Spring is Coming. Your Dog Already Knows.
Your dog has been staring at you through a window for three months. They don't know what a season is, but they know something is happening outside and they are not okay with being left out of it.
Spring is the best time of year to be a dog owner — the trails aren't scorching yet, the parks are green again, and your pup has approximately four months of pent-up energy to burn. Here's how to make the most of it.
Spring is the sweet spot for hiking with a dog — mild temps, soft ground, and every smell on earth activated at once. Find a dog-friendly trail you haven't done yet and just go. Your dog will spend the entire time acting like they've discovered a new continent.
Pack more water than you think you need, check that the trail allows dogs before you drive 45 minutes, and accept that you will stop every 12 feet for sniffing. That's the deal.
The off-leash dog park is criminally underused by most dog owners in winter. Spring is the time to fix that. Fresh grass, other dogs, room to sprint — it costs nothing and your dog will sleep like a rock afterward, which benefits everyone.
Bonus: dog parks are genuinely great for meeting other dog owners, which is its own weird and wholesome social ecosystem.
Take your dog somewhere wooded and just let them find one. No agenda, no fetch routine — just a dog in the wild being a dog. You'll be surprised how seriously they take the selection process. The sniffing, the testing, the rejecting of perfectly good sticks. It's a whole thing.
The best sticks aren't the ones you pick for them. They know.
A blanket, some snacks, a patch of grass in the sun. Your dog doesn't need an itinerary — they need to be outside with you. A spring afternoon at the park with no particular plan is legitimately one of the better things you can do with a dog.
Bring dog-safe snacks, skip the grapes, and accept that they will try to steal whatever you're eating.
This one sounds small but it isn't. A new route is basically a free enrichment activity. New smells, new sights, new things to bark at unnecessarily. If you've been doing the same neighborhood loop since October, your dog is bored and they're being polite about it.
Spring is a good excuse to explore a different block, a nearby trail, or that street you've always driven past but never walked.
If your dog is a water dog, spring is the move. Before the summer crowds show up and before the heat makes it miserable, a dog-friendly lake or beach in April or May is genuinely perfect. Bring a floating toy, accept that you're getting wet too, and let them have at it.
Just check for blue-green algae before you let them swim — stagnant water in spring can carry it, and it's dangerous.
If you have a yard, use it. Obstacles, a digging spot, a shaded area with water — a little setup goes a long way for a dog who's been inside all winter. You don't need to build an agility course. You just need to give them a reason to be out there.
A stick collection station doesn't hurt either.
Spring doesn't ask permission. Neither should your dog.
What are you and your pup doing this spring? Tell us on Instagram at @dogsticklibrary — we genuinely want to see it.