The other WOW moment for me, is that humans also need to feel safe to use their senses and sense the beauty around them. I knew this about dogs. Safety is the most important sense for dogs. They can’t rest, sleep, eat, toilet, play, explore, exercise etc without feeling safe.

Learning to just ‘be’ with your dog takes practice. It may not be easy for you at first. Your dog has no problem because they will follow your cue. So first you have to learn to slow down. Then your dog can relax and slow down too.

Keeping a diary, over time, is an excellent way to slow down, observe your dog and create a valuable resource. Looking back over the diary now, I see many details of his behaviour I noted from the moment we met him.

The idea of Slow Grief is to allow yourself time and space to feel everything. To wallow in the grief. Name it with words. At the same time, celebrate your lost friend by remembering all the stories. Look at photos, create art, poems, and honour the way they filled your life with purpose beyond the daily walk. When we slow down and go into the emotions around death, instead of tidying it away, we will suffer less in the end.

Forest Bathing with dogs is like the Slow Dog Movement but with a shift down one or even two gears. The Japanese practice of Forest Bathing means to explore nature through our senses. Doing this with our dogs, includes our well-being into the equation of a traditional dog walk.

This is the deeper message. It is a message of deep relationship, slow observation, slow thinking. And high regard for our canine companions. To consider our dogs as partners in a lifelong relationship with us.