Spend Less Time Working, and More Time With Your Dog

Hello everyone this is Krista with episode number 130. A Special Edition release on the Wag Out Loud Pawdcast. Have you checked out all of the amazing partner products that I highly recommend? These are products that I've tried and can recommend to you that will help your dog to thrive. Just go to https://www.wagoutloud.com/ and check out the partner Products section. And I've negotiated discounts for most of these products, so why not see what can make a difference in your dog's life?

Are you versed in our dogs sniff rate? Well, a dog breathes in and out around 15 times per minute when they are sitting calmly. that frequency goes up to 31 times per minute when they are walking. But when a dog is actively sniffing the inhalation and exhalation rate goes up to 140 to 200 times per minute. Pretty interesting.

Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode.

Tori Mistick is an influencer, educator, podcaster and founder of the award-winning dog mom lifestyle brand Wear Wag Repeat. Her mission is to help women live their best life with dogs - as pet parents and petpreneurs! Her dog mom advice has been featured in BuzzFeed, Good Morning America and The Wall Street Journal. 

Hi dog lovers and welcome to a Special Edition of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where I am so excited to be chatting with fellow podcaster and influencer, Tori Mistick who is here to encourage us to spend less time working and more time with your dog. Tori, I would love to spend less time working and more time with my dog. So I can't wait to get your tips. And I want to welcome you to the show and just ask you to please introduce yourself and tell us about your mission of helping others to live their best life with dogs.

Yes, well thank you, Krista for having me. I'm so excited to be here and to get to meet your audience even though I can't hear them, they can hear me. And you're right, that is my motto is to find a way to work less and spend more time with our dogs. Because, you know, I've realized in 20 years of dog mommying, that our dogs aren't with us for long enough. And so I tried to make as many memories as possible. And my blog Wear Wag Repeat is sort of why I started getting into all of this. I started my blog as a hobby about eight years ago to document my love of style and dogs. And over the course of the past eight years, it's really kind of veered in the dog direction. I don't I don't do any style blogging anymore. It's all dog blogging now, but my blog has allowed me to have sort of a reason to do all kinds of awesome things with my dogs and then share it with other people so they can try it too. So I love making creative healthy treat recipes for them. I love doing stand up paddleboarding with my dog, Lucy, she's also a therapy dog. And so my blog is just kind of a great place for pet parents to learn about all the things that I have found that enrich your life with your dog. And so a lot of people were asking me, how did you become a blogger? How did you become an influencer? And so a few years ago, I started teaching other people how to do stuff like that. And now I host several online courses, and a membership about online marketing for women in the pet industry. And then I guess I should mention my dogs I have two chocolate labs, Burt and Lucy. Burt is a rescue who we just got about three years ago, and they're both nine years old.

Well, I can't thank you enough for all that you do. I mean, you have you're the epitome of following your passion for dogs and turning it into a thriving business. So I'm so excited that you're going to share some tips with us today. But before we get into that, I have to ask you, how have Burt and Lucy personally inspired you to spend less time working and more time with them?

Well, so I'm just like everybody else. I know. I started having dogs. We got our first dog in my family when I was like 15. And so back then, you know we would walk the dog, we would see a dog and hang out with a dog. So that's pretty much it. And so when I started to get my own dog Lucy was my first dog I had on my own as an adult. I started to Take her more places, and realize how fun it was and how it enhanced my life and her life to take her places. And then about three years ago, I got a little bit more into dog training and working on just like fun tricks. I don't compete. I'm not professional, but I just do it for fun. And I found that you know what, that I've worked from home for about 14 years. And it's easy to just work, work, work, work, work, and, you know, take the dog for a walk around the block. But I found that when I take more breaks throughout the day, and do something fun and enriching, like teaching them a new trick in the backyard, they their eyes light up, and it brings me so much joy, it makes me more creative and less stressed, and it makes their lives better. And that's just I think that's just the greatest lesson. That's why it's important to me to find ways to work less and spend more time with a dog.

Well, I love that you mentioned stress, because I know with myself owning my own business, of course, there's plenty of times when I have projects and deadlines, and I am stressed to the max. And of course Winston picks up on that stress and will actually take it on. And I don't know, if our listeners realize that studies have shown that our dogs absorb our emotions. And this has been proven by looking at stress hormones in dog owners and their pups. So do you have anything to say to that?

