The guilt of not walking your dog daily is real, your dog soon lets you know when it's time for a walk and who blames them? For most, it is their favourite part of the day. However, some days you just don't feel up for it so we've created alternatives for when you aren't fancying a long dog walk.
First things first, it's shown that 20 min walks several times a day is as effective as one hour walk. With the in mind, here is our list of alternatives for when you aren't fancying a long dog walk for the perfect compromise:
One way to really enhance a dog walk is to play 'find it' with either their treats or kibble for the day. As you walk along, get them to focus and hid their treats in grass, gravel, behind posts, wherever you fancy really, and get them to sniff out their favourites. They will soon be knackered from this game.
Take them on a short walk and get them to practice doing 'nothing' by mirroring you when you stop walking. This is a great way to, firstly, assess how well they are focusing on you but secondly, encouraging them to find comfort in the unknown. You can do this for a couple of minutes, 5 minutes to 10 minutes or simply respond to how quickly they get settled. For an idea of what 'settled' may look like, it could be your dog sitting down, laying down or coming back to your heel.
Book out an enclosed dog field with your friends and their pooches to drain the dog's energy with all the excitement whilst having a lovely catch up with your friends.
Let your dogs complete a 'sniff' walk - they love this! It just means you won't be walking far or too quickly as it's a total free-for-all on allowing your dog to sniff everything in sight. I would recommend practicing a command word to enable this so the dog knowns what time of walk it is and you won't be doing it every time!
Book a dog walk with us to work around you to elevate the stress and guilt!
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