Dogs, just like humans, require exercise to stay fit and healthy.
Although often, it’s our four legged friends that usually encourage us to get out of the house! It is recommended that a dog get at least three different types of exercise a day – fetch, walk, and off leash play.
Providing your dog with adequate and appropriate physical exercise is a wonderful way to increase your bond with your dog, attain fitness together, prevent boredom, build immune system response, and reduce stress. It’s pretty much a win/win/win/win/win situation.
Most dogs can engage large amounts of activity. However, in dogs, as in people, there are wide variations in exercise tolerance among individuals. Young adult dogs generally can tolerate the most activity. Elderly dogs and very young puppies can safely engage in less.
Regardless, dogs still need to exercise but consult your veterinarian before beginning an exercise regimen to make sure that the amount and type of exercise is appropriate for your dog.
Not all doggy exercise is created equal. There are a few things you can do to maximize the benefits you see from the time you invest exercising your best friend.
- Exercise on your dog’s schedule. Dogs are crepuscular animals, meaning they are naturally most active at dawn and dusk and tend to sleep for a large part of the day. I know finding the time in the morning before work can be tough, but taking Jack-Jack for a walk in the morning will drain your dog’s energy tank when it needs draining the most. Also, this will help tire out any destructive ‘boredom’ behaviour while you’re away for the day.
- Vary exercise locations. Leash walks are the most common type of exercise for dogs and generally, owners tend to walk their dogs the same route every day. Varying your route will make the walk more mentally stimulating your dog – tiring out a dog’s brain AND body is even better than tiring out her body alone!
- Vary exercise type. The more you can diversify the type of exercise your dog gets, the better! Think of varying the type of exercise your dog gets as cross training for dogs – swimming, walking, tugging, hiking, and running an agility course all work different muscle groups.Consider joining harder dog training to exercise their minds as well as bodies.
- Play time. All dogs enjoy playing with their owner or playing with a toy by themselves. If your dog doesn’t know how to play yet, all these types of play can be taught; tugging, retrieving, hide the toy, Chase me- chase you, playing with a boredom breaker toy or enjoying a chew toy. These games are perfect for when the weather turns sour or as a bonding exercise between you and your dog.