Yes.
We’re huge advocates of exercising your dog. it drives us nuts to see dogs trapped in a back yard (or inside) all day every day. For some types of dogs, and for any older dog, a minimal amount of exercise can be sufficient. For younger and athletic breeds, a significant amount of exercise may be a requirement.
What’s most important is to know your dog and be consistent. Understanding their current physical fitness and limits is necessary to safely exercise your dog. For example, puppies have a lot of energy. We all know this. And they are very enthusiastic about any sort of playing and running around you engage with them. However, their stamina is low, and you should NEVER run a puppy for any significant time and distance. Their bones, muscles and joints are still forming. Constant repetitive exercise for young dogs is a bad thing. Just like you wouldn’t take your 4-year old child for a 10K run, you don’t take any puppy under one year for any run. (Note – running and playing like with fetch is fine, but again, in limited amounts. It’s better to have 4 10-15 minute play sessions throughout the day than any one-hour session.) And just because your dog will still chase you on foot or while you bike, is NOT an indicator that they still have more energy and are doing just fine with the effort. Dogs will run themselves to death to follow you. You are their leader, they instinctively want to follow and please you. As their leader, it is your responsibility to keep them safe.
When your dog does reach full size and is no longer growing, then it is safe to begin running them. Just like any new training program, you’ll want to start slow with short distances. Of course be aware of avoiding any extreme heat or cold, and also recognize that if they haven’t built up experience with regular outdoor walking, even the bottoms of their paws might not be ready for a run down the local rec-trail. Any by all means, if you haven’t been regularly exercising them during the week, don’t think you’re doing them a favor with a super long run on the weekend. It just doesn’t work that way. If it did, we’d all go to the gym for just six hours on Saturday and be done with it.
If you have a dog like we do, one that is fetch-obsessed, you again need to pay attention to their overall effort and ability to recover. Our little guy always wants us to throw the ball, even when he is completely winded and hot. We have to physically deny him and wait for him to catch his breath, calm down, and cool off before we continue. As fit as he is, we take breaks after every 3-5 tosses of the ball when we’re using the flinger. That may sound quick and short, but considering he is sprinting back and forth anywhere between 50 and 100 yards with each toss, it’s easy to see how quickly the effort adds up. If you don’t believe it, go out right now and do 3 100-yard wind-sprints as hard as you can. How did that feel? Want a break? Now what if your brain convinced you that another three sprints was what you wanted to do more than anything in the world, and your body had no say in the manner. That’s a dog’s world.
So yes, please get your dog out and exercise them. It has tremendous benefits for both their physical and mental health, and can do a world of good for any behavioral issues. It makes them happy, they get to satisfy their natural need to explore, and they get to socialize. Just be sensible, and more importantly, recognize that your dog may have no sense at all when it comes to their abilities and needs with the effort of exercise. That’s your responsibility and job.
(Creative Commons photo courtesy normanack, Flickr)