Yeah, I think that's so true. You know, a lot of people, especially in the last year and a half or so, have started to look at their dogs as their personal therapy dogs. And I think that's really wonderful. Our dogs are our great comfort in that. But it's a lot of responsibilities to put on your dog to be the therapist and your best friend, and your personal trainer and all the other things. It's just a lot of pressure to put on them. So we need to make sure that we give them plenty of outlets that are suited to them. You know, so as people self care, maybe we, you know, sleep in or take a bath or read a book or go to the movies, but for dogs, they want to play usually, or you know, my dog Burt loves doing scent work. We've gotten into that, because he just excels at it and he's amazing at it. Lucy loves swimming, so I take her swimming. And so I think it's really important that, you know, if you're thinking of your dog as like stress relief, you need to give them an outlet for their own struggles too.

Absolutely. Well, we all know what 2020 was. And one of the benefits, I guess, silver lining was that many of us got to work from home. And we were with our dogs. A lot of the time, of course, what are some of the benefits of actually working with your dog? What comes to mind?

Well, so there's tons of studies about how how dogs can improve morale and productivity in the workplace. But, you know, if we're working from home, it's not it's not a typical office, you're at home, of course. So there's, there's all kinds of benefits, like I mentioned, taking breaks with your dog. I've read several different books and studies and listening to podcasts, about how taking frequent breaks, actually makes you a lot more productive. So if you were to sit and work for eight hours straight, you're not going to be as creative or as inspired, you're not going to be as happy as if you were to work in, you know, maybe three hour shifts, and then take a little half hour break to go do something with your dog. So they're really great with that. And then you know, since they do get you out walking, it is really good for your for your health. You know, you don't need to go do like a CrossFit workout in order to get a good workout in even just going for a 15 or 30 minute walk is is really good. And especially as women, it's important because as you probably know, heart disease is a major problem for women and something we need to think about. So just taking those little 15-30 minute walks with your dog is just so good for your health. It's so good for your productivity and your creativity. I mean, they're the they're the greatest.

I totally agree. And you mentioned before, how walking our dogs can make us more creative. I know for me, some of my best ideas come to me when I am just out on a walk with Winston. Does that happen to you?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. My thank God for like voice memos. Absolutely. I pull up my Notes app and I just dictate all these ideas. It doesn't always come across and so sometimes I'll get home I look at my notes. And I'm like, What was I thinking?

That's great. Well, for those of us in the audience that might be thinking about starting their own business in the pet space, what do you recommend, or what are some things that you've learned having gone through it?

Sure. So I'll tell you that it's never too late to change careers or to find your calling, or do something that you love. So just forget about that, right off the bat. And then in terms of figuring out what you want to do, you will be surprised at the variety. I mean, you've interviewed so many wonderful people on your podcast, I've interviewed tons of women on my podcast, and it's just amazing the variety of jobs you can do that allow you to work with pets. So there's pet photographers and, and groomers, there's pet communicators, there's pet party planners, there's so many different things, you could be a canine massage therapist, there's just so many different jobs that you can do. And so I think it's important to look at what you really love doing, and and kind of go from there. And you don't always have to quit everything else and do this 100%. Sometimes, having a side gig, it can give you extra money, but it can also kind of give you that fulfillment that you're looking for to allow you to work with your pets. So some jobs that are really kind of conducive to that would obviously be, you know, dog walking, and pet sitting are really great, because that can be very part time. But even within that there's so much variety. So right now, I live in Pittsburgh, and it's really popular to hire someone to take your dog for a run. So people will hire someone to take them for like a four or five mile run, I personally never want to run. I would outsource that for sure. And then I one of my friends out in California, she has a dog hiking business. So she'll take your dog and a hike. So even within the dog walking arena, there's a huge variety of things that you can do. So just kind of, you know, be creative, go for a walk and brainstorm what you might want to do. And, and just and just try it out and see if you can start off in a small way and then build it over time.

And may I ask, what did you do before Wear Wag Repeat came into existence?

