Dogs are such great companions, so loyal and loving, so we should do what we can to give them the lives they deserve. My dog Ruca, is a 7 month old golden and lab mix, so she is very energetic and still learning how the world works. Some days I do not feel motivated to go on long walks with her but there are many other options on how to still have your dogs get their exercise in.
Most days, I try to take her on a 30 minute walk to get her a little tired and get her needed exercise in. I love going for these walks though, cause it is so nice to give your dog what they want, but also nice to just enjoy nature and the neighborhood. She is always so excited to go out, and while on these walks I try to give many positive reinforcements to teach her the way she should walk, without pulling on the leash.
This is Ruca (right) and her friend Jude (left) all happy and sandy at the dog beach.
I also like to take Ruca to either the dog beach or the dog park once a week with her friend Jude. This helps her to get a bunch of energy out, and have such a good day playing with all of the other dogs and running all around. Taking her out only takes up about an hour and a half to two hours of my day, which is not a lot and it is so worth it to see how happy she is. Also, if I do not have too much time to do stuff with her, I will just take her in the car for a ride. She loves to stick her head out of the window and will eventually get pretty tired and go to bed before we even get home. Even playing fetch or frisbee for around 20 minutes will get your dog super tired and all of their exercise in.
This is Ruca after being in the car for a little while, all tuckered out.
You can also enrich your dog's life. I will fill up a kong with some yogurt, blueberries, pumpkin puree, peanut butter, and strawberries and throw it in the freezer for a few hours.
I will give this to Ruca once it is frozen and it will keep her occupied for around 40 minutes and tire her out in the process. I also have little puzzles that I give her and I put some treats inside of them, so she has to work to get the food. They have a lot of different kinds of puzzles on chewy but this is the one that I got
There is this other toy that you expand to put treats inside of, then Ruca has to make the toy wobble around and knock over to slowly spill out the treats. She gets pretty tired from having to work for her food and treats.
There is no right or wrong way to keep your dogs active and enriching their lives, but these are some of the things that I have done, which seem to work pretty well, and she loves them as well.
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