Creating Balance

Hello, and welcome.

Last time, I spoke about the importance of truly observing our dogs. Those observations go beyond what actions our dog displays in front of us - it’s not just about how they move, what they like to do, or the behaviours we find more challenging. It’s also about their daily life and how that impacts all of the above responses.

Over the past year, you’ve perhaps at times felt you’ve not provided your dog with enough stimulation through social encounters and adventures. You may well have felt guilty when you stayed local for walks - worrying about the repetitive nature of them. But our dogs are able to experience each walk as “new”, even if they walked the same route the day before. They really are our best teachers when it comes to living in the moment.

In fact, when we give our dog too many new experiences, we can sometimes do more harm than good. For many of our dogs, visiting new places or meeting new people can be overwhelming - even if they appear to thrive at the time, they may well feel less relaxed afterwards.

One of the most important things we can do for our dogs is to create balance in their life. Balance means that we are meeting all our dog’s welfare needs - for exercise, food, stimulation, love - but without overdoing it. Balance is taking account of what external activities our dog enjoys on a day-to-day basis, then adding in calmer activities when those initial experiences have been fairly full on.

Balance comes down to a combination of adventures in the real world and activities at home. Activities at home are to be focused around creating calmness - from enrichment toys, to sniffing in your garden, to (the big one) sleep. Sleep is so incredibly important for our dogs, yet it often gets overlooked.

I’d love to invite you to keep a journal of your dog’s weekly activities - walks, interactions, interruptions (think visitors, deliveries arriving, refuse collection days), and how much sleep they are getting in each 24 hour period. Then alongside this, note down your dog’s mood state. Are they calm and relaxed, finding it easy to settle? Or are they reacting to external noises or seeking your attention more? It’s such an interesting task, which can often provide real insight into what level of balance your own individual dog needs to be its most rounded self.

Until next time,

Caroline