Fifi, stay. Owner, gimme 15 lunges

Exercise experts always recommend a workout partner who will help keep you motivated, and for one local trainer, that ideal partner is your dog.

Rosie Mestel writes in today's Health section about a recent workout session in Runyon Canyon where personal trainer Bruce Gilbert of Balanced Fitness instructs owners in exercise, while their dogs run leash-free in the area and get some discipline-tinged exercise of their own.

"I really love dogs," Gilbert said. "It struck me that there's a lot of people out there who need to exercise more and a lot of dogs that need to exercise more.... I thought: ' Why don't I have people come to the park and put together a program that's just a little more structured than having them come and hike?' "

Mestel herself learns a valuable lesson at the end, thanks to the behavior of her own dogs.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jeri]

Allowing dogs to "run leash-free" in Runyon Canyon (or any similar coastal sage habitat) at this time of year is irresponsible to the point of gross negligence. This is the time of year when rattlesnakes emerge from their cold-season dormancy; an unleashed dog encountering a rattlesnake is very likely to be bitten on the face or head, and by the time the owner is able to evacuate the dog from such a remote area to a veterinarian, it's probably too late for the dog.

Even if the dog is able to survive that long, there is a shortage of antivenin this year. Its cost is prohibitive ($1000 per dose) and it's possible that its use on dogs will be severely restricted in favor of maintaining adequate supplies for human snakebite victims.

No one should ever allow their dog to run unleashed, but during snake season it's particularly critical to keep dogs close by and under immediate control. Watching one's dog die from snakebite is horrific.