![]() Try taking a look at your dog’s life from your dog’s point of view! Imagine if you were left alone in your house with nothing to do for 10 hours a day, and of the remaining 14 hours every day the only time you got out was for a 30 minute walk around the block, and on some (or most) days you didn’t even get that! You would always have “cabin fever” and you would go crazy within a week. We expect a phenomenal amount from our dogs, in most cases way more than they can deliver. ![]() Read my blog article titled “ Dog Trainer, Not Dog Owner” for more about why the way we own dogs in the US is hard on dogs. Dogs are amazingly adaptable and many owners that have hunting dogs that don’t hunt get lucky. They cite examples of dogs they had growing up or previously that never went to the dog park or daycare and never had problems. Some dog owners don’t buy into my energy management perspective. ![]() Under conditions like those a friendly dog can easily become dog aggressive! It is more stress-producing than stress-relieving. Keep in mind, not all daycare places are good! We have one locally that is a tiny little room with a concrete pad out back where they jam 25 dogs into that little space. Your dog will be tired for three days afterward (unless you have a herding breed dog)! Daycare is typically a lot safer than the dog park, it’s a lot better use of your time, and you’re not going to be getting into it with dog owners. You’d spend more in gas alone driving to the dog-park ten times than you would for one day at daycare! And it really is the equivalent of ten trips to the dog park. When I tell dog owners this their first response is often, “Are you kidding me? There’s no way I’m I’m going to pay someone $30 a day to babysit my dog!” To me, it’s a bargain. Dog daycare is generally a much safer option. See my dog park guidelines for more on this topic. Keep in mind the dog park can be an extremely dangerous place! I urge lots of caution at the dog park. Two dogs that live together quickly figure out how each other plays and before long they don’t challenge each other in the way they need to be challenged. Even if you had two dogs and a 10 acre backyard where they ran all day long, it wouldn’t make much difference. Even if you go for an hour bike ride or run with your dog he might plop down for 20 minutes afterward or even an hour, but then he’d be right back to bouncing off the walls ( never run or ride with a puppy under 18 months, it can be very hard on their bones and joints). So a five minute daily walk, even if you don’t make it out of your driveway, is important if you want to get the message across to your dog that you’re the one calling the shots and when you tell him to do something you expect him to do it. The walks are not for exercise, they’re for structure! How you put on the leash, how you walk through the door, whether your dog is walking in front of you or behind you, whether you let your dog sniff and pee on the walks, how you deal with distractions on the walk like cats, pigeons, squirrels, people, other dogs, skateboards, garbage trucks, every one of these things sends the message to your dog that you are in control or he is in control. ![]() What does all this have to do with walking your dog? The typical response I get to the question, “How much exercise does your dog get and in what form?” is something like, “I walk him most days and sometimes we play fetch in the backyard.” Unfortunately, neither of those count! You could take your dog for 20 walks a day and it wouldn’t tire him out one bit.
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