I'm curious, how much does your dog sleep? How many hours per day? Do you have to encourage them to sleep more?

Hey peeps! After suggesting on another thread that we all help one another out with some motivational training over winter, Nick has suggested I make a separate thread here so, here it goes! A few of us, including me, have been or are struggling to stay motivated to train regularly right now. It's eternally wet, dark, cold, icy, flooded, windy, you have a head cold, you have a busy work life - the list is endless. I have an idea for a "Winter Wins" series but it would be great to hear from you all first how you stay motivated when the days last just 5 minutes and getting out of bed early to train is too painful for words. What are your strategies? Are there particular things (games, tricks) you are training at the moment to motivate yourself? Are there any hardcore "I train in the rain" folks here? I'll share my idea if you share yours!! X

This is an experiment. Comment below when you've seen this post

Been a really nice few days exploring the beaches of the north east. Saturday was Skinningrove beach which was a gorgeous strip of sand, pebbles and rock pools. Sunday and Monday we were at sandsend again, which should be particularly challenging but even when it was packed on Sunday with walkers and Dogs + a few birds, she was impeccable. Recalled really well and was even checking herself when she got near to people and dogs and coming back on her own. Two big wins from these walks: - Sit/stay down on the busy beach while I walked up the steps off the beach to chuck her poo in a bin. Didn't move till I got back to her, much to some onlookers delight (will try and get a video of this) - Recalled when she tore off after another dogs tennis ball - 500 yard (ish) whistle recall where she snapped round and tore back to me through a crowd of dogs and people. We had one failed recall where she ran over and jumped at someone today. I think it was a case of mistaken identity! Overall though, it's kind of weird walking on a busy beach and not having an ounce of anxiety, knowing that this recall is getting rock solid.

It's been quite I while since I last posted. Willow spent some time at our friend's house while we were sunning it up in Portugal. Her season was particularly difficult and she was pestering their neutered saluki quite a lot, so I think they were happy when we returned! We had to do a few enclosed fields until she'd stopped ovulating, then it wasn't long till we were back in Devon and walking up woodbury common, which is practically disney land for her (video). A few days back and now we're up in Whitby and making use of the beaches (another video). Main aim of the game atm is to get her e collar training to a level where we can remove it for good and we're so, so close. She's doing incredibly well in general and showing signs of maturing all over the place, as well as becoming very affectionate. Our bond has never been tighter. I plan to buckle down and work on some bits once we're home, but for now, we're just enjoying ourselves.