Guide to busy dogs: Part II - Snow Sweater

Wow - there must be a lot of people out there with busy dogs - we were inundated with congratulatory thanks at putting together such useful instructions, with great interest in the video. Some of you were surprised at the size of the stick used in USF. This is unavoidable. The stick must be bigger than the dog to really wear him down. Remember, dear Reader, that your dog never tires. When you arrive home from a long day of work and look forward to putting your feet up for the day, your dog comes to greet you and laughs as he sees you reforming your butt mark in your sofa. He laughs because he knows he has you for a few hours before he actually gets tired as well, and your attempt at a little R&R is laughable.

However, with a little help, you can learn to wear you dog out in no time. Now that winter has welcomed itself into our lives, let's move onto some tactics that utilize snow. Here's what you need to do:

1. Fresh snowfall - while old snow would work okay, fresh snow is probably better. It also gives you the chance to shovel out your driveway while wearing out the dog at the same time.

2. Shovel - the bigger the better - if your dog is going to wear a snow sweater, you need to make sure he is fully covered in snow

3. When you get your shovel full is full of snow, give it a HUGE toss in the air. Try to make sure the snow stays close together so that it is falling back to earth in one big pile. Your dog will love that.

Again, here's a video to help you get the technique down. Notice how quickly the dog returns for more - you're going to have to be quick to wear him down!




Now, dear Reader, did you happen to see a common theme between the two videos? Yes, that's right: beard. It really helps with the throwing techniques (for those of you who know Lynden, he had a huge beard when he was a hammer thrower).

So, how do you know when you've given your dog a snow sweater and that he's probably starting to wear down? Well, he should look like this:










Notice how the snow covers his entire head except for his eye sockets. The spookier your dog looks, the better. Also notice how the snow weighs down his whiskers - this is an important clue to whether or not you've created a heavy enough snow sweater. Good luck!

Guide to busy dogs: Part I - USF

Have a busy dog? Does he never seem to run out of energy? If you see yourself saying "yes" to both these questions, this guide is for you! We've got multiple solutions that will wear you dog to the bone! This first part of the series will take you through Ultra Stick Fetching ("USF").

1. Go to the dog park. And when we say dog park, we actually mean the wilderness. Our best suggestion would be the "dog park" at Minnehaha falls in Minneapolis - you have free reign to a large chunk of the Snelling State Park. Your hyper dog can frolic freely through the woods.

2. Find the biggest stick possible. Your dog really only wants to fetch sticks that are bigger than him. So the bigger the better. This is also a psychological technique - by playing to your dog's ego now, he will feel more satisfied and will not bother you as much when you get home.

3. Have someone with a beard do the throwing. The big sticks are hard to throw - you know a man with a beard can give it a good hurl.

Here's a video so you can get the technique down. Notice that the dog has some difficulty in fetching the stick because it's so large. If he's having trouble, you know you've got the right size stick, and you have mastered USF.