Well it’s Easter Monday as I write this and I think it’s the weirdest Easter weekend we have experienced. Of course because we are in lockdown, the sun was shining warmly on Saturday and the smell of BBQs filled the air. Thea and I made the most of our daily exercise and walked the dogs in the lush woods. You just can’t beat a woodland walk in spring. Then once Thea was in bed I fired up my fire pit and sat in the garden with a beer till it got dark. Bliss, considering the state of the world!
-
Fire!! -
My bonny Brae
It’s good to get out for exercise and fresh air as well as having some structure to your days at home. If you’re not careful you can disappear down the rabbit hole and lose yourself in over eating and Netflix binging! Some days I do those things and I think it’s fine, after all this is a very stressful and worrisome time, but I also think it’s good to do other things which are fun and can help you cope with your days. I am a massive fan of movies and over the weekend Thea and I watched Rise of The Guardians on Netflix. It’s an animated movie (well, CGI) and I love it. The Guardians are the Tooth Fairy, Santa (known as North), Sand Man and the Easter Bunny (the Easter Bunny being a huge Aussie with an attitude voiced by Hugh Jackman!) They help the children of the world by bringing joy and a belief in all things magical. North is a great big bad ass guy with giant yetis making the toys (the elves just think they’re helping to make them!) and they all listen to The Man in The Moon. No, I haven’t been taking drugs, this really is the plot of the movie!
They all come together when Pitch Black, AKA the Boogie Man (voiced by Jude Law, ’cause we all know baddies are English!) threatens to shake childrens belief in the Guardians by stopping the Tooth Fairy collecting teeth and leaving coins and stopping the eggs getting delivered for Easter. Once the children of the world stop believing, the Guardians will be no more and Pitch can start scaring the kids into believing in him! However Chris Pine comes along in the form of Jack Frost to help out and The Man in The Moon picks him to be a new Guardian. The kids don’t believe in Jack Frost and Bunny has a major issue with him (as he usually causes frost and snow on Easter, wrecking Easter Egg hunts!) but Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) seems to dig him. Anyway, Jack doesn’t really feel he’s Guardian material but bad ass North (Alec Baldwin) tells Jack that everyone has a centre that helps them be the best version of themselves. North is intimidating on the outside, but when you look closer, he is also jolly, mysterious, fearless, caring and at his centre is child-like wonder! That is North’s centre which helps him be a great Santa!
Spoiler alert (on this 8 year old movie!) but at the end of the movie, Jack Frost finally finds his centre which helps him to defeat Pitch, and his centre is FUN!!
Right now more than ever, your centre when dealing with your dog should be FUN! You should be the most entertaining, the most interesting and the most fun person so that your dog WANTS to be with you. That way you can help keep his mind busy during these crazy times and when we are all allowed out again, your dog will want to stay with you. Can you imagine how bad your dogs behaviour will be in a few months time if we don’t keep his mind busy and do training NOW? We are stuck in the house and if we don’t provide the fun and entertainment, your dog will find his own and I can almost guarantee that you and your dog will disagree on the idea of fun. Him chewing the couch or digging massive holes in the garden are probably not your idea of fun! So be fun, provide great things like stuffed kongs, snuffle mats, scatter feeding etc. Your dog will thank you for it!
If you want to know more about how to deal with your dogs boredom during lockdown, why don’t you check out the webinar I did? It’s just 30 minutes long (with 15 mins Q & A with the guys I did it live for) and it will help you find your fun centre! Sign up here and the webinar link will be sent to you straight away – http://eepurl.com/cLRhX5
Thanks for reading guys!
Tam and Thea xx