How to exercise your Dog indoor: Dogs are creatures that love to spend time with their owners exercising, playing, and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. You can spend quality time with your dog while exercising and training him. There is a simple equation to dog relations, the more you spend time or get physically involved with them to give them the experience of several positive reinforcements, the more the bond gets stronger. Proper physical and mental stimulation is the reason behind those well-behaved dogs.
With monsoons approaching each of us it may be really hard for the majority of dog owners to make their dogs exercise in the outdoors, after all, you don’t want those muddy hugs from your dog while playing, right? Before beginning any exercise, it doesn’t matter to a human or a dog. Before starting any exercise session with your dog don’t forget to stretch and warm up your dog.
Stretching and warming up your dog would decrease the risk of any injury, especially injuries like hip and elbow dysplasia which are common in large breeds like shepherds and hounds. In a breed like a German Shepherd, it could be really hard to identify if they are going through a hip dysplasia because they can resist their pain so that their master or owner doesn’t get to know about it and injuries in the higher stage can become a huge challenge for both the dog and the owner, so stretching and warming up is recommended. You can warm up your dog by taking them on a small walk, massaging them, or anything which opens ups their muscles for some intense exercises.
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After all the stretching you can move to the exercising part. Here are some of the ways you can make your dog exercise, apart from these exercises you can make your own high intensive exercise… Anyways let’s get started…
1. Exercise your Dog indoor: Engage in some ‘Tug-O-War’
Tug-O-War is a fun game that would be really enjoyed by both you and your pooch. It is pretty simple. Get a Tug-O-War toy home and if you have one you are good to go. If your dog is new to the Tug toy gently introduce them with the toy. Make them comfortable around the toy, let them sniff it, lick it, or chew it, let them do whatever they want to do with the toy to get comfortable with it.
If you have a young puppy, a good and positive game of Tug-O-War would make the bond stronger. Let them win the game, this would help them to build a whole lot of confidence in themselves. So, a good and positive game of Tug-O-War would not only help you to make their physical needs complete but also to make the bond stronger and build confidence in your pooch.
2. Make them fetch their favorite toy
Though you cannot go outside to a park, still you can play fetch indoors. The area would be really small but it would also work. If you have a small breed like a Lhasa-Apso or a Shih-Tzu it would not be that of a challenge but playing fetch with a large breed indoors can become a mess. If you have a large breed you have to make a bit of space inside your hall or anywhere you are comfortable so that there could be an area to follow the toy.
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Here we asked you to get a favorite toy of your pooch because you would be playing fetch in a small area and in a while it could become a bit boring, so to get rid of this boredom you can use one of the favorite toys of your pooch, it would keep him motivated. As you are playing inside your house, in a comparatively small space, you have to spend more of the time with your dog playing fetch to burn out those energy levels.
3. Let’s run up and down the stairs
To be honest, running up and down the stairs can be a really fun activity. This one is really simple. You need nothing other than stairs in your house to perform this activity. But before starting running make sure that your dog knows how to climb and go down the stairs, otherwise, they can end up collapsing in between playing and can even hurt themselves.
To make your dog learn how to climb and go down the stairs you just have to make them walk through the stairs. It would need a bit of practice to make them comfortable with the staircase of your home. To keep your pooch motivated you can just roll down their favorite toy through the staircase and ask them to fetch it. This exercise would exhaust them way faster than a traditional fetch, after all, you can modify the playtime as per you to increase the intensity of the exercise, but remember to use the ways that don’t harm your pooch.
Note: This running up and down the staircase would not be recommended to a dog with pre-existing health issues like hip and elbow dysplasia.
4. Exercise your Dog indoor: Make them work for their treats
Dogs with no doubt have an unbelievable nose. Their noses have a whopping 300 million olfactory receptors! So working their nose out also helps them in losing those energy bars. Ask your dog for a stay or a sit. Go slowly and hide the treats in places where it would be a bit tough for them to find it out. Then come back and say the releasing word to finish the stay or sit. Let them find the treats and get that nose some work.
This activity would do two things; firstly, it would work on your dog’s scavenging instincts, and secondly, it would also help you to mentally stimulate your dog. Another way of a ‘nose workout’ session is that you can replace yourself with the treat. Yeah, you guessed it right, it is kind of hide and seeks.
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You just have to hide at a spot which is hard to seek and just say the release word and let your dog find you, but there is a twist rather than you being a treat here the treatment is the short play session after your pooch finds you. Have a happy hide and seek session!
5. Make them play with a mental stimulation toy
Get your pooch an interactive toy. It works like, fill the toy with a bit of dog food or a small amount of dog treat. As the dog rolls the toy the dog food or dog treat would come out of it. You can help them with their scavenging instincts by providing them with food like this rather than serving it directly in a food bowl, and trust me dog food or treats is a great motivator for dogs.
Okay, so there are two shapes for interactive toys; one comes in cubical shape and one comes in a ball-like shape. So, if you have a large dog who kind of chews on toys, you should get them a cubical toy because it is harder to move it. If you have a small puppy you can go with a ball one because it is easier to roll in comparison to a cubical one.
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So, now you can make your dog work out in any kind of weather and season, I think. Just to make sure with you these exercises are for dogs who are fully fit and fine. Dogs with health issues like hip and elbow dysplasia are not recommended to perform these exercises.
Happy Pooch Workout
See you again…
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