When we are at home and not travelling together, Mum spends a lot of time sitting in front of the computer – working, writing, emailing … and sometimes shopping.
On other days, Mum sends us off to day care where we have lots of fun playing with other doggies.
But when we come home, she’s usually still at the computer. And we just hang out wondering when Mum will pay us some attention.
Thankfully she doesn’t forget to feed us and she does take us out for relief walks but we do wish she would play with us more.
Mum, do you sometimes feel guilty that you are not doing enough with us during the day?
May’s comment: That was the question that popped up in a Facebook group we belong to. I do a lot of things with both Darcy and George and I take them with me most of the time when I go out. But when I am at home, and I have a busy day, I send them away with dog walkers or doggy day care, otherwise they just lay around waiting for me to take them out. So I do feel guilty on the days when I am too obsessed with what I am doing and not have enough time for them.
When lockdown came along, I decided to break my pattern. I had set goals for lockdown and one of which was to teach Darcy and George some new tricks. That was me reminding myself so that I will spend more time with them each day with some form of enrichment activity.
I had a few things I wanted to improve on and some new tricks. Given the lockdown and without outdoor space, we were limited to what we could do indoors. But where to start? How to do it? I had bought a book awhile ago and thought maybe its time to open it and get some ideas.
I started enthusiastically but soon lost patience when it wasn’t going to plan. I didn’t know how to teach dogs new tricks. And when the volunteering for PPEs started, I came home after each day completely knackered – no time became the excuse. It felt like it was going to be one of those good intentions that never happened. When up popped on Facebook, an invitation by Julie and Barnaby to be part of the Do More With Your Dog challenge.
We will show you in the coming posts some of the things we’ve learnt together. And to attain the various titles from Novice, Intermediate to Advance. I didn’t think we would get very far and would have been satisfied with achieving Intermediate for Darcy and Novice for George. But Julie manages to break down the steps to training and giving us goals to achieve. When I saw the results, I was encouraged. Teaching them tricks, and engaging with them was one of the rewarding achievements during lockdown.
Check out Barnaby’s Trick Team Facebook page and contact Julie James on Facebook if you are interested in joining the group to get some tips on spending time engaging with your dog.
It seems that 20 minutes a day of our undivided attention is what they need as a minimum. That’s not that much in the scheme of things. And those enrichment activities should include:
- one side by side activity (walk, outing to the shops, car ride)
- one eye to eye activity, so this is where trick training comes in
- one playful and silly activity (like tug, chase, hide and seek)
“He/She is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his/her life, his/her love, his/her leader. He/She will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his/her heart. You owe it to him/her to be worthy of such devotion.” Anonymous
