Mix Up Your Dog Walking Routine in the Fall
October 21, 2011
Routines are good in many ways and help keep us on our toes! We are comfortable with the familiar and it seems as though our dogs are too. Dogs can sense when we are about to get home from work, when it is time to eat and seem to know all about weekends and sleeping in.
Yes routines are good for us humans, staying organized and following "procedures" help us accomplish the things we need to get done in the little time we have during the day. However routines can make us stuck in a rut too and spontaneity goes right out the door. Last week I was trying to figure out when I was going to take my dogs for a walk before the sun went down and became somewhat frustrated because we still had to run kids around to their after school activities and eat dinner. Now that is it is almost dark by 7:00pm I was thinking "well I guess no walk tonight for my pups". I was so stuck in thinking I could only walk my dogs during the day since we have had an abundance of sun since last spring and if I couldn't walk before dark then I wasn't going to walk at all!
I looked at my dogs laying on the floor somewhat bored, looked at my kids glued to the TV and thought to myself "why not walk in the dark?" I had just washed all the fall and winter jackets, mittens and hats so I asked the kids if they wanted to
get bundled up for a walk. To my surprise all of them jumped up off the couch and happily put on their newly washed fall gear, my dogs as well were just as happy to take a stroll in the dark.
My oldest put on his roller blades, my daughter walked next to me and our youngest took out his scooter and away we went with our 2 dogs. We had a blast and our dogs did too. Since Halloween is just around the corner we joked about "scary stuff" (my daughter was not that amused but my boys thought it was awesome) and our dogs, well it was like we were walking in a new place, things must smell differently at night!
Last Tuesday evening is a night I will remember for a long time and I am so glad I didn't stick to my regular routine and mixed it up a bit. Yesterday my daughter had soccer practice from 6pm to 7pm close to our old neighborhood, so in keeping with mixing my routine up, instead of dropping her off and running errands I loaded the dogs up in the car, called a friend and we walked our dogs while she practiced! If I hadn't thought outside of the box and stuck to my normal routine I would have missed out on catching up with a friend and my dogs would have been sitting at home missing out on an evening walk.
Routines are good to keep us on track and of course staying on top of things is important in our busy lives! However when it comes to certain "chores" like walking our dogs it is more than okay to do things a little differently. Try something out of the ordinary this week with your pup and enjoy your time away from the same old routines!
Thanks for reading!
Yes routines are good for us humans, staying organized and following "procedures" help us accomplish the things we need to get done in the little time we have during the day. However routines can make us stuck in a rut too and spontaneity goes right out the door. Last week I was trying to figure out when I was going to take my dogs for a walk before the sun went down and became somewhat frustrated because we still had to run kids around to their after school activities and eat dinner. Now that is it is almost dark by 7:00pm I was thinking "well I guess no walk tonight for my pups". I was so stuck in thinking I could only walk my dogs during the day since we have had an abundance of sun since last spring and if I couldn't walk before dark then I wasn't going to walk at all!
I looked at my dogs laying on the floor somewhat bored, looked at my kids glued to the TV and thought to myself "why not walk in the dark?" I had just washed all the fall and winter jackets, mittens and hats so I asked the kids if they wanted to
get bundled up for a walk. To my surprise all of them jumped up off the couch and happily put on their newly washed fall gear, my dogs as well were just as happy to take a stroll in the dark.
My oldest put on his roller blades, my daughter walked next to me and our youngest took out his scooter and away we went with our 2 dogs. We had a blast and our dogs did too. Since Halloween is just around the corner we joked about "scary stuff" (my daughter was not that amused but my boys thought it was awesome) and our dogs, well it was like we were walking in a new place, things must smell differently at night!
Last Tuesday evening is a night I will remember for a long time and I am so glad I didn't stick to my regular routine and mixed it up a bit. Yesterday my daughter had soccer practice from 6pm to 7pm close to our old neighborhood, so in keeping with mixing my routine up, instead of dropping her off and running errands I loaded the dogs up in the car, called a friend and we walked our dogs while she practiced! If I hadn't thought outside of the box and stuck to my normal routine I would have missed out on catching up with a friend and my dogs would have been sitting at home missing out on an evening walk.
Routines are good to keep us on track and of course staying on top of things is important in our busy lives! However when it comes to certain "chores" like walking our dogs it is more than okay to do things a little differently. Try something out of the ordinary this week with your pup and enjoy your time away from the same old routines!
Thanks for reading!
Posted by kayla downey.
