There are many benefits of walking your dog, such as ensuring your dog stays fit and active, which can stimulate and improve their energy levels. It can also be great for mental stimulation, and can even help with digestion.
Daily physical activity is important, but just running around in the yard can get a little tedious for your dog. Taking your dog out for a walk can broaden their horizon, helping to strengthen their social skills and even offers mental stimulation. Daily walks with your pup is one of the best ways to maintain their welfare and give them a chance to explore the neighbourhood. A walk with your dog daily for 30 minutes in a dog friendly environment can also stimulate your pet’s mind enough to prevent behavior problems like digging, barking, and other noisy habits that many dogs exhibit when they get bored. Below, we’ve outlined some of the main reasons why walking your dog is essential to maintaining their mental health.
Your Dog Needs Physical Exercise
Daily dog walks are a great way to encourage and improve the overall fitness and health of your dog, which is why we recommend creating a walking routine to keep your dog active. Daily walks with your dog are always a great outdoor experience for them. Walking your dog also helps them maintain a healthy weight and even aids with digestion, both of which can help avoid obesity. To keep your dog walks fun and exciting, switch up your routine once in a while and bring a ball for them to play with. Bring poop bags with you and a ball to play, to help keep things fun and exciting.
Walking is Great Mental Exercise for Your Four Legged Friends
Walking your four legged friends not only allows them to explore outdoor activities and breathe fresh air, it also allows them to get some mental exercise as well.
Physical activities like walking and playing helps with their social cognitive skills and most importantly their overall development.
For some extra mental enrichment, it is good to allow the dog to sniff around, as dogs love to explore with their noses. Explore the most popular dog-friendly walks in your surrounding area, that will help to strengthen the dogs social skills and even offer mental stimulation.
Tips for Mastering Your Dog Walks
- Stop your dog pulling on the leash
If your pup doesn’t know how to walk politely on a leash, start training your dog as soon as possible to make walking a more relaxing experience. - Bring some treats
Treats can come in handy in many different situations, like when you need to reward your dog for walking politely on the leash, greeting strangers calmly, or just being a good pup. - Don’t forget poop bags
By cleaning up after your dog, you can show the world you’re a responsible pet parent. So when you head out the door for walks, make sure you’ve got at least a couple of poop bags with you. - Mix up your route
Your pup will appreciate the chance to explore new scenery and smells, and it’ll make them all the more eager to join you every time you grab the leash and prepare to head out the door. - Take your time
Dog walks give them a chance to put their amazing sense of smell to use as they explore different environments and neighbourhoods. This offers wonderful mental stimulation, so be sure to give them the freedom to stop and smell the roses.
Other Ways to Keep Your Dog Stimulated
Training stimulates your dog’s mind and is one way to keep them energised. It’s part of providing an enriching environment for your dog and reducing problem behaviors that result from boredom.
Committing yourself to training your dog some tricks is a great goal to set for yourself, and it is also a fun bonding experience for you and your pet. Training your dog tricks like fetch, roll over, and bark on command helps with increasing your dog’s flexibility, balance, and concentration. It can also be a good boost in your dog’s confidence in themselves.
Dog Walking Services by Swaggle Dogs
If you are unable to keep your animal active yourself on a daily basis, getting a dog walker might be very helpful in ensuring the dog has a schedule to follow without missing out on any chance to play outside.
At Swaggle Dogs we offer a wide range of dog walking services to help you ensure your pup gets the exercise they need. Visit our website or contact us today to find out more about our services. We also offer fun, exciting biannual beach days for you and your pups in March and September/October to help you both enjoy some wonderful bonding time. Get in touch with us to make a booking for our services with our amazing team.