Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Life with Dogs

The blog-o-sphere is writing about "outside the ring."  You can read all about it here.

The topic today is what do you do outside of the agility ring.  As a writer, I can interpret this in many ways:
  • Preparing to run your dog.  What do you do to make sure your dog is ready to run?  What do you do to prepare yourself?
  • After the run.  What do you do after the run to make sure your dog is cooled down.  What about you, do you do anything special after each run?
  • Exercise between shows, what do you do to keep yourself and your dog fit and healthy.
  • Exercise their minds.  How do you enrich the dogs environment to keep them happy and quick minded.
  • Training.  Do you take workshops or classes to sharpen your skills, provide your dog with practice, look for new ways to do things to make the agility experience better?
For me all of those things are part of the sport, but out of the ring, it is about living with dogs and ensuring that my life and their life is happy and full.
 
My agility dog is my pet.  They sleep in the room with me, I play with them, they follow me around the house, they hang out with me if I watch TV.  My responsibility to them is to live a life that provides them with the stimulus and enrichment they deserve to have.
 
So, what makes my dogs happy?
  • Running around in the back yard chasing me, each other, or a ball.
  • Biting the water as the pool fills.
  • Staring at me while I cook.
  • Walking. They really like their walks.
  • Chasing critters in the back yard.
  • Laying at my feet while I work.
  • Going for a car ride.
  • Chasing a Frisbee.
  • Fin LOVES the treadmill.
  • Olive LOVES to swim after a ball.
  • Tazz LOVES to chase Olive retrieving her ball in the water
  • and the list goes on and on and on.

Life with Dogs.  Always interesting.  Sometimes frustrating.  Always fun. 

Love my pups so much.