So for 12 years, I was a social media consultant, and manager. And so I managed social media for sometimes as many as a dozen different local businesses. And I was doing all their posts, and sometimes email blasts and blog posts and all that kind of stuff. And I did that for about 12 years, I also worked, I was the coordinator of a local Chamber of Commerce for five years, sort of in the middle of all of that. And at the same time, I was starting my blog. So I definitely am a multi passionate person. Sounds like and I like to be I like to be busy. But it was it was just great because doing the social media stuff, obviously was a great precursor for what I do now. But then also working with the local Chamber of Commerce, we did a lot of events. And I actually started our first annual dog walk event in that neighborhood where we did a two mile walk with dogs. And I made a whole website of all the dog friendly businesses in that neighborhood. So I found a way to make things dog related. One of my social media clients that I worked with, for for about a decade, we started a pet photo contest for them on Facebook, and every year 1000s of entries and it was so competitive. But it was it was really, really fun. So I always I always was finding a way to kind of fit pets and dogs into things. And here I am now so …

And you're a big deal. I have to say. Hey Tori, we’re going to take a quick, commercial break and we will be right back.

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Welcome back everyone. We are chatting with Tori Mistick from Wear Wag Repeat. And she is sharing how to spend less time working and more time with your dog. So Tori, you gave us a little background of how you started Wear Wag Repeat. And you mentioned you had a J.O.B. at the time and started with your blog. So did you have the all encompassing vision of what your company was going to look like today? Because it's the blog, but it's so much more?

Yeah, absolutely not. I had no idea. I just I started Wear Wag Repeat and and I laugh because that name is a little bit of a tongue twister, that name. And that goes to show that I really didn't know what I was setting myself up for. I just kind of I actually did a poll on Facebook, it comes up in my Facebook memories every once in a while. The other name I was thinking about because I was really into style, and dogs. The other name I considered was Dog is the New Black. So that was kind of where I was when I was when I was starting my blog. And I had no idea that it would end up being what it is now. But I'm so happy with the direction that it's taken. And it's given me such a platform, and an opportunity to educate people about the things that I get to learn about because as a blogger, I get all these emails, I get press releases, I get to test out products, I get to go places and do things that not everyone gets to do. And then I can tell everyone about you know, what's worth it, what they should try. And all the cool things I learned about. One of my favorite quotes, I think it's Maya Angelou is the paraphrase a little bit is when we know better, we do better. And that's a little bit of my kind of ethos behind what I share with pet parents now, because when I first got dogs, you know I mentioned before, like we just we took them for a little walk. We fed them whatever kibble we bought at the grocery store. We used to give them raw hides. We used to do all these things that I would never do now. But we didn't know any better. Sure. Exactly. We all start somewhere. And so I feel really lucky that I know a lot now. And I can share that with people in a way that this really honest and transparent. Because you know, I don't know any better than anybody else. I'm just learning a little bit every single day as well.

I agree. I'm with you on that one. Well, I think the dogs have, well, you are the cheeriest person on the planet. I know that but dogs have just the best attitude. They don't judge. What do you think they teach us about how to live our lives?

Well, you made me think of an example that I love to share all the time. And you know, I don't know about about your dog Winston. But with Burt and Lucy, they are excited no matter what we're doing if I open the door or grab a leash or put my shoes on they’re pumped. and now they don't know if we're going to go to the vet, or if we're going to go to the beach, they have no idea what we're going to do, they're just, they're excited for the opportunity to do something. And so I'm always just learning from them. And really trying to adopt that lifestyle myself, although it's, it's hard, because I know when we're not going to do something fun. But you never know just kind of being open minded and, and I think that dogs are so happy because they live in the moment and they're present and they're not worried about the future and they're not regretting the past. They're just here now. And so not to be too philosophical, but I think that's, that's kind of the key to happiness.

And you said it so perfectly. I agree. And you mentioned it before they have so many roles in our life. I think the biggest one is they are our teacher. They're here to teach us. And I know Winston is trying he's 12 years old and continues to try to teach me patience.

Yeah, well, senior senior dogs are amazing.

Well, Tori, we're talking about time, so less time working more time with your dog. So being a business person, especially do you recommend actually blocking off time for work and play with our dogs?

