The journey that lead us here started when we couldn’t help but thinking there’s more to life than running from work to appointment to more obligations while just waiting for the weekend to arrive. The majority of our life was spent rushing and it seemed like we were missing something.
Que intentional adventure living. I bet you are thinking that just sounds like more things added to our “to do list” and doesn’t make life any less stressful but let me explain what we have personally discovered. Once we start looking for adventures (something new, something exciting) in every single day, something shifted. Perspective changed from, “lets get this over with” to “what does today hold”. Its extremely simple but not easy to execute. Because of habit we quickly fall back into the routine of hurry through the day but once we slow down and force ourselves to search for something new, things change. Your day changes, your week changes, your life changes.
I hope you are still with me here because frankly I haven’t even mentioned a dog yet and chances are you are here only to see more dog pictures (I know I would be!). Our dog was really the catalyst that made change possible. He gave us a direction to cling to and a reason not to give up on this search for something more.
One look at a dog and you can get a pretty good picture of its human. Our German Shepherd was bored. We were bored with this merry go round of repetitive life. So taking the que from Spetsna (the bored shepherd) we started looking for things to do together. It started with enrichment activities, then agility, then more walks in the woods, trick training and so on. The more we stuck our neck out and tried something new, the more we all began to feel alive again. There was richness and depth to life just because of a simple 20min evening walk, or trying to learn a new trick together. Simple yes, easy to make happen, no. But once you start you’ll quickly get addicted to experiencing adventure in any shape or size. Adventure doesn’t need to look like a 10 day camping trip to Joshua Tree Park (although can we say #goals?) Adventure happens right where you are, you just need to look very diligently for something new and adventure will meet you there.
Lets not be delusional though, life isn’t going to be perfect nor is every adventure going to be deemed a success. Adventure is stepping out and doing something all the while tripping, stumbling and possibly wondering why you even tried this new thing. But it is in these moments that we grow and find all the treasures life had around the corner. The treasures just waiting for those who dared go down the path not seen.
Real life example….. when we got our first at home agility set, both Spetsna and I were lost. But we were lost together! Some youtube searching gave us a bit of a start and once we tried to put it into practice, we were still woefully out of our element. Some yelling, disobeying and grunts of frustration may have happened on the human end, while the poor dog tried desperately to understand why he was supposed to jump over this darn stick. But fast forward months later and we are much more intune with each other. While still being failures at agility, we love the time we get to spend together. And now leaping those logs in the forest are even easier 😉
It could also look like a multi day road trip to somewhere new while your dog decides to get explosive diarrhea while driving though a city with the notoriously worst traffic (yes this truly happened). You end up wishing you were home on the couch with netflix and a bored dog but through this experience you learn to read your dog more closely, he learns to trust you, and you end up finding some new home remedies for diarrhea via frantic google searches on your phone. Comfort goes out the window when adventure arrives. That said, you’ll find comfort is a very boring friend whom you’ve outgrown before your first adventure is over.
This blog is our greatest adventure. It doesn’t matter who reads it, though I hope you do. Or if anyone says it is successful, whatever that means. This blog means we will push even harder to find that best dog life and will slow down to document it. As well as hopefully meet some friends along the way. With a walk in the woods, you’ve never really “arrived” – you just stop for moments and savor clips along the journey. This blog is our hike down the trail of adventure dog lifestyle. It doesn’t end. There’s always more to explore. And we are determined to find joy in every single breath.
Summery? Call your dog and go find something new to try together. You’ll never be the same.
