Staying Motivated With Your Dogs In The Winter

On this episode, Jake from OnDog Training Academy talks about the "winter blues" and what things we can do, as humans, to keep ourselves motivated to train and play with our dogs.

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Transcript

Staying motivated is something that's difficult year round, but especially this time of year, when the weather is cold and crappy, being motivated to do anything with your dog can be tough. So that's what we're going to be talking about on this week's episode, staying motivated with your dog. Let's get into it next. 

All right, let's get this week's episode going. Hey everybody, how's it going? This is Jake from On Dog Training Academy and welcome to the Learn.  This week's episode is going to be  the part two, I suppose. Like I mentioned last week, we're breaking it down every week into a different topic. This week's topic, or this week's category, is more training advice.

And the advice I wanted to give isn't so much about specifically any sort of like, 

It's more about staying motivated this time of year.  So unfortunately, um, or I guess if you are into this type of weather, fortunately, it's winter. For most of the country, I should say. Most of, of, well, I don't know about the world, but most of the country, at least where we are, it's hard. Now, if you have beautiful weather, say you live out in the west coast and you're dealing with beautiful weather,  This still pertains to you because it doesn't matter the time of year.

We do lose motivation at times to train our dogs, to work with our dogs. And even us as dog trainers run into times where we're just like, I just don't feel like doing this.  And having that happen every once in a while for a day or two, fine, that's great. That happens, that's life. But when it gets into weeks or potentially even months,  We need to get that motivation back because not only are we suffering because our dogs are probably getting bored out of their mind, but also our dogs are suffering.

They're not getting the necessary outlets that they maybe need or are used to. So that is what I want to talk about this week is how to stay motivated in this case during the winter, but really it could be just year round. And we're going to start with a very easy one.  And that is continuing to exercise.

Now, if you listened to last week's episode, I talked about that exact topic, exercising with your dog, and I gave you your January challenge, which is exercise with your dog five times a week. And that is so important. And you can go back and you can listen to that episode from last week to get more information.

But basically, it's just about taking that edge off. Taking that energy out so you're not just sitting here and not knowing what to do. But just exercising. Exercising in itself, as much as I talk about it being physically draining  for dogs. It can also have a very uplifting effect, right? I don't know if it's a dopamine thing or whatever they call like the runner's high, um, for that.

And I think dogs can't like that too. Yes, dogs are satisfied and yes, dogs sleep a lot better when they're exercised, but they're also happier. And whether it's your dog or you. When you exercise and you're happy, you're going to be more motivated to do stuff. Personally. I probably jumped on the, the 2024 new year, new me type of thing where I'm exercising five times a week myself and, or six times actually  a week.

And what I've noticed is my energy is a lot better. Through the whole day. I exercise in the morning and then my energy through the whole day is a lot better. I'm not falling asleep watching TV or something in the evening anymore. I'm staying awake. And when I do go to bed, I tend to sleep better. So that's, that's something I think that's really going to be something to help keep you motivated.

Is get that exercise. Get quality of sleep. You know, making sure that, uh, that you're getting everything you need with that. And I know this is a dog podcast and you're like, well, you're talking about me. We are half of, we are over probably, half of like, The important scale when it comes to our dog being what we want it to be.

We have to be there for our dogs. And if we're not there for our dogs, whether it be for enrichment stuff, for attention, for bonding, for training, for whatever, if we're not there with our dogs, our dogs are going to suffer. So I am talking about us right now as people, as humans. What can we do to stay motivated?

It's going to help you in all life things, but we are going to sort of curve this towards dogs.  The next one is setting goals. Personally, for me, setting goals is a really important thing, because it motivates me, it gets me, it gives me a finish line. If my goal is, like, if I'm just training my dog, and I'm like, I just want my dog to be good.

It's such a blanket, blah statement. Like, I just want my dog to be good.  But what does that really mean? I don't know. When's that gonna happen? I don't know. So setting a goal of some kind, right? Like, be like, hey, bye.  March, it's January now. By March I want my dog to be better at walking on a leash. Write it in your calendar, put it in your calendar, give yourself a goal.

By this time I want my dog to be better.  And then try, do your best to stick with it. You know, take time, and give yourself enough time. Don't be like, I have a dog who's never been on a leash before, and so by next week I want my dog to be, you know, doing perfect, perfect leash, uh, leash walking or healing.

Because it's just unrealistic. Give yourself a realistic time frame, but But set a goal. At the very least, set a goal.  Okay, establishing routines. This I think is really good too. It's really easy, and I suffer from this all the time, to just evening comes, you eat dinner, you just sit down on the couch, and then you just binge watch TV till it's time for bed. 

Eh, I mean, I guess you could say that's a routine, sure, but getting a routine that gets you moving, gets you up. Maybe you exercise with your dog, you play with your dog, you do a little training, you do something in part of that routine, but setting a good solid routine, I think is going to help as well. Um, Um, if you have to work out indoors, find ways for not only you, but your dog to work out inside.

