Fifi, stay. Owner, gimme 15 lunges

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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