Have you ever heard about walking meditation?
I find those more natural, than just sitting somewhere with closed eyes. When you do walking meditation you focus on your breath first. You take a deep breath, and maybe you do 3 slower inhale and exhale while you count 1 -inhale, and-hold, 2-exhale and repeat. You can also focus on your steps, left, right, left, right... then focus on your surrounding..... so I tried this with my dog. And I found it beneficial for me and my dog as well.
How do I do it?
I get my dog on my left side and ask her to sit. Maybe a look as well.
I take a deep breath and say Let`s go.
Here we go....off for a walk
Then I focus on OUR steps and on my DOG. Her body language.
Meanwhile I keep breathing (Right? Don`t forget this one :) )
Deep breath, inhale, and hold, exhale. Checking my surrounding .... what`s going on around us.
Best to do on a non-busy forest trail. Walking slowly, enjoying the forest with all my senses.
And let my dog stop and sniff.
When she stops and engages in sniffing, I take a deep breath and focus on my breath.
One - inhale, and-hold, Two-exhale... usually I get only to 4 or 6 and my dog wants to walk again.
So much for pulling them around because they want to sniff. I found most of the dogs stop for only 3-5 sec.... so just wait and let them sniff. And why let them sniff? Because it`s relaxing them. Check out this YouTube video, how dogs` heart rate decrease with sniffing. : https://youtu.be/rJN-dycgslA
Instead of getting annoyed... take a deep breath.... focus on your breath, on your dog and on your surrounding....and enjoy your walk with your dog.
