Exercise Your Dog to a Balanced Life

Exercising your dog regularly is the best thing you can do for your dog and you. However, the exercise must be structured and a psychological challenge as well as a physical one. Opening up the back door and letting your dog run about in the back yard is not a psychological challenge for the dog, nor is it a structured exercise. If the exercise is not structured all the dog is doing is expending energy, and neither the dog nor you are receiving anything from it. A good structured exercise program, like regular walks, will relieve your dog of the excess energy which can cause behavior problems. It will also help to show your dog that you are the strong assertive leader that he desires in his life. During the walk keep the dog at your side or behind you. Do not let your dog out in front with you following him. Stop often and make the dog sit by your side until you are ready to move. If you know of a particular house on your walk that has a barking dog, stand out in front with your dog facing away from the barking dog and don’t let him look that way by giving a sharp correction each time he looks. Eventually, your dog will get it that he can’t look at the barking dog and will walk casually by. This is all a psychological challenge for the dog. How good would it feel to walk past barking and growling dogs with yours casually strolling by your side just happy to be following his leader on their mission.

There are other ways to exercise your dog and make it a challenge for him. If your dog likes retrieving tennis balls or flying discs you can make it more of a challenge for him. Put your dog in a sit position in front of you and make him hold there while you show him the ball (or flying disc). Make this hold a different length each time. Then get your dog to run around you before he takes off for ball. This is easily taught by taking the ball in your hand, extend your arm out in front of you saying “get the ball”. Then swing your arm back around your back saying “go around”. The dog will follow your arm motion right around you, then throw the ball forward. Before long all you’ll have to say is “go around” and the dog will take off around you and head out for the ball. Playing this way with your dog will not only give him the physical exercise that the dog needs, but also the psychological challenge that will serve to keep his mind sharp and his life balanced.

You can come up with your own psychological challenges for your dog. Anything your dog likes to do can be turned into this type of challenge for the dog. You are only limited by your imagination. So get out there with your dog and give the dog some challenges. You will soon see a new dog in front of you, a dog you can be proud of, a dog that will follow you to the ends of the earth. It feels great to have a balanced dog and you will also feel better about yourself having lead your dog to a life that the dog desires.