Relaxing

The strange times aren’t over yet. My humans are still at home all the time, not going anywhere except when they go out for a walk or to do some running. In which case they always take me with them.

I like that, of course I do. But I do think they overdo it a bit. I mean: they do not just go out for a walk, they go out for a long walk. Not just sometimes, like in the old days, but all of the time. I like long walks, don’t get me wrong. But I also like to do a leisurely stroll sometimes. We do not do that anymore. And something else: it is not one long walk a day for me, because M and P go out separately. And they always take me with them.

As you can imagine, two long walks a day is a bit tiresome. Even for me, a fit and active dog. So I use my time at home wisely: I sleep. I find a spot with some sunshine and close my eyes. I do keep one ear open, always, to make sure I do not miss anything important. The sound of the fridge opening, for instance.

Sometimes, when I am asleep and M or P is calling me to come for yet another walk, I pretend I do not hear them. But then, after some hesitation, I do get up and go out with them. They need me.

Relax

I am a wealthy city dog, so I have lots of soft beds to sleep on. Beds in different forms: baskets to curl into and big pillows to stretch my long limbs. Nice. Although I would like my humans to buy me a bigger basket, because this one I have outgrown.

Do you think this is a strange sleeping pose? Ha! Look at my friend Boss. That is not just a strange pose, it is ultimately relaxing. We canines know how to relax. Humans could learn something from us. This is what couches are for!

 

Camping bliss

We went camping, again! Great! I can’t get enough of it, so I am very glad M likes it as much as I do. Do you know what I like most of it? Every time we go camping is an Adventure in itself, because one never knows what will happen. Last time we had fighting squirrels near the van, for instance. But even if there are no Adventures, I still love it. Because when we are camping we are doing my favorite things. Like sleeping late, together in one warm bed:

And hiking! We found some very pretty paths this time:

What is more: when we are camping I guard the van. I am very good at that. No one dares to come near to our van.

I may look cute, with my pretty ears and long nose, but make no mistake: I am a ferocious guarding dog. I really like sitting next to the van like this, watching the surroundings and staring meaningfully at humans, canines and squirrels that dare come too close. They keep their distance. Good. I love camping!

Tail

In some ways humans are better off than canines. They can always walk off leash, for instance. But if one takes a holistic point of view, canines have the most benefits. We are the ones with the happy simple lives: we guard, play and eat when we want and sleep the rest of the time. Much better than humans, who seem to be in a hurry all the time doing… yes, what exactly? I don’t know. Working, M tells me. Working for what, when they already have a house and plenty of food?

When it comes to physical differences canines are much better off than humans, too. Humans seem to navigate on one sense only: eyesight. Canines have sharp eyes, but also extraordinary hearing and smelling capabilities. Not to mention our seventh sense, which enables us to feel trouble that is coming to us (like a bad mannered dog in the dog park). We have wonderful warm fur (no clothes needed), pretty ears and, best of all: a tail. Humans do not have a tail. And that is very sad for them. With a tail, you see, one can do so many things.

Like using it as a counterweight when something asks for thorough nose-investigation.

It is also a clear tool for communication, as you can see: my friend near the water signals me she is ready for playing and I answer her with my tail in the same position. The game is on, friend!

The tail high up means: I am stronger than you are, try me! It is also a signal of extreme alertness – I put my tail up high when I smell a burglar, or a cat. By the way: in the above picture my friends were not really fighting, they were just testing one another’s strength. The dog in the back thought it pretty silly, as you can see.

A tail is a real asset. It is sad humans do not have one.

 

Exhausted

Some things in life are obvious. Like the fact that dogs need a walk every day. Not just a ten-minute-stroll-around-the-block, but a real walk. To an exiting place, like the beach or the park. My humans know this and we walk a lot. Which is nice.

But one can overdo this a-long-walk-every-day stuff. Humans tend to do that sometimes, don’t they? They don’t just exercise, which is good, but they exercise too much. My humans don’t do this, normally, they are reasonable and intelligent. They know when it is healthy to exercise and when it is time to stop and rest. However, yesterday something went wrong. We walked and walked and walked. And when we stopped to have lunch, I thought we would take a train or a car or something to go back home, but we didn’t. We walked all the way back!

We walked more than 30 kilometers. And that, I can tell you, is exhausting. Even for a well trained dog like me, with my long legs and strong muscles. When I got home, I wolfed down my food and went to sleep immediately (with Chuck, who had stayed home all day, the lazy bastard).
Jeez. I do hope my humans won’t do this again.

