Throwing Away The Rule Book

When you get your dog, you are often aware of many of those unwritten rules. The ones every dog owner has to follow. That you are meant to do without any questioning. Walk your dog everyday, make sure they have lots of exercise is one of the biggest rules that everyone follows. “ A tired dog is a happy dog” But what if that isn’t the case? What happens when the one thing that you are expected to do, is actually the thing causing your dog problems?

Yup, you read that right, for some dogs a daily walk might actually be the worst thing for them. It might be the thing that is causing their reactivity to continue to escalate, it might be why your dog doesn’t settle in the house. I have met many dogs over the years for whom everyday walks were just creating more issues. For some dogs walks are SO overwhelming for them that they end up more stressed, anxious, amped up and short tempered.

How can walks be overwhelming? For some dogs there is just SO much going on, lots of sights, sounds and of course smells that might just be tipping them over the edge! We expect dogs to tolerate a huge amount on walks, as well as them controlling themselves to not pull, to check in and to come when called. It really is a lot of expectations. There are dogs who handle this, in fact a lot of dogs can handle this fine. But i have worked with many dogs where a daily walk was just counterproductive. For some dogs they need decompression and chilling at home between walks. My rescue whippet marley was one of those.

He was a very anxious dog who found walks frankly terrifying! Even with a lot of work, he always struggled as he had no exposure to the outside world before we got him at 9 months old. It took me far too long to realise a few walks a week were far more beneficial for him. His fear on walks reduced, and his short temper with the other dogs almost disappeared. In fact his seizures began to reduce too, (marley had epilepsy)

Arkle has always found walks scary, he found the world to be full of strange sights and sounds. As a puppy I never took him out daily. Shock, horror! By giving him time to decompress and work on confidence building his confidence on walks began to increase hugely and he is now super confident with novel sights, sounds and experiences on walks.

Unfortunately other people letting their dogs lunge at him, attack him and similar has meant he finds the sight of dogs quite frightening on walks. And dogs are an unavoidable experience currently. For quite a long time I walked Arkle daily as an adult, he has chronic pain issues and I always understood that regular exercise was better than sporadic. But this is where you have to tailor the rulebook for your dog.

Lunging at other dogs who ran at him unexpectedly or appeared offlead on pavements, was only hurting his joints MORE. Along with that it was becoming obvious he found walks alot to take as we see alot of dogs and we both have to work hard to manage his feelings. When he has multiple walks daily, old habits start to kick in and his reactivity begins to increase. So for Arkle, he tends to have a couple of days walking, a couple of days rest and repeat. And for him that is working incredibly.

Yet if i told people i only walk my dog 3-4 days a week, they’d be shocked. Think Im a bad owner. But the reality is every dog is different and what they can manage varies. Personally, i’d love to walk arkle multiple times a day! I used to have 4 dogs as i really enjoy walking and getting out! But there is no fun in watching my dog struggle.

Daily walks may not be the thing for your dog either, and as long as their needs are being met, there is nothing wrong that.