It’s the last day of January.Β  I am happy to be turning the calendar one day closer to Spring.Β  I won’t lie.Β  This has been a very challenging month to get in any exercise for the brown dawgs.

Normally in January we return to our field training on the weekends, but this year free weekends have been spent digging out from under the snowiest January we have ever had.Β  You read that right–the snowiest January ever.Β  When it wasn’t snowing, we had dangerous cold and wind chills.

Last week was a good example of how the month went.Β  When we started the month, we penciled in training for last Saturday figuring that as we moved closer to February, the weather would moderate.Β  Not the case.Β  It was very cold with periods of snow.Β  The drive to training is about an hour and a half away with the possibility of black ice or drifting snow on the roads.

Even if made it after a stressful drive, there is too much snow on the field to run marks and even running blinds can be a problem on packed snow or ice.Β  No sense risking injury.

We stayed home.

OK well we still had the drop in conformation class that we planned to attend on Monday.Β  Except that on Monday we were expecting wind chills to drop temperatures to -35F.Β  The class was cancelled.

We stayed home.

The dogs are bored.Β  We are bored.Β  There is only so much obedience you can do in the basement.Β  Walking the dogs around the neighborhood is not a good option either due to ice and salt and snow piles everywhere.Β  It is not safe at the moment.

The dogs need exercise.Β  So what to do?

Turn them loose out side and let them wrestle!

Freighter and Storm got right to it!

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What was Thunder doing during the Storm and Freighter wrestle-a-thon?

Trying to stay out of the way.

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Thunder

At least the brown dawgs were tired out after their play time outside but we are ready for Spring.

How is your winter exercise plan going?

We are joining the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by Slimdoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place, To Dog with Love.

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No training again this weekend.Β  They are supposed to get more snow and maybe some sleet.Β  We need to dig out at the cabin.Β  Have a nice weekend!

55 thoughts on “Goodbye January And Not A Moment Too Soon

  1. We love the winter, but so many days that never got above zero have hampered out fun a bit. We love that we keep getting snow, but it is often too cold to play in. Our classes have been cancelled three times, so now we are figuring out make up times. We still go for walks no matter what, but we hope the temps stay above zero so we can play more in the snow. Right now it is -12 again. We have been working hard on Nose Work and Bailie’s obedience training in the house, so our brains are worked out.

    1. It is sunny out right now. It is nice to see the sun, even though we had another couple of inches of snow overnight.

  2. We “stayed home” “stayed home” “stayed home” too……..our exercise plans have been put on hold. Yes, Goodbye January but unfortunately (as you know because you live in Michigan too,) we have a minimum of FIVE more inches coming tomorrow………

  3. Wow I’ve never seen two dogs so happy to burn off energy! Great photo series. Fortunately we don’t have to worry about this type of thing with Daisy – she’s an indoor dog to the max. For her small size, throwing toys up and down the hallway several times is all the exercise she needs. πŸ™‚

  4. At least you got a nice big area for the Brown Dogs to have some fun in. We too are running out of places to walk as it is so wet. Roll on Spring and hurry up. Have a fabulous Friday.
    Best wishes Molly

  5. Great wrestling photos, great fun and tires them out. Our exercise and training plans suck too! Just this am I screamed at gman 8 times for getting into various stuff because he is board and wants to do something. It’s 6 out so don’t really want to go out yet.

  6. Just having some snow would make our guys so excited they’d bur a lot of calories! I’m ironically bored of walking in the cold January sunshine. Maybe the cold February sunshine will be different… actually rain and even a little sleet/snow might come our way the next few days. Hooray! And we are lucky because hardly anyone uses salt or deicers here.

  7. Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like having all those classes cancelled and having to stay in all day. Your dogs look so happy to be out playing! πŸ™‚

  8. The cold and snow has us housebound too, although with Sampson’s injury, it works out pretty well. He is feeling better and wants to play, but I won’t let them.

    Last night we had a slight break in the cold and so Hubby and I took them for a short walk up the street. I really don’t like doing that because of all the crap on the roads, but that is what we have. πŸ™ Here’s hoping February is far kinder than January has been.

    Have a great weekend!

  9. Such a bummer that your classes were canceled, but it sounds like it most certainly was for the best, that’s a dangerous time to be on the roads!

    Looks like they had a blast just wrestling outside! I bet they burned off a lot of energy doing that. Petal finally got the snow she had been wanting, so our day looked about the same! Lots of running and wrestling with her doggy cousin in the snow. πŸ™‚

  10. And that is why I am so glad that it doesn’t snow down here! But the weather can be so finicky. School was closed the other day due to icy conditions and today it’s hot! I have my window open because it’s too hot… almost 80 degrees today. At least those two seem to be enjoying there snow in the photos!

  11. Wow what great photos!!!! Yea we love the snow here, but this January there have been so many FREEZING cold days that even my huskies didnt want to do much out there! We welcome the snow but not when its quite that cold!!!!
    ((husky hugz frum da pack))

    “love is being owned by a husky”

  12. And good riddance! January squelched a lot of our exercise too. The roads were often too slick for my two seniors since they both have mobility problems and it was too cold for Meadow who would rather live in Florida. Then, when it got warm, got cold, got warm, and got cold again, our backyard turned into a sheet of ice and I couldn’t even play with them out there! “-)

    Glad your yard seems to be holding nicely – Freighter and Storm look like they are having a blast. πŸ™‚

  13. They were having so much fun wrestling in the snow. Hoping the weather warms for you all soon. It is not bad here today but we have frozen precipitation of some kind coming up every other day this next week, we need it since it is very dry here. It is never as cold here as you all have but we have had colder weather than we normally have. We are very ready for spring. Hugs and nose kisses

  14. I say good riddance to January too! We haven’t really had a lot of snow here in NH, but the bitter cold has kept us inside. We like the snow for showshoeing, and we got a lot in December, then it warmed up, rained, melted, and everything turned to ice. We’ve had a little snow since then so at least the ice is covered, and we’re finally getting a break from the bitter cold the last couple of days, so I hope things are turning around now.
    Wrestling is always good fun too!

  15. I agree! Ours have been very pent up … lots of mental exercise, but lacking the physical exertion.

  16. I personally cannot believe we are already into February! Time certainly does fly…regardless of whether or not you’re having fun!! Much love, The Scottie Mom.

  17. Too much snow and cold is just no fun! Looks like the outdoor snow wrestling was a great activity. We’ve been playing find it games indoors and practicing on one 2×2 in the middle of the living room! hehe!
    Diane and Rocco

  18. Hi Y’all!

    Even in the deep south winter crippled plans. The 2 inches of ice didn’t melt until Friday. We stayed in the mountains where at least they have road chemicals and snow removal. We rescheduled the appointments we cancelled due to weather. Hopefully, despite calls for more wintery mix stuff here in the mountains this week, we’ll finish our appointed rounds and get back to the low country this week.

    BrownDog’s Human

  19. When you train and hunt most of the year, the guys don’t know how to handle the downtime. Our guys have cabin fever as well and even though we work them out on the treadmill, it doesn’t really satisfy them. I’ve started taking them out in the pasture to run and that helps, but where we didn’t get the snow that you did, we’re going to start back with training in another week or so.

    1. It is hard to run them too much in deep snow. We have to worry about injuries and now the snow is getting hard and sharp.

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