It’s been a very long winter and a wet, not terribly mild, spring so far.  I have been absolutely desperate for some nice weather.  I’m a huge fan of being outside, playing with the dogs, and just generally relaxing in the sun (soaking up the vitamin D).  Well, yesterday we had a sampling of the weather to come, err, hopefully.  It was 82F, sunny, and slightly breezy and I absolutely took advantage of the beautiful weather.  It was finally nice enough (ie not raining/storming) to get our outdoor garden going with some hearty plants.  Spent some time reading in the sun on our porch (probably should have put sunscreen on a second time… I’m slightly pink) and listened to the local baseball game on the radio.
It’s 11:15pm and I’m exhausted.  I am normally a night owl… regularly up writing/reading/etc until the wee-hours of the morning regardless of the quantity of sleep the night before or activities of the dya.  But not tonight… tonight, as soon as the final words of this short entry are written and my title photo is done, I’m hitting the hay.
So, what does all of this have to do with dogs?  Well, since you asked…today was just a glimpse of what the spring/summer will bring once the weather gets warm–four dogs crashed out on the floor.  All the dogs are completely zonked and have been for hours.  Now Shayne and Rio had class this morning and Shayne was more stressed than normal because she had to be crated while I assisted a beginner class when she’d normally be in the car, but Dex has no excuse.  Dexter spent about 4-5 hours outside and only a very small percentage of that was spent actually exercising in any focused manner (flirt pole or playing with a ball).  I think the warm sun and the fresh air did wonders on helping him get tired/relaxed enough to have him be so settled in the house and ultimately sleep for so long.
I cannot wait for the days were we can spend most of the time outside and encourage the dogs to settle in the house and sleep at night so nicely.  It’s really just been awesome.  Who wudda’ thunk that spending four hours in the hot sun would turn Dexter into a sleepy boy.
It is a crazy reminder of how strong positive reinforcement is when you find the right reinforcer… Dexter being settled/sleeping is obviously a very high level reward for me!