Working on conditioning

When I told my friend Betsy about the results of the Agility Fun Match last week, she reminded me of something really important. I can't ask my French Bulldog to do something she's clearly not designed to do if she's not in condition to do it.
Aside from the training of "how" to do the obstacles in agility, it's vital that she's in shape to do them, too! I may have lost sight of that - life can be so hectic that I've minimized the importance of that chunk of time spent working on my dog's physical fitness.
And Dax does her best to help me slack off - especially when the weather turns a bit colder. She's all warm and cuddly and snuggly - it's difficult to bounce her off my lap and plop her down on the treadmill. Snuggling with a bulldog is way more fun.
But we have instituted a new regimen - and I'm planning to stick to it, regardless of how adorably she looks at me. From now on we're strengthening her core so she can haul that cute butt up the A-Frame. We're building her stamina with treadmill time. We're sharpening her jumping skills with close, clean repetitions. And we're honing her heeling with lots of little drills.
Poor dog. If it weren't for the rewards she's getting, she'd be screaming "get me outta here!"