Letting your dog run around the garden helps with toilet training, exploring new scents and benefits their mental health - but it doesn't quantify their essential daily exercise. A canine expert is reminding owners of the importance of going out for walks and burning off steam away from home.
Carolyn Menteith, behaviourist at tails.com, told the Mirror : " Our dog's daily - or twice daily, or more - walk fulfils many different functions. It is part of a whole package of physical, mental and emotional enrichment that keeps an individual healthy, happy, content and sane."
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Why do dogs need exercise?
Regular exercise is essential for dogs and it benefits them in many ways. Carolyn explains: "First of all, it breaks up the boredom of the day.
"Our dogs can, if we don't consider their needs and welfare, live boring lives, contained almost entirely within four walls, and their walks give them a break from this, a change of scenery, and vital enrichment in terms of sights, sounds, scents and experiences.
"It gives them physical exercise – and how much of that they need depends on their breed and type. As a rule, look at what that breed was originally bred to do.
"If it was to work all day (gundogs, sheepdogs, terriers etc), then they are going to need a lot of physical exercise to keep their bodies and brains happy.
"If it was to be a companion, they will need less physical exercise but probably more social contact and games.
"Our daily walks with our dogs are also a bonding exercise. This is the time when we devote part of our day to our dogs and to our relationship.
"Dog walks need to be something we do 'with' our dogs and not 'to' them. They need to include the things our own individual dog loves to do – play, games, interactions, training, sniffing...
"This is where the 'fun' part of exercise comes in – and just like us, physical exercise has to be enjoyable for us to feel stimulated and enriched by it. Every one of us is different, and our dogs are exactly the same."
Can I just let my dog run in the garden?
Dogs thrive on variety so even if you have a very large garden, it doesn't equate to enough exercise and exploring for the day.
"Just being allowed out in the garden on their own doesn't fulfil the criteria of exercise," Carolyn says.
"It's something that owners can do over and above their daily walks for added enrichment, but to experience the novelty, to play, to run, to interact and the opportunity to use their brains as well as their bodies, isn't something a dog will do alone.
"Appropriate exercise keeps dogs healthy, happy – and prevents a whole host of behaviour problems that occur when we don't address our dog's basic needs."
Do you have a dog story to share? Email nia.dalton@reachplc.com.
