyone tells you that having a new puppy is as tiring as having a new baby, they’re lying.

Babies can’t run up and down stairs.

https://www.fidarby.co.uk/2022/08/12/the-yha-festival-of-walking-how-about-getting-there-by-train/

Three fantastic Devon walks from train stations