What a year

I notice that during these days a lot of humans look back at the past year. We dogs normally don’t do that: we do not muse about the past, we do not dream about the future, we are always and totally living in the present. But I can make an exception for my human readers. Actually, it is quite nice to look back on the last year! If it was a good year, that is.

My year was certainly a good one! I made some great new friends:

We did a lot of nice long walks:

We had awesome holidays, in the mountains and near the sea!

There was plenty of time to snooze in the sun:

And new culinary experiences:

Yes, it was a good year. I hope you had a splendid year, too!

Feeling sad?

Here in Holland the days are getting darker. The trees are becoming more bare every day and the air smells of earth and the decay of leaves. I don’t mind but a lot of people do, I have noticed. They are becoming sad or even suffer from something that is called sad: seasonal affective disorder. Do you wonder how I know that long and difficult word? Well, I read a lot when I am home alone. That is how I got to know the definition of sad – the disease, I mean. Not the feeling. I like being alone now and then. That probably makes me a not so average dog but hey, that’s me!

People suffering from sad are a bit depressed. They are tired and irritated by small things. They are vulnerable to little annoying illnesses, like a cold. That is all too bad, because there are some easy and natural remedies to get over this sadness. I think that in this case, too, humans can learn a lot from us dogs. We are never really sad. You want to know why? Here are some simple cures for sadness:

1. Sleep more. Take notice of what we do when it is dark and raining outside. We curl up in a nice and cosy place and we sleep. When we wake up and it is still dark and raining, we sleep some more.

2. Go out and exercise. No, this is not contradictory to number 1. It is complementary! We go out and run and play and when we are tired we sleep. Being outdoor and exercising is combining two important remedies for sadness. You soak up whatever light and sunshine there is and you use your body. That makes you feel good. Even when it is cold and cloudy outside. Just try it, for at least one hour! You will feel much better afterwards.

3. Do doga. Which is more exercise, but indoors so you can do it anytime, day or night. Doga is three things combined: moving your body, soothing your mind and having a good time with your canine. Don’t take it too seriously (you are not training for a doga contest, I hope), but laugh and have fun! It will melt your sadness away. Then, after doga, rest some more, if possible together.

Life is good, even when the days are getting darker.

 

 

 

 

 

The power of rest

I like to relax. In fact, all animals do. When you take a close look at us, you will see that we are active during a small part of the day. I mean really active, when we run and hunt hares and bite burglars and play. The rest of the day we rest. We sleep, we snooze, we doze.

And that is fine. What is more: it is necessary in order to stay healthy. Humans don’t differ that much from animals, they need to rest too. The odd thing is: they don’t rest enough. They are doing loads of things that aren’t logical from a canine point of view. They have to work, okay. I don’t understand why, but they all do so apparently there is a necessity to work in the human world. But then, in the time they should be resting, they do the most silly things. They look at luminous devices for hours on end, which isn’t relaxing at all with these lights en noises. They go shopping, which means buying stuff they don’t need because their houses are all ready full of things they never use. They are busy in their houses doing things that are totally useless, like cleaning – why bother? It will get dirty again!

I am surprised by all this. Sometimes I hear humans telling each other about their hobbies, all of them time and money (also hugely important in the human world) consuming things. They do it because they want to relax, they say. I don’t get it. The best way to relax is to rest. You can do it anywhere, anytime. It costs nothing at all. Humans should try it! It is good for them and for us who live with them, because more rest means less stress. And we all know it is better to live with relaxed humans.

So please, my human readers: rest more. Sleep, snooze, doze. Even better: relax together with your canine friend. Cosy!

 

Lazy

All right, so I finally got the holiday feeling. I gave up on the guarding, at least: I don’t guard the path that is between the stony beach and our camper van anymore. It is way too busy to guard. I decided to guard our spot and that’s it. When someone enters our spot, I will chase him away. Maybe they think they can enter our camper van because I am sleeping, but they are dead wrong on that. I can go from totally relaxed to utterly mean in a split second. Every dog can. I guess most burglars know that, so they will not enter a camper van with a dog sleeping in front of it.

Anyway, it is okay like this. I can do some napping, preferably in the sun. It is hot here. Nice!

Look: no ears!

I am feeling very lazy today.  I spend a couple of hours sleeping in the sun, then I moved to my favorite chair at the front of the house. That is where I am now. When I got bored, I started practicing selfies. What do you think of this one? No ears!