I often get the question, how often/far should I walk my dog?
The answer is not simple. While I’m a huge advocate for walking your dog, I also know a huge amount of owners who feel tethered to the walk. Literally and metaphorically.
The simplest answer is; walks are important for structure and physical and mental stimulation. There’s also a downside to walking your dog too much.
I’ll give a hypothetical example.
Say you adopt a dog. You bring him home and he’s immediately getting into trouble. He runs around your house like a maniac and he tears up anything he can get his teeth on.
So, you do what any frustrated new dog owner would do: you Google.
The top results are all the same: walk your dog more. So you do.
Your new dog improves slightly, so you start going on more walks. There’s no such thing as too much exercise right? Plus it’s keeping Fido from eating your house, win-win.
You’re up to 3 or 4 daily walks and it’s working. Fido is too tired to get into trouble.
Then, you get sick or the weather takes a turn for the worst and you’re unable to walk Fido. *Cue dramatic music*
Fido is back to all of his old habits, running around like a maniac and chewing up everything. Plus an added bonus, Fido is now barking at the door incessantly.
So, you become married to your walks. In sickness and health, rain or snow, Fido must be walked.
You did what you were supposed to do, right?
Yes. You did. What those articles don’t tell you is there’s so much more to it.
Walks are important. They provide physical and mental stimulation. They are great for socialization, and they’re good for the people as well.
The downfall is when instead of enjoying the walks you take with your dog, they become a crutch.
Fido is now an athlete. In order to keep him “calm” you’ll need make the walks longer, harder, and more often.
For most people, that’s not sustainable. Life happens and no matter how much we love and care for our dogs, sometimes they need to be ok with not getting their daily walks.
So, how do we get calm without the walk?
We teach it. Most dogs default setting is not couch potato, nor should it be. If you have a Border Collie and expect it to happily lay on your couch all day, you may have the wrong breed.
As a life long owner of Border Collies and Border Collie mixes, I’m fully aware of the amount of physical stimulation they require on a regular basis. Here’s the thing. All of my high drive dogs have been taught an off switch.
What does that mean exactly?
It means if I get sick or it snows 3 feet and my dogs don’t get their daily walk for a few days, they don’t freak out and eat my couch.
How do you teach calm?
There are a multitude of ways to implement calm in your household.
Start with crate training. Thankfully the stigma about crates is dissipating and dog owners everywhere are seeing the value of having a safe space for their dogs to relax.
Embrace the down time. Give your dog something to chew on and do something calm. Watch TV, fold laundry, or read a book. This starts the process of teaching your dog calm.
Teach a stationary command. People call this different things, “place,” “bed,” “climb,” but they all mean the same thing: go to this object and stay there.
You have to teach this in steps, your dog will not automatically know to stay in place for an hour while you make dinner, but you can get there.
The purpose of this command is for your dog to just be stationary. I often refer to it as doggy meditation time once the dogs understand how to be stationary for long periods of time.
The Moral of the Story
Walks are wonderful and an important part of owning a dog. Just don’t rely on walks, or any one thing, as the only method of resolving issues.
Make sure to teach your dog the value of being calm.
If you want any more help, feel free to Contact Us!