Dog walking - Pro tips
Walking your dogs daily, and for some breeds, multiple times a day is the highlight of the day for dogs. And for passionate pet owners such as us, it's the highlight of our day too.
Dogs' craving for walking is aking humans craving a ice creame on a hot summer day.
Walking the dog regularly is not only good for their physical health but also for their mental well being.
Taking our dogs for a walk is much more than giving them a bathroom break. It is also one of the most basic things you can gift your dog. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Similar to that, daily walks for our dogs keep them engaged, exercised, and mentally stimulated.
Let's take a look at the benefits of daily walks for our fur buddies:
- 1. Improves health and metabolism: This is a no-brainer. Exercise improves the lifestyle for not just humans but dogs too. Duh. Dogs are considered descendants of wolves. No matter how domesticated they are today, their ancestry dictates being out in the wild, to stimulate growth, development, and a healthy metabolism.
- 2. Sniff and Explore: Let's accept it. We are all beings of exploratory nature. We love taking the path less traveled and uncovering new stories to share. The probability of the unknown inspires and motivates us. Man’s best friends are no different. It's their basic instinct to sniff around, leveraging their scent receptors situated on their big noses. For that reason, a larger area of their brain is devoted to their sense of smell. In other words, the sense of smell is a big part of how they perceive the world around them and simply explore. Next time when you take your dog for a walk, be mindful of letting them gather as much information about their surrounding through sniffing. This improves the mental simulation that a daily walk provides.
- 3. Socialization: Walking your dog is an excellent way of socializing. In fact, having a dog in the neighborhood is an excellent way of getting to know your neighborhood, both for you and your dog. This is the primary way your dog can familiarize itself with its environment - birds, cats, other dogs, motorbikes, or cars. The more you take your dogs for a walk in your neighborhood, the more familiar it is with the environment, which also helps promote the feeling of belongingness. This way your dog can adapt well to the twenty-second century way of living.
- 4. Training opportunity: For the opportunistic go-getters amongst us, this is the perfect opportunity to give some additional training to your dogs. When outside of their home environment, see how your dogs react to strangers, and use the opportunity to practice commands such as Sit, Quiet, Stay, etc.
- 5. Playtime: As much as we want this to be true, dogs don't self-entertain themselves. You can leave them in the backyard and observe, they won’t play catch and fetch by themselves. A little playtime during your daily walks will not help tire your dog for a good night's sleep, but will also make them happy. A happy dog leads to a happy pet owner.
Prepare yourself for dog walking
Prepare yourself for walking your dog by
- 1. Stretching before you start In particular, stretch the front and back of your legs, your back and your arms, especially if you are someone who has not been regularly walking yourself or your lifestyle is very much sedentary.
- 2. You and your dog have the right equipment For you, a good and comfortable pair of walking shoes or sandals, and for your dog, good secure leashes and collars. Especially if you are going to be walking among other dogs and if your dog is not used to taking the dogs in the neighborhood kindly, you would want to be doubly sure that the leash and collar are not only secure but also not susceptible to cause any injury to the dog.
- 3. Picking the right time of the day for the walk Especially if you live in hot conditions with excessive humidity, it is suggested that you finish your walking before it gets too hot. Excessive heat and sunburn can be very damaging to the dog. If unavoidable on certain days, make sure that you and your dog drink plenty of water before you leave home.
Pro tips for dog walking
When you walk your dog
- 1. Aim for no more than 30 min walk at a time. If your dog likes to play fetch, make sure the play area is free of other dogs, especially those that are prone to be induldging in inviting trouble. Walks are best if not taken to extremes, that is everyday, the same routine could become boring, so make sure to change routes every now and then and keep to a maximum of 5 or 6 days a week.
- 2. Your dog should be always on your watch, especially around the elderly and young children. Your dog could be a well-behaved angel at home, but when they are exposed to a new environment, out of sheer excitement they can get jumpy and cause unitentional trouble to those around it.
- 3. Carry a poop bag, old newspapers or any bags so you can collect your dogs poops. Being proactive is a definite pro tip here. We also suggest that you keep next to the leash at home all these essentials so checking out in the morning is a breeze on a daily basis.
- 4. Carry a stick and a bottle of water. The stick can be helpful especially if you walk new neighborhoods and the dogs there aren't used to seeing your dog. The stick is just a good deterrent mechanism - that's all
- 5. Remind your dog some of the basic commands you have been teaching and offer a lot of praise along the way for good behaviour. These continuous positive reinforcements make a great impact on your dog's behaviour.
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