How do you balance it?

[SunnyNJazzy]

I don't know if this is the right place for this so feel free to move it

I'm just curious, how do you guys balance your life (dogs, work, social life, family) and make it all work? Having a second dog in training is proving to take up most of my time outside of work. I've found during the week is pretty much solely me and my dogs training or exercising etc. (and my mom since I live with her), and weekends I fit some time for friends/dating, but my dogs come first. I wish I had more friends that enjoyed training and playing with dogs.

So how do you make it work? Do you find yourself somewhat isolated due to your doggie endeavors? (I know I do at times lol)

opcorn:

 

[katielou]

I made it a point to find lots of doggy friends.

Most of my hobbies are things that can include my dogs so even if i didn't have dogs i would still need friends who were into the same things to not be doing them alone.

Now i live in a pretty dog friendly place and Abe has matured he comes with to a lot of social things that are not doggy.

 

[Fran101]

On weekdays my friends usually know that during the DAY for the most part.. my life belongs to school/dogs. I have class to go to, things to study, work to go to, dogs to walk, feed, play with.
and in turn, after I give the dogs their dinner and last walk of the night (usually around 6 PM) they can chill out/go to sleep and leave me to do social things lol

Embracing the movie night, dinner date and that kind of thing certainly helps, embrace night life because really.. your dogs don't care where you are after 10 PM for the most part lol mostly they just sleep!

Also, involving friends in things you MUST do during the day, like study dates, lunch dates, coffee breaks and such, is also a great way to see each other without really putting a wrench in your schedule.

For my friends and I, it works. For the most part on week days, we simply get together to study sometimes or have lunch together, but it's understood that basically school owns us monday-thursday.

As for weekends, once again.. night life lol

and of course, the schedule. I always suggest this but really, it's a great way to get everything in order. Make up a schedule with all hours between waking-going to sleep monday-sunday.
Fill in classes, times you feed the dogs, times you walk them, training stuff, work etc.. and then work on friend time from there!

 

[SaraB]

I made it a point to find lots of doggy friends.
.

This.. I tried for the longest time to have normal friends but dog stuff always got in the way and honestly, they really got sick of listening to me talk about dogs. Not only that but we just slowly drifted apart as most friends finding their lives do. We catch up now and then, but it will never be like it was. I really got stressed and tired of hiding my interests in order to fit into a group of people I no longer belonged. It helps that both my jobs revolve around dogs and my husband is very understanding of my focused lifestyle, LOL. So to answer your question, no I never did find a balance with my old life and my new life but I decided I was sick of being someone who pretended who I wasn't and that it was ok to be myself. My life realigned around my priorities and I'm happier than I've ever been.

 

[Saeleofu]

Pretty simply, I have no social life. And that's the way I like it.

 

[MandyPug]

Dating? What is this dating you speak of?

As far as friends go, join a dog club and friends come. Good friends who have similar interests and are great fun. Which turns training time into social time as well!

 

[CaliTerp07]

Do you find yourself somewhat isolated due to your doggie endeavors? (I know I do at times lol):

YES.

I work full time, so when I get home in the evening I have to focus on Lucy. The only way I have any social life during the week is because I have a husband to split the work with so I can sometimes go out after work. When I worked an office job with happy hours, I could never go, because it wasn't fair to Lucy to leave her alone for 8-9 hours, walk her for 30 minutes and run out again.

Though really...now that I'm older and all my friends are finally out of law school/grad school, we're all in the same boat of working full time and being too tired to go out during the week, so I don't feel like I'm missing so much. When I was working and they were still in law school, they wanted to go out all the time, and it was hard telling them no each time.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

I have my boyfriend, my family, and some dog friends.


No big deal.

 

[Panzerotti]

Pretty simply, I have no social life. And that's the way I like it.

Yep. I go to school part-time and work part-time, I socialize enough while there.

My spare time is spend with the dogs, husband, and immediate family. I really enjoy socializing with dog people at trials and training seminars, but don't go out of my way to hang out with people in my usual routine.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Yep. I find since I've gotten Jackson, if I'm being honest, I don't do as much with my friends. Mainly because if I'm at my main house where I live (which is my moms house - where my stepdad and 4yr old sister live) I don't trust leaving him alone there with them for long. They don't really pay attention to open doors, and my 4yr old is often doing things with Jackson and I don't trust her completely when I'm not supervising. She can drive him nuts. lol. So this often limits me because I'm too paranoid to go out between the hours of 6-10 (when she's home from daycare and awake, LOL). Sounds lame but it's the truth. Of course I will some nights but I usually come home and find something messed up.

Anyways I have made a lot of doggy friends which is nice. There's this one couple who I met in agility class and we still meet up. Then I made this other girl on a yorkie forum but she barely posted but noticed she was in my town, we met at a yorkie meet up and realized we were the only normal people there, LOL, and now she's a good friend. So if we decide to go to the movies or out to eat, I will sometimes just leave Jackson there at her house with her dogs while we leave.

