We got a foot of dry blowing snow today- the kind where the snowflakes are shaped like tiny rods and they don’t really stick to anything. Not Snowball Snow, my daughter says. Two days ago, I was hoping for a few more days of thawing as my fenced backyard- the Dog Yard- was still two thirds a sheet of rumpled bumpy ice, bearing the fossilized paws and boot prints of a winter of Home Games. Historic, maybe, but treacherous to run and play on. Sage’s knee tendon has slipped it’s groove in the past and I do not want him to blow a knee. While I hoped hard for enough sun to melt my whole yard, as is the case in many other clear grassy straw colored yards in my town, I made a deal: “It can snow all you want, Ma Nature, if you just clear my dog yard first.” She said she doesn’t make deals and gave us a nice foot of fluff anyway. As they say in Raye’s school cafeteria, “You get what you get, and don’t get upset.” It’s enough snow to render the ice beneath much less of a hazard and we can play on top of it.
My three year old reactive Kai Ken, Sage, spends most of his recreational outdoor time in the large fenced yard now playing with me or Reilly, and practicing the Foundation Behaviors and manners we have learned from the Dognoscenti- the wise trainers and behaviorists who have guided us this far on our journey together. Although most of his life I have taken him and Reilly on long daily off leash romps and hikes with other dogs, he became repeatedly overwhelmed and when I eventually (and only recently) learned to really listen to him and believe him, I realized that he was not the sort of fellow who got any enjoyment out of all this activity I provided in the name of “Exercise and Socialization.” He hated it, in fact. So now he is my Home Dog and Reilly is my Outing Dog, and I think both are happy.
To be a happy Home Dog, Sage needs an interesting yard, so ours contains a large rock to sit on, the deck to run under and lounge on, trees to run around and a stone wall that runs through it which contains chipmunks. We have a Dig Zone with sand and in the summer a plastic kiddie pool. My favorite sister,
Sage, you jump just like a dog in a calendar!
Laura, has lent us her agility tunnel. It has Reilly, our first dog, to play with and occasional visits from old dog-friends, but the most important thing the Dog Yard contains, for Sage, is me. I think for this dog, interacting with me is more valuable to him than what I was providing before, although I sincerely believed I was being an outstanding and over the top Dog Mom by exercising my dogs for an hour, two hours in all weather but the absolute worst. But looking at it closely, what I was providing was accompaniment and not attention. I was letting dogs be dogs and thinking dogs like that best. Not this one. Further details as our blog rolls along…
So to keep from overexposing Sage to unfamiliar dogs while I work with him in tiny steps with much greater patience, and understanding he will never love making new friends and acquaintances, we play in the yard now and take leash walks only when we know the odds are slim that no one unexpected is out. Cold rainy days, dark evenings, after a big snow. I feel sometimes like we are consigning ourselves to become archetypical outcast bad guys- movie villains never come out on a bright sunny May afternoon. They stay in the shadows to avoid the close talkers and Pollyannas while they ruminate on their outcast-ness. Can’t we be antisocial in the sun? We’d brood less.
So now we say- Yay! it’s raining and dark- let’s take a walk. Or there’s a foot of snow- frisbee anyone? Our adaptability to find good in the bad weather extends to different games for different yard conditions. You do get longer runs and catches with frisbee on the grass, and nothing beats harder bumpy snow for chasing the jolly ball around unpredictably (He pushes it with a soft soccer ball he carries in his jaws- it’s quite funny and he is delighted to go after the plastic ball as it rolls and bops along making a strange plasticky ting sound on the hard snow.) but if you play frisbee for the fun of jumping and landing soflty, and for cheering your buddy’s success as he grabs the soft disc at any distance throw, then a snowy day is a great day for disc.
