Living With Miss Jovi, Our Doggo

Below, you will see me with Miss Jovi, a Catahoula Leopard Dog mixed with an Australian Shepherd. Adopted close to 6 months ago at this point, she is about one and half years old. She hails from a shelter down in Alabama that was overcrowded, but other than that, we don’t know too much about her history.

Neither my wife nor I had a dog growing up, so this entire experience is totally new for us.

At first, Jovi was very fearful of a lot of things, to the point where she did not even want to go in our backyard the first few days. This changed quickly as she loves being outside, although the recent humidity seems to affect her as she shows a desire to come back inside quickly to escape the heat.

I think splitting up the best things about Jovi and what we want to work on into lists will be helpful for understanding this beautiful doggo.

Best things about Jovi:

• Jovi is an absolute sweetheart with basically every person she meets, licking you and trying to get lots of love and affection. Her tail wags and butt wiggles when approaching someone, which is quite cute
• She has a mild temperament in the house and offers little behavioral concerns there
• Other than going to the bathroom a couple times in the house the first day, she always goes outside
• She can be a great cuddle bug
• She’ll back into you at times and expect pets on the neck/head or belly rubs, showing she loves you
• When in the mood, she loves to play, especially tug of war and chase the ball
• She can sleep a lot, so leaving her home for periods of time has worked okay so far
• She’s a real cutie sometimes, especially when she stares deep into your eyes

Things to work on:

• Her biggest difficulty is that she seems fearful of some dogs, resulting in reactivity, meaning she will bark, growl, and lunge toward another dog sometimes when we are walking. Being new to dog owning, this has been stressful at times as we continue to work on reducing her reactivity. We’ve worked with a trainer and learned some different tips. Recently she had a play date with 2 dogs that went really well! We think she likes being in smaller groups, rather than having a lot of people or dogs around all at once
• Consistent eating- she loves being fed from the table so we need to reduce that (I’m guilty). Sometimes she doesn’t want to eat her breakfast or dinner, so we get concerned she’s not eating enough to fill her up
• Less crying to wake us up before 6 am, even thought it’s kind of funny

Ultimately, I think having Jovi has been meaningful and fun, but also quite stressful at times. We walk her 2-3 times a day, make sure she gets out often, and more. Being a dog owner is not a responsibility to take lightly. That may not seem like a lot, but when you both work and have other responsibilities the balancing game becomes a bit more challenging. My wife is better at taking things in stride and not worrying too much, but I am definitely more anxious-prone. I feel guilty leaving her alone for too long, so when we are both gone during the day we’ll have someone come to let her out and play with her. We want to walk her longer, and sometimes do, but seeing too many dogs gets her stressed. Having her is really great practice for letting go of anxiety and enjoying the present with her.

Veronica told me she has a motto where she says to herself “love her,” meaning Jovi. Whether she does something sweet or naughty, Vron tries to love her. I really like that motto, and plan to use it myself.

Let’s Talk Happiness

We all know what happiness means, although some people would differentiate between true happiness and fleeting pleasures, such as being married to your best friend versus eating your favorite ice cream. But we can all agree on the basic idea that happiness involves feelings of joy, delight, glee, contentment, etc.

I recently read The Book of Joy, authored by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams. Basically, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop met for close to a week where they discussed various topics related to joy, including the nature of joy, the obstacles to it, and what they termed the eight pillars of joy. Abrams, a journalist and author, participated in these conversations and crafted what was discussed into this book.

I would definitely recommend reading the book as the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop each have amazing stories from their past and they are full of wisdom that can be applied to anyone’s life.

A photo of the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop showing off some moves.

I took a lot from the book, but one thing that Abrams pointed out was a study on happiness conducted by the psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, who suggests that about half of our happiness is determined by factors like genes and temperament, so things mostly out of our control, while the other half is determined by a combination of our circumstances, which we have limited control over, and then our attitudes and actions, over which we exert much control.

Lyubomirsky pointed out three main factors that can have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness. The three are:

1. Our ability to reframe our situation more positively
2. Our ability to experience gratitude
3. Our choice to be kind and generous

I really like these three factors because they are easy to understand, practical, and effective when you try them yourself. Now, keep in mind this does not mean you should just feel happy when something bad or tragic happens. However, concerning most situations in life, we can reframe our perspective in a more positive manner, keep in mind all that we have to be grateful for, and remain kind and generous toward others, even when things get tough.

Trying Out a New Eating Schedule

I came across an eating schedule, I guess you can call it a diet but that comes with negative connotations sometimes, that a former Olympic Gold Medalist followed. Billy Mills won the 10k on the track at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which was a great upset at the time.

I’m sure his training would be interesting to analyze, but I saw that he followed a diet that included a 4 day cycle. He had Native American blood and I believe this diet originated from his ancestral tribe.

The cycle included food from the air (birds), the land (mostly red meat), the sea (fish), and the earth (vegetarian).

Over the last six to seven years since my sophomore year of college, I have cycled through phases as a vegetarian, but I was never very consistent. Recently, I have been eating meat fairly regularly and I try to eat a good amount of fish.

My primary reason for abstaining from meat at times is the ethical implications. A lot of meat in the United States comes from factory farms where animals are horribly mistreated in many ways.

However, you can try to be intentional about where you get meat products, and as an athlete who stills runs a lot I don’t feel that I adequately meet all my nutritional needs as a vegetarian. There are many out there who do, but they are better equipped with resources and dedicated to following their plan. I want to eat mostly vegetarian to still feel like I’m thinking with an ethical perspective, only eating meat at dinner and not in crazy large portions.

Now, how do I think this diet will go?

I’m excited to see if I notice any physical and/or mental differences following this schedule. Besides the main dish each night, I also hope to be consistent with fruit and vegetable intake each day.

I don’t think anyone would refute that diet is a huge part of our health. Unfortunately, in our modern society eating a healthy diet has become more and more difficult. Look at our concerning obesity numbers below:

The State of Obesity 2020: Better Policies for a Healthier America

Eating healthy takes work, as most things in life do. My wife and I are excited to try this out together!