Yeah, so, especially since I have, I've been working from home for about 14 years, you know, so many people. This is the first time in the last year and a half that they've been working from home. So it's new for a lot of people. But I've been doing this for a long time. And I found that it is really important to have that dedicated, work time. And to close your computer, or sometimes on the weekends, I actually delete social media apps from my phone, so that I can be more in the moment, and not not checking them even, I just, I don't have enough self control to not check in. I have to delete it. So that's, I think, really important. For me in terms of like productivity, I also I do something called the Pomodoro Method. I don't know if you're, if you've ever heard of that. But it's kind of just a fun name for a scheduling like time blocking strategy, where I'll set a timer for 30 minutes or 60 minutes, or 20 minutes, whatever it is, and, and focus on whatever task I'm trying to do in that time. And when the timer goes off, you like have to get up or look away and take a break for five minutes, or whatever it is. And then you come back and you set the timer again. And the time goes by so fast. I'm the major procrastinator I just always have been. And so you know, setting that timer and really focusing on whatever it is I have to do. You know, I'd rather get stuff done so that I can go play with my dogs or, or do whatever I want to do rather than spending too much time scrolling on social media and stuff.

Well, let's play a little game. Because I think when we think of being with our dogs, you know, you mentioned maybe learning a new trick or going for a walk but there are so many things that we can do with our dogs. So if you and I can just blurt out what comes to mind activities that maybe not everybody thinks about. Okay you first.

Oh, yeah, I love this game. Wow, we play hide and seek in the house you can do this year round, because in Pittsburgh, it gets cold in the winter, I have the dogs stay in their place. So on their bed, in the front room, and then I go hide somewhere in the house and they have to come find me. And I can tell you if I hide in the bathtub. They can not find me it's something about something about the bathtub, like the fence wave must like stop there or something like that. It's it's really fun game.

I love it. And we do that too, especially when it's raining or really cold outside. Another one that we like to play is the Find It game. So we'll take you know he can't be in the kitchen when we're cooking or eating. So he he's in his place waiting patiently. And then we play the Find iI game and we take four little treats. And we hide them kind of like Hide and Seek but we want him to sniff out where the treats are and his eyes get huge like he loves the mental stimulation and the sensory activity of sniffing to find his treats.

Yeah, that's such a fun game.

Okay, your turn.

Okay, another one. It's like an activity that that I do all the time and it's one of my most popular blog posts is making a busy box. So I hoard all of my Amazon boxes and berry containers and egg cartons I save everything. And then when I have enough accumulated I feed the dogs there dinner and I kind of do like a Russian nesting doll and I'll put a few kibbles in a little box and another and another box and kind of build them all up. And the dogs have to take it apart and find their dinner

That I have not heard that and that is perfect. Thank you for sharing that.

It's very fun. And it's very eco friendly and very budget friendly. It's just the best.

That is great. Well, and a lot of us forget that there are so many pet friendly stores. You know, I live in Colorado, which I think is the dog capital of the world. But there are so many, you know, from Home Depot and Lowe's to there's a lot of these outdoor malls now that encourage you know, they've got the dog water bowl right outside of their door, you know, please come in. So plan a little excursion where what are the stores that I can go to and take my dog along?

Yeah, I love that. When it's below zero here. We usually go walk around Lowe's or Home Depot.

Yep. That's, it's great exercise. And it's great socialization, because everybody sees your cute dog. Oh, can I pet your dog? So that's great. Do you have another one?

Yeah. Okay, one, one more. When we go on walks, a fun little activity that I like to do is, while we're walking, while we're kind of walking I’ll have the dogs right next to me, and I'll say, you know, have some kind of heeling next to me. And I'll start walking really fast, and like, hurry up. And I'll walk almost like speed walking for 10 paces, or whatever. And then I'll slow down really fast, mostly easy. And they've got to walk really slow for like, 10 paces. And we'll do like, maybe five sets of that. But if they're, if they're very distracted, or there's a lot of other dogs around, it really gets their focus on me. And it's very fun. And I probably look like a total crazy person. That's okay. But, but it's just, it's fun. And I think also with senior dogs, as they're kind of, you know, dragging their feet on the second half of your walk, it kind of gives them a little boost of energy.

