A home day
Today is the 4th of January 2023. I spent a very wet morning yesterday with Elsa and Riggs at one of our favorite parks. As of late we are spending more and more time at this particular park because of numerous Mountain Lion sightings. Not something I am interested in running into so we keep our distance. Yesterday was a great morning for a walk; a nice slow rain and the rain keeps most others at home so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
So today we are on the fourth day of the New Year and looking forward to a good one. I have a lot on my plate and so much to tell you all… about dogs. I want to share what I can so that I can hopefully help you to have a better life with your dog. Life with dogs can be tough and challenging. It can also be confusing because there are so many different opinions out there.
What I want to share with you is my experience and commitment to “do no harm.”. Unfortunately, there are a great number of trainers that cannot make that statement and are stuck in the past with their training methods. With e-collars, pinch/prong and choke collars in use with many trainers; it can be very difficult to get through it all to the land of the great positive trainers.
A statement that I find myself using often is that “dogs are simple yet complicated.” Once you learn and fully understand how they work, things are simple. Until then they are very complicated. My goal is to give anyone who wants to listen some tips to move through their dog life more easily and happily.
Today is a big rain day and I would normally be out with these guys getting nice and dirty but with the rain is big winds. So to keep everyone safe, we will stay home and have an “enrichment home day.” The term enrichment is very trendy these days and it too can seem complicated. In a really understandable definition, it means to give your dog something to do that is fulfilling to their needs.
Enrichment: : to make rich or richer especially by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient
Enrichment is fairly easy to offer your dog but you first have to understand what your dog enjoys. There are great similarities in many of our dogs but each dog is also very individual. So learning what your dog LOVES to do and finds fulfilling can be a challenge. Elsa’s favorite activity these days is to destroy. It can be a fluffy toy, a box, a gift wrap roll or anything else I give her for her destruction desire.
Riggs most favorite thing is retrieving his ball. If we don’t offer it to him he will hide his ball and find it over and over again. He stuffs it under a dog bed, blanket or towel, pretends he can’t find it and then miraculously finds it (surprise) with enthusiasm.
Each dog is an individual, just like we are. What drives each one can be very different. Our job is to figure out our individual and then live a great life together.
All dogs deserve, fresh food, water, shelter, safety, love, a family and much more. No dog should be tossed in the yard to live out their life. When we add a dog to our family, that is what we should do. It is most definitely work, but every bit is more than worth what you get from a k9/human connection.
I hope you all have a wonderful year and if at any time you have any questions with regard to dogs, my dogs, my life or anything…please ask.