Do you hang out with your dog?

 
My sister hanging out with her Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, at the cottage.
 


Do you hang out with your dog?  I mean choose to spend time with them; not just walk the dog and get on with your day?  Dogs are amazing company; they do whatever you want to do and they listen better than most humans.  They are happy to just sit and watch television; actually watching t.v. is one of Luke's all time favorite things to do.  He loves it so much that I will watch an hour of whatever in the evening just to give him his time doing t.v. watching.  Funny guy he is.  Even if he falls asleep watching t.v., I still have a sense of shared time together, hanging out.

Hanging out with your dog is easy to accomplish.  Thing is, you have to want to do it to get it done.  If your dog is one of those who gets their mandatory "dog walk" each day; which is their allotment of your time then try adding something more.  Like I said, dogs like to do anything we like to do, pretty much.  Of course there are things that we might like to do or simply have to do that our dogs would not enjoy.  But, for the most part; our dogs are happy doing whatever we want to do as long as they are by our side.

"Come on guys, it's garden day," I call out to Luke and Elsa.  They both head out with me; Luke takes up the double lounge and Elsa is my shadow.  We are gardening.  Luke watches from his perch for a bit then decides that he is not close enough to the action.  Then I have two shadows; we are all gardening together.  When I have to go to the other side of the ornamental fence; they both follow along as I move foot by foot, weeding the whole thing.  They like when I pass them grass weeds (non fertilized) through the fence.  I pull the roots off and shake off the dirt before passing it through the bars.  They wait patiently, taking it with their front teeth and chomping it down.  Yep, we're hang'n.

Spending time just hanging with your dog; just chill'n helps to connect you.  It can be those nothing moments that you learn the most about your dog.   Many people complain about a dog being clingy.  "Geesh, they want to be with me all the time," I often hear.  Yep, that's because they like to hang with us.  They shadow us around during our day waiting to do whatever it is that we are going to do. 

Doing things that they like to do; other than the daily walk is a great way to hang out as well.  At 13.5 years old, Luke likes when I sit somewhere.  A place that means that I'll be there a while.  He loves to lay by my side.  Elsa loves to retrieve, anything.  But I have taught her that I am  not throwing her ball, toy or other unless she brings it to me.  Just because we're doing what she wants does not mean that it is all on her terms.  She must bring me the item so that I can toss it.  Even when I'm gardening she will find a ball and drop it into my weed bucket to be tossed again.  She's young and got bucket loads of energy. 

Hanging gives you the opportunity to connect; much more so than just sharing a space in your home together.  I have very busy days like anyone else when I cannot take the time to stop and hang with the dogs.  Even though we have probably been in the same room all day; we have not connected and I miss that.  Almost everyone has a dog, but not everyone hangs out with their dog. 

2 comments:

  1. I agree with hanging with your dog. In fact, on Fridays when I have been all day at work, I don't feel right coming home for a few hours just to leave Blue behind while I go have fun for 4 or 5 house playing D&D at a friends house. Luckily, my friends are also animal lovers, so they let me bring Blue along! He's my gaming buddy! Actually, I have developed this dislike of leaving Blue behind at all. I even manage to bring him to work with me on days when I know I can get away with it. I love your blogs! I have been reading them more and more frequently.

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  2. I love hanging with my spoo Mylee! She is lots of fun and has a great sense of humor. And she always like to do what I am doing!

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