It's a Dog's Life: Dog in the Night-Time

Daylight hours are limited during the winter months, but Teddy doesn’t have an issue with darkness and rather likes a nocturnal adventure, as explained by his human interpreter, Helen Stockton 

One thing ‘Them Indoors’ don’t like about the winter months is the darkness. Although the number of available hours to get things done is the same all year round, they feel like they’ve got less time in the winter. Whilst the daylight increases by a couple of minutes a day, after the winter solstice, we don’t really start to notice it until the spring. 

However, the darkness doesn’t bother me; I just sleep through it. If nature gives you an extended night-time, then I reckon you should just take to your bed and make the most of it! 

The scheduling of our afternoon walk has a seasonal adjustment to try and ensure that we get out in daylight. Inevitably however, timings sometimes slip and we end up walking in the dark. 

We don’t have streetlights in our village, so ‘Them Indoors’ deck us and themselves out in an array of illuminated and reflective devices to ensure we can see – and be seen. They both have head torches as they need their hands free for canine matters, and ‘Her Indoors’ has an extra torch that fastens onto a fluorescent belt she wears on top of her coat. You won’t see that look on the fashion runways! 

We have reflective strips on our harnesses and, if we are wearing our coats, they glow in any light too. We make such an interesting, illuminated display when we are walking along the pavement, that on-coming motorists sometimes slow down, trying to work out what the glowing apparition is, coming towards them. 

The lack of streetlight puts myself and my apprentice, Bear, at a nocturnal advantage. ‘Her Indoors’ squints blindly into the darkness, whilst we benefit from better low light vision and more acute hearing and sense of smell. It’s no good ‘Her Indoors’ telling us there is nothing there, when we are barking at nocturnal critters in and around the garden, on our nightly visits for our pre- bedtime ablutions. She hasn’t a clue, bless her! 

Sometimes however, the moon and starlight are so bright that even ‘Her Indoors’ can see, and without ambient light from the streets, we can all stand and admire the cosmic display – which is actually quite a pleasant thing to do. 

February is the month for dark skies events in the UK, and the High Weald is one of the darkest areas in the south east. So even if you are unfortunate enough not to be a dog or have one in your family, why not celebrate starry nights and nocturnal nature. Take a moment to look at the sky in the dark. And if you feel the need to have a bark too, I’m not one to judge!