Considering that Meg loves nothing more than to dive into any water we come across on our walks, be it lake, river, big puddle or cow drinking trough (!), I find it quite strange that she hates the rain!
When we made the decision to get a dog we knew it would mean daily walks, rain or shine, and kitted ourselves out with coats, wellies, waterproof trousers and walking boots – but it seems that Meg has other ideas. She eagerly waits at the door when she sees me getting her lead ready, but if it’s raining when I let her out she does a quick loop of the garden and runs back in! Sometimes she goes back to check a few times, but runs back in again as soon as she’s confirmed ‘yes – its still raining’. We even have trouble trying to get her to go outside to go toilet on wet days, and a few times she has tried to go with just her front feet out the door :-/
Much to my husbands disgust, he believes ‘dogs should be dogs’, I bought her a little raincoat. Unfortunately it seems the only thing she was actually bothered about getting wet was her head, and this wasn’t covered by the coat.
For some time I’ve found it difficult to wear her out on these wet days, until I read that you can expel as much energy from a dog with mental stimulation as you can with a run round a field. I decided to give it a go, because as a Springer she’s bouncing off the walls at the best of times!
We spent around half an hour trying to learn a new command. Meg is good at bringing back a ball if you ask her “Where’s you ball?”, but I had noticed recently that she doesn’t actually distinguish between a ball and any of her other toys, and just brings back the thing she has been playing with last. We decided to try to teach her the name of two toys, and see if she could bring back the correct toy when asked. Meg is very responsive to food, and so her attention was easily held for half an hour with some chicken tidbits!
Although the results of the training weren’t immediately obvious (maybe it will sink in later?!) one thing was clear – she was knackered. It seemed like getting those brain cogs whirring had done the job, and she was actually more tired than she is after an hours walk. She dozed on and off all evening, even falling asleep sitting up at one point, and, after a battle to get her outside to go toilet before bed, slept all night !