If going outside isn't something that you want to do because it's cold and crappy, then exercise inside and find things you can do inside with your dog to expel that energy and to just uplift you like we talked about before. And podcast from last week. And if you are going to go outside, here's a big tip to help you stay motivated.

And honestly, this, this sounds stupid, but. It's going to, it's going to, uh,  make sense here. I think dress appropriately for the weather if I, so  I work from home most of the time. So my outfits consist of a hoodie and like shorts, even in this time of year in the winter, hoodie and shorts. Well, if I'm lazy and I'm not motivated and I'm just like, I'm just going to not,  I'm just going to let my dog out.

Maybe I'll go stand outside with him for a couple minutes. I get cold so fast that I'm like, all right, buddy, we're going inside. It's too cold. Nothing good happened, right? I wasn't motivated. I didn't feel good. Nothing. So if I dress appropriately though, that motivates me then to be outside and hang out with my dog and play with my dog in the snow and have a really good time.

And, and it just,  it just helps to keep me motivated to like, oh, I'm going to go out there. I spend more time. It keeps everybody happy, my dog happy, everything. Another thing you can do is, is Lean on your friends. I'm sure your friends are going through the same issues of not really feeling motivated.

Being like, hey, I'm going to walk my dog. Do you want to come with? Do you want to walk your dog with me? Do you want to meet up at the park? Do you want to do whatever? Connecting with friends at this time is really, really important because, you know, you need that. Sometimes that hype person, right? You got that person in your corner that just pumps you up.

Well, if you guys can be each other's hype people That helps a ton in just keeping you motivated, you know, setting goals. Like I talked about before  If you set goals with friends and you hold yourself accountable To me that is something that really helps whether you tell a friend Hey, here's my goal or you post it on social media My goal for for this winter is to get my dog to heal good on leash or if you set a personal goal for yourself Whatever But then you're holding yourself accountable.

I've done this before personally as like a diet thing where I'm like, Hey, I'm starting a diet. I'm starting an exercise thing. I didn't do it this time because you know, but I, I posted on Facebook. I got, I'm exercising. I want to be healthy and everything. And it sort of holds my feet to the fire. Now I've made it this big public thing and it pushes me to actually do it.

So exercise with friends, get out there, schedule time with your friends, with your dogs as well.  Another thing is to pick up a new activity with your dog. So At this time of year, you could, at least where we are, we have indoor agility places. You could jump into some more classes. You could do a tricks class.

You could do a nose work class, get into some sort of class with your dog. It's going to weekly get you out of the house and it's going to give you something to work towards. Again, that goal, you know, I want my dog to, to be able to  climb an A frame or do the dog walk or understand this odor or whatever it might be, whatever you're doing, but find a new class and get yourself.

And that just helps typically push you  to do better. Um, and thus, you could then, if you feel really obligated or really pushed into it, like if you're doing nose work or whatever,  well, train for an event. Say, you know what? This is another, this, everything seems to be going back to setting goals. But  this is another where you could be like, you know what?

By springtime, I want to be able to go and do this nose work trial, or do barn hunting, or compete in an obedience competition with my dog. Or  I don't know, you could just, whatever it might be, but train for an event. Find some sport or something that you and your dog could do. Dock diving, whatever, and be like, I want to get ready for this event, and I'm going to train for it.

It just, to me, it just tends to  really push and get you motivated to do it. And, you know, it's, it can be hard at times, and I totally understand that. But we have to do things to stay motivated for me, my motivation, honestly,  exercise really keeps me motivated throughout the day just because of the energy, uh, push it has also podcasting.

So like I'm sitting here talking to you guys. This is something that when I'm done podcasting,  I feel energized and excited and happy and motivated. If I go to a dog trial and I watch these handlers and teams compete, it motivates me to go home and work with my own dog.  You know, finding things that are going to inspire you and motivate you to just be better humans is going to help you when it comes to working with your dog.

That is something that we all have to work on. And again, I don't care, like right now, winter motivation is just a beast. It's tough, but we can do it.  I've lived in this, I've lived in this climate my entire life. And so I've kind of adapted some skills and things. I've learned what I can and can't do. And even still sometimes my motivation just goes down the tank. 

So, keep these things in mind. There's always a hundred different more, a hundred more ways you can look up online on how to stay motivated. But, um, I'm hoping this alone,  for the simple fact that understanding that you are not the only person sitting at home going, I just don't feel like doing this today.

And whether that's training your dog or, or doing dishes or, or cooking or whatever, trust me, motivation is something humans struggle with forever. So these are just some things that I think could help you. Uh,  Do better and thus do better for our dogs. So guys, hopefully this week's episode was, was helpful.

If you liked it, make sure you subscribe to our, to wherever you are listening to this on, leave a review. If you can as well, it's always helpful. Helps us out. Um, if you leave a review, we're also on YouTube now. So YouTube podcasts, you can certainly check us out there and subscribe to our channel. We always have shorts and helpful videos and things on there, but guys, thanks so much for listening.

And like always, we'll see you next week. 

Good dog.