Sophia Yin: A New Year's Resolution for You and Your Pooch: Get Fit with Your Dog

Is your New Year's resolution to loose weight and get fit? Well, if it is, remember that routines are easier if they involve a friend or partner. What better exercise partner than your dog? Take this from a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who exercises with her own dogs and her clients' dogs regularly: combining the two can be a great way to bond as well as an efficient way to exercise. The following are some tips to help you get fit with your dog.

Tip 1: Walking with your dog is a great exercise. Be sure that you're walking at a brisk pace. Your dog should be at a fast trot to benefit the most from the walk.

Tip 2: Ideally, your dog is walking by your side rather than pulling your arm out of your socket or dragging you to each bush to water the plants. As a result, it's best to incorporate dog training into the workout. Instead of feeding your pooch his meal before the walk, carry the kibble in a fanny pack or in your pockets and use it to reward him for good behavior. That is, reward him throughout the walk by giving him a kibble or two for remaining at your side. The goal is to reward him frequently at first so that he gets the idea where he should be, but then with successive walks or as the walk progresses, require that he walk longer distances by your side before he gets a reward. Ultimately you won't need to reward with portions of his meal; the walk itself will be rewarding.

Also consider trying a gentle leader head collar, which is like a head halter for dogs. By controlling the head, you can more easily control where your dog's body goes.

Tip 3: Will your dog run with you? Most dogs that engage in a good round of fetch or sprint around with dogs at the dog park can run at least a couple of miles. But to make the run fun for you, it's best if your dog can stay by your side instead of dragging you by the leash and messing up your running form. To train your dog to run nicely, start the same way you start with walks. That is, bring a portion of your dog's meal and reward him for being at your side. You can break your first runs into short running intervals interspersed with walks so that you can reward him both while he's running alongside you as well as when he slows down to your brisk walking pace. That way, you get him used to the conditioning and train him to stay at your side.

It's also easier to run if you have your hands-free leash. My favorite such leash is the buddy system:

Tip 4: Work on your dog's sit or down-stay while you perform calisthenics. For instance, have your dog lie down and reward him frequently with bits of his meal -- just frequently enough so that he remains lying down. Then increase the time in between treats by doing exercises. For instance, do a few squats and then reward Fido for remaining in his down-stay before he has a chance to get up. Systematically increase the number of squats or lunges or pushups that you do in between going back to reward him for staying in down-stay. This way, you can build up both duration and the distance you are away from him at the same time. The bonus here is that not only are you training him to lie down and stay, reliably, but you're training him to do so with the distraction you create by doing weird things in between. Graduate to jumping jacks and burpees -- dogs generally take these exercises to be a cue to get up and play. So be sure to hurry up and reward them for staying before they have a chance to get up.

Tip 5: Play fetch with your dog while you do calisthenics. This is a great way to ensure that your dog gets as much exercise as you do. If your dog does not have a 100-percent immediate come when called, make sure you're in a dog-safe area such as a backyard or fenced-in park. Toss the ball, and while he's running, see how many squats or pushups or jumping jacks you can get in before he gets back to you.

Mix Up the Routine

My Jack Russell Terrier and I do all of these, including sprints followed by some heeling followed by pushups, burpees or squats on my part. Make up your own routine using things you've learned in exercise class. It's a great way to work in your own exercise and quality time with your dog.

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To see the New Year's Fitness workout I shared with my dog, read Get Fit with Your Dog: My New Year's Day Dog-Human Exercise Workout.

For tips on how to train your dog to behave politely so that you can work out easily, go to www.drsophiayin.com and read the blog articles or watch the videos.

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Tiger Extinction: Tigers Could Be Extinct In 12 Years If Unprotected

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching, global wildlife experts told a "tiger summit" Sunday.

The World Wildlife Fund and other experts say only about 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, a dramatic plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.

James Leape, director general of the World Wildlife Fund, told the meeting in St. Petersburg that if the proper protective measures aren't taken, tigers may disappear by 2022, the next Chinese calendar year of the tiger.

Their habitat is being destroyed by forest cutting and construction, and they are a valuable trophy for poachers who want their skins and body parts prized in Chinese traditional medicine.

The summit approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.

The Global Tiger Recovery Program estimates the countries will need about $350 million in outside funding in the first five years of the 12-year plan. The summit will be seeking donor commitments to help governments finance conservation measures.

"For most people tigers are one of the wonders of the world," Leape told The Associated Press. "In the end, the tigers are the inspiration and the flagship for much broader efforts to conserve forests and grasslands."

The program aims to protect tiger habitats, eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers and their parts, and also create incentives for local communities to engage them in helping protect the big cats.

The summit, which runs through Wednesday, is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has used encounters with tigers and other wild animals to bolster his image. It's driven by the Global Tiger Initiative which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Leape said that along with a stronger action against poaching, it's necessary to set up specialized reserves for tigers and restore and conserve forests outside them to let tigers expand.

"And you have to find a way to make it work for the local communities so that they would be partners in tigers conservation and benefit from them," Leape said.

"To save tigers you need to save the forests, grasslands and lots of other species," he added. "But at the same time you are also conserving the foundations of the societies who live there. Their economy depends very much on the food, water and materials they get from those forests."

About 30 percent of the program's cost would go toward suppressing the poaching of tigers and of the animals they prey on.

Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said that Russia and China will create a protected area for tigers alongside their border and pool resources to combat poaching.

Leape said that for some of the nations involved outside financing would be essential to fulfill the goals.

"We need to see signficant commitment by the multilateral and bilateral indsitutions like the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank plus individual governments like the U.S. and Germany," Leape told the AP.

For advocates, saving tigers has implications far beyond the emotional appeal of preserving a graceful and majestic animal.

"Wild tigers are not only a symbol of all that is splendid, mystical and powerful about nature," the Global Tiger Initiative said in a statement. "The loss of tigers and degradation of their ecosystems would inevitably result in a historic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental catastrophe for the tiger range countries."

Three of the nine tiger subspecies – the Bali, Javan, and Caspian – already have become extinct in the past 70 years.

Much has been done recently to try to save tigers, but conservation groups say their numbers and habitats have continued to fall, by 40 percent in the past decade alone.

In part, that decline is because conservation efforts have been increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas where tigers can breed, according to a study published in September in the Popular Library of Science Biology journal.

Putin has done much to draw attention to tigers' plight. During a visit to a wildlife preserve in 2008, he shot a female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck as part of a program to track the rare cats.

Later in the year, Putin was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger for his birthday. State television showed him at his home gently petting the cub, which was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion. The tiger now lives in a zoo in southern Russia.

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