I'm gonna have to try that. Thank you. Yeah, well, for the last tip, I know that you are really into taking your dogs on vacation. So I would love for you to chat about how you do that. How do you know where you're going? How do you prepare?

Yeah, well, I love taking my dogs on vacation. We usually go like driving distance from Pittsburgh. So our big, our favorite place that we've gone many times in the past year is West Virginia. There's tons of activities, hiking and, and lakes and waterfalls and rivers, there's so much to do down there for the dogs. So I usually stay in Airbnbs. And I search on Airbnb, you know, click the pets allowed filter, but I will, if you're if you've never done that before, I would advise reading the fine print and making sure because sometimes, you know it will be one small dog is allowed. And I have two large dogs. So I always make sure to message the people and just say Is it okay if I if I have my Labradors? And if I'm trying to butter them up, I might say, you know, Lucy is a certified therapy dog. We're well behaved Yes, yeah. So, so we've been lucky to find some really nice places. But when I do go, I take something that I love to take when I'm going to Airbnb is I take so many blankets and towels and everything. And especially if I'm driving, it's easy. But with at least my dogs, you can never have enough blankets and towels and I just cover everything in in the unit so that we're never leaving a mess behind. I think it's important as, as dog people who are out doing activities, not disrupt things and leave no trace. Because even like on the trails, people say that, but I think even in your accommodations or at restaurants, we don't we don't want to disturb other people. It really is a privilege. So I think it's just important to be courteous of everyone around you. But then looking for dog friendly activities. My dog Lucy, she loves being wet all the time. So I try to find places where she can take a little dip or a swim or something like that. And then Burt, he loves socializing. So if we can find some kind of a dog friendly brewery or restaurant that's right up his alley. So you know, I look on I look on Yelp, I look on Instagram and I just put together a little list of places to check out and when we usually try to play it by ear and and i don't over plan it because with the dogs, you just never know what's gonna happen.

Oh, that's all great, great advice. Tori, as we are wrapping up. What would you like to leave everybody with today?

Oh my gosh. Well, I hope that you're doing something fun with your dogs while you listen to this podcast and If you're not, if you're driving somewhere and you don't have your dog, just remember, you know everything that we talked about and maybe the next time you're with your dog, take 10 minutes and you know, and head outside and play around and do some tricks and just have fun and make the most of every day.

I love it. Great, great advice. Tori, where can everyone find out more information about you and Wear Wag Repeat?

Yes. So you can go to https://wearwagrepeat.com/. And there you'll find my blog, my podcast, my online courses, anything else that I'm doing. And then on Instagram, I have the Wear Wag Repeat account is kind of business stuff. But if you want to follow me and Burt and Lucy my account is @TMistick.

Perfect. Well, I highly encourage everybody to check out Tori and all the fun things that she has going and she is making a special offer to our listeners.

OFFER: So if you want to take any of her courses in the Wear Wag Repeat labs, all you have to do is enter the code WOL for Wag Out Loud. And our listeners get 10% off any of Tori's courses, which is amazing. Do you want to give us a hint of what types of courses you offer?

Yes, absolutely. And I would love to, you know, tell everyone more about them if you reach out to me, so I do online marketing specific to pet industry businesses and really geared towards women as well. So I have a course of Instagram strategy for the pet success. I have Pinterest for petpreneurs. And I have another store that I started an on demand online store for pet lovers, which has also been a big hit with people in the rescue community because you can make t shirts and different products and sell them to fundraise for your rescue. So there's a little bit of something for everyone.

It sounds amazing. So everybody, check out Tori at https://shop.wearwagrepeat.com/ and Tori thank you so much for all of this wonderful information. Let's all spend more time with our dogs.

Yes, I agree. Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks again to our dog loving friends at Get Joy. If you agree that your dog is an important member of the family, then why not order some Fresh Freeze Dried today and save 55% at GetJoy.com by entering the code WAGOUTLOUD55 that's all in caps, no spaces, WAGOUTLOUD55 for 55% off your first two orders. Your dog will thank you.

Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time.

Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?