All Work and No Play

August is a busy time of year when you work at a University. You are trying to wrap up your summer projects and preparing for students to come back and classes to start. Our office is involved in a lot of trainings for RAs, new faculty, new staff at the Counseling Center and our other campus partners so that keeps us very busy and then once students arrive the amount of calls, emails and appointments is almost overwhelming.

August is also the hottest time of year in Austin so you can't really do many outdoor activities. When you mix that with a lot of work life gets a little out of balance. I am usually very conscious about making sure Morey has a few chances during the day to play, sniff or doing something fun but when it's too hot to be outside it makes it hard. The heat makes both of us feel lethargic so we don't even want to expend a lot of energy.

Last weekend I woke up and went outside and it wasn't hot enough to make me sweat yet (an improvement on previous mornings). Feeling excited, I decided to take Morey to a park that we'd never been to before. The park has a trail system so I picked a spot to start and headed off. The trail is a hike and bike trail so technically you aren't supposed to have your dog off leash but I decided to break that rule and let Morey off leash so he could wander and smell without having to stay next to me. If I saw a bike coming I called him back to me so he wouldn't get in their way.  It only took about 20 minutes before we both started to get hot so we turned around and headed back. Even that amount of exercise and sniffing wore Morey out for the rest of the day.

One of my dog training friends recently told me that letting your dog sniff for 5-10 minutes in a new place provides them with enough mental stimulation for them to process for the rest of the day. That made me realize that I don't let Morey use his nose as often as I should. As a service dog he isn't supposed to sniff things while "on the job" but that doesn't mean I can't let him take "sniff breaks" every now and then. He doesn't need an hour to sniff- just a few minutes is beneficial. Especially when it is too hot to do much physical activity I need to be better about providing opportunities for him to use his nose and sniff.