Excercising Your Dog

We have a rescued dog from the great organization Blue Dog Rescue. Keeton is a German Shepherd who, sadly, was left tied to a tree when his owners moved. Thankfully, he was found and cared for by Blue Dog Rescue, and even had some obedience training prior to his re-homing. He has lots of energy- way more than me. This can be frustrating for both animal and human owner. Caesar in the Dog Whisperer many times uses a treadmill or roller blades to excercise his dogs. These are great as well but here are a couple of alternative easy ways to excercise your dog.

The Stairs Run

One is running him up and down the stairs- not me, him. I stand in place and tell him what do do. Gosh, I sound bossy! LOL "Keeton, up" and I motion with my hand if I have to up the stairs. He gallops at a fast, high energy speed all the way to the top. Then I say, "Keeton, down!" and as fast as he went up he runs all the way down. I repeat this over and over until he wavers halfway up, tired of the game, and I have to remind him with more verbal cues and or hand gestures to finish and go "to the top". I know he is getting worn down then. Now I would not recommend this to someone who'd dog has hip or other movement problems or whose home has laminate or wood stairs. Ours stairs have carpet floor covering so the dog has good traction. I know this creates wear and tear on your stairs' carpet BUT on bad weather days, this may be an alternative means of releasing your dogs energy when you can't get out.

Biking With Your Dog

Another really great way to excercise your dog is biking with your dog. This way you get in on the act too and your dog gets a great cardio vascular workout. I use a leash that is long enough for me to loop around and fasten at my waist and still have enough slack to let the dog run by my side. You don't want it too long where the dog can get out in front of your bicycle, just enough so the dog is a comfortable distance to your side. I traveled with the leash around my waist so my hands were free to steer, switch gears, brake, etc. My dog is ALWAYS on the right so he is furthest from traffic and by the curb. Practice slowly. Once you and your dog get the hang of it, it is fun to let your dog run as fast as he wants on a safe, no traffic stretch. I like using a harness best so the dog does not experience discomfort around his neck if he pulls some. You cannot do this with a totally wild, untrained, huge dog. Your dog needs to have some obedience cues down already.

Turning With Your Dog: The hardest part of biking with your dog are the turns. You need to verbally cue your dog slightly in advance to make him aware that you are turning right, into him. Train him to match the verbal cue words "turn right" with the fact that he needs to turn right to be out of the way of the bike. Remember to warn your dog to "turn right, turn right" before you make a right hand turn towards your dog so he can move to the right out of the way of the bike.

Once I excercise Keeton, he becomes a "new" dog. I can then walk him after our bike ride and he looks and acts like a polished show animal, minding his p's and q's!

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