What are you going to do with your TTs? Aside from contests or preparing for competitions, Tibetan Terriers enjoy a variety of activities. One night while watching “It’s Me Or The Dog” on Animal Planet, the dog trainer, Victoria, made a statement that truly described things from the dog’s viewpoint. Dogs “require” to be walked every day, she claims, in order to be contented and satisfied. That wasn’t her actual statement, but it conveyed the basic argument she was saying.
Curiosity and creativity are seldom stretched beyond their familiar surroundings unless they are brought off the farm to new and intriguing areas every day. It made complete sense to me. She characterized it as if we were confined to our homes 24 hours a day, never permitted to get out into the world and experience different noises, sights, people, pets, nature, and so on.
As a result, we started paying extra attention to ensuring that each TT got at least a 20-minute walk in a new region every day. Caroline and I had prepared ahead of time, and she bought a dog stroller for her two dogs to ride in as we walked the TTs in groups of two or three. We’ve always brought our dogs on holidays, out on errands, and yes, walked them on a whim, but as we made it a daily event for everyone, we started to notice things about the dogs that we hadn’t seen before, just as THEY began to notice things they hadn’t seen before!! For example, we had no idea that if given the chance, Freesia like to gallop down the ditch and sometimes flip and roll on her back, Cartier prefers to listen for bird sounds in the tops of trees, and Mr. Whipple had an unusual response to his first experience with horses!! It’s great to observe their expressions as we prepare for their trek. We could see the excitement building in a couple of days, and not just for a trip around the neighborhood. It was the excitement of something new, something entirely unfamiliar to them. It amazes me how much we make assumptions about our pets. I believe we make extremely erroneous assumptions when we assume kids don’t need to be out in the world! I understand that this is not easy for everyone, but I urge you to get those TTs off the property, out of the home, and into the great wonderful world that is going on around them. You will discover new things about your pets as they discover new things about the world around them.