People Do Kick the Dog!

People find all sorts of reasons not to exercise. If they have a personal trainer, they have to try to provide a valid reason for missing a session. This is an extract of what Kathy Manweiler of the Chicago Tribune wrote about pet-related excuses:

"Some people actually come straight out and say, ‘I'm just lazy’ or ‘I hate exercise’,” says P.J. Barrett , director of wellness and personal training at the East Branch YMCA. But others aren't nearly that direct. . . . the scapegoats our fitness experts seem to hear about the most are pets.
"I can't come in," a client told Williamson one day. Why is that? "My cat threw up. I've got to clean that up."
Some clients tell Gorges they can't make it to the gym because their dogs get lonely.
Jason Zielenski , personal training coordinator at Health Strategies, says a client recently canceled an appointment with him because of a storm. "She has a dog, and when it storms, it just goes crazy and chews up things," he says. "So I said, `Can you crate it?' But she didn't want to leave the dog in the house to tear things up."
Barrett has several clients who are teachers, and she just had to laugh when one of them called to cancel her workout that day. "She was talking about all of her paperwork and homework, and the dog had gotten into her stuff and messed everything up and she had to stay and organize that," Barrett says. "And I said, `Are you literally trying to tell me that the dog ate your homework?'"
Barrett has an antidote for all of those excuses. "Why don't you run with the dog, then?" she says. "Run after the dog, that'll be your exercise. Or take the dog for a walk. If he's keeping you from exercise, make him exercise with you."
By the way, fitness experts don't buy most of those tales. "I want to see these pets," Barrett says with a laugh. "I want to make sure they actually have one."