I have a few close friends that I've been close to since very young and we always do make an effort to get together. She goes to college in another town but when she's home, we often do lunch meet ups, or whatever.

I am starting school again this month and Jackson will be able to stay at my dads house while I'm in school, so I won't have to worry about him thankfully.

I dunno, I guess, basically like everyone else said. Yep, my social life is kind of sacrificed a bit for my dog, but nothing extreme. I prefer just having a few close friends but being a homebody most of the time so it doesn't bother me.

 

[SarahHound]

I don't have a social life, and I don't spend time with family, so its just work and the dogs, which is quite simple

 

[SunnyNJazzy]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Fran, the schedule is a good idea, I need to get a planner and make that happen.

I need to find a dog club to join or something to get doggie friends. I am a homebody for sure which is great for the dogs, but it's nice to have people to train with and go hiking etc with! and a boyfriend would be nice... lol

Chazzers should all live in one state so we could all do doggie things together.

 

[~Dixie's_Mom~]

I have my sister who's my best friend, and then our mutual best friend, Lexi. We all love animals, and Lexi's just like me in constantly trying to convince her parents to let her have another pet. XD

I have no job, so I'm at home all the time and am able to spend all day with them most days. When I do get a job though, I trust my sister (who is homescooled) 100% to care for Chloe, and Violet is my parents, so I don't worry about her either.

When my sister and I go out with friends or when I go out with the family, we're never gone for long. If we spend the night somewhere, my parents care for the dogs.

If my sister and I had our own place, I think we'd have LESS time for the dog(s) but we're both real homebodies, so we'd definitely have plenty of time.

I will say that when I move out and have a job, I may have my parents watch Chloe when I'm at work, because she's SO used to being with someone all the time. Since we first got her, she's spent nearly 24/7 with at least SOMEONE there. My parents wouldn't mind though, she's their dog too right now, and they love her to death.

 

[~Dixie's_Mom~]

Sorry for the double post but...

Chazzers should all live in one state so we could all do doggie things together.

This!!!!

 

[mrose_s]

I'm struggling atm. I just got offered to go full time at work - its not something I can turn down but the hours are out of control - 45 hours a week + "reasonable overtime"

I'm really struggling to fit everything in around it but hopefully now that the christmas rush is over I can put some real times into the dogs again because they've missed out so much in the last 6 weeks or so.

 

[Southpaw]

I don't really make sacrifices because of the dogs. When Juno was a puppy, YES I absolutely did.... I remember my mom BEGGING me to crate her and just go to Target for God's sake so I'd get out of the house and away from the dog.

But now that she's an adult, not really. I do a lot with her because I enjoy it and want to, but also because I have nothing better to do. But there have been many times where I'll be called and asked if I want to go shopping, and when those instances come up, it means Juno doesn't get her dog park visit and she's left alone instead.

When I was interning full-time + working part-time, I had NO time for dog stuff except for a little bit on weekends (cuz naturally, on those days off, I wanted to do ME stuff). Juno handled it just fine and was not neglected because of it.

So yeah. I isolate myself during the puppy stage, but after that I worry less... my dogs get what they need but I don't put life on hold for them.

 

[katielou]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Fran, the schedule is a good idea, I need to get a planner and make that happen.

I need to find a dog club to join or something to get doggie friends. I am a homebody for sure which is great for the dogs, but it's nice to have people to train with and go hiking etc with! and a boyfriend would be nice... lol

Chazzers should all live in one state so we could all do doggie things together.

Look at meetup.com

 

[Lizmo]

I have my boyfriend, my family, and some dog friends.


No big deal.

This is kind of where I am right now in life. I have my family and a few close friends. That's about it. And it's not a huge deal.

Since starting college this fall, my social life did a TOTAL 180. I was so busy doing things with friends, etc in high school. Now. . .Nothing. It's been a definite change to adjust to, but it's given me alot of time lately to work with my dogs and since finding a new place to jog and let the dogs run off leash, I'm okay with having no social life right now. lol

The nice thing about alot of my friends, though, is we do tons of outdoor stuff like walking, photography, and hiking. All things in which my dog can tag along for.

 

[oakash]

I don't really. I feel bad because my time with Suzie has been slacking. I am on the computer a lot, but I'm usually doing school also, and my mom wouldn't let me just go and take her for a walk in the middle of the day. At night after practice, its too dark to do much. Fortunately, she is a super low maintenance dog, and she doesn't actually like too much exercise.

 

[PWCorgi]

...So to answer your question, no I never did find a balance with my old life and my new life but I decided I was sick of being someone who pretended who I wasn't and that it was ok to be myself. My life realigned around my priorities and I'm happier than I've ever been since I joined Chazhound and met PWCorgi

Fixed it for you!

Uh, my friends are all dog people. I work at a pet food store. And my friends are all dog people. Most of them I met on Chaz (SpringerLover, SaraB, justa, etc.)
I really can't think of anyone that I talk to on a regular basis whose lives don't revolve around their dogs.