Instead of Walking Your Dog Try…
Dogs need both mental stimulation and exercise and a lack of one or the other can manifest in poor behaviour. If a dog is acting out because it’s not getting the stimulation it needs, we as owners should try to help our pups. Signs that your dog may need more stimulation can be: excessive barking, anxiety, and chewing stuff when they normally don’t, among other behaviors.
Of course, poor behavior isn’t the only reason to dog walking could help you with your relationship with your dog. Sometimes we’re tired and another form of stimulation might be easier on us as humans, or perhaps it’s the weather is bad, or maybe even the dog seems to need a little more than simply getting walked which is something I see quite often.
Here three different ways you include into your routine instead of walking your dog. Some of these things may need a piece of equipment you may not have.
Training
Training of course is one of the best ways to mentally stimulate your dog. If your dog seems a little worked up even 6 minutes of training can help your pup settle. Training gives the pup and outlet for it’s energy, it requires focus, and dogs love a job.
For myself and my dogs we’ll always have a fun skill we’re working on, a necessary skill we’re working on, and we can always improve the basics. I will often have my treat pouch with me around the house so we can get little bite sized sessions in throughout the course of the day. Little wins add up, and they help regulate your dogs energy level.
Sniffing
Engaging a dog’s olfactory senses is one of the best ways to help get energy out. Of course it is well known that dog’s have much better noses than humans, but people generally don’t know how much better. A dog’s nose is on average 44x better than ours, they have 2-300 million sensors on their noses while humans have 5 million sensors on our nose’s. Processing all of this olfactory information requires a lot of energy from your dog.
In fact, studies show that 15 minutes of sniffing is equivalent in energy expenditure to an hour of walking.
With their nose out of the window of a car a dog can smell for a 5-mile radius, and because of this if I have to run an errand I will often bring my pups along for the ride to let them use their nose. You can also opt for enrichment activities such as snuffle mats, Kongs, or even creating a little treasure hunt out of their dinner.
Play
Play is not only an extraordinary way to get your dogs energy out, it helps strengthen how engaged your dog is with you and you can also use it for training. Remember when using classical conditioning, the dog chooses what is rewarding, and so using toys can really illicit an amazing training session out of your dog.
Playing tug and fetch are both great ways to play with your dog, while simultaneously giving great opportunities to teach drop it, impulse control.
One of my personal favorite ways to play with my dogs is a flirt pole, which is essentially a large version of a cat toy. If your dog has any prey drive at all they will really engage with it, and it’ll be easy to tire them out.
If you have a herding dog, herding balls are a must have. Herding balls mimic herding and if your dog has a strong herding instinct, they'll absolutely love it. You should know not all dogs intuitively understand the herding ball you may need to encourage them to use it or teach them too.
If you want to play fetch, but don’t have a fenced in yard, you still can! You will want to get a long line either 30 or 50 feet long, you can find them online, they’re not expensive. Please be aware that in order to safely use a long line you will want to use it with a harness, if you use it with a collar there is a possibility you will hurt your dog’s neck. Long lines are also a great way to practice recall!
