by Kathi Truscott

Created on: December 09, 2009

It is always good to do exercise at least once a day or every other day, but it is extremely important when you have a dog to do some exercise. Especially when you have a breed that is high energy. Exercise will help control your dogs weight and maintain a healthy heart, lungs and muscle. Also exercise with your animal will strengthen the bond you and him share.

There are many different options to consider when you are looking into doing different exercises with your dog. Here are a few of them.

If you have trails around the city were you live, you could go on hikes. In Canadian there are some Ontario parks you can go in on a day pass and walk the trails they have. Also if you enjoy camping in the summer, most of the campgrounds have trails as well.

You can also take your dog for a walk, around your neighborhood or take them to a new area to walk at. Sometimes new scenery will do you both some good especially if you’re tired after a hard days work and don’t really want to go for a walk.

Also you could go for a job or even a quick sprint or run with them, its not a good idea to roller blade or ride a bike with them on a leash or off leash beside you incase you fall and you could injure them.

Your dog would love it if you went outside and played tug of war, or fetch and even chase with them.

It’s also a good idea to socialize your dog with other animals so they would get along with them and be able to play with other dogs. If they are not socialized they could become afraid or even aggressive towards other animals. A good way to do that is by taking them to a doggy socialization class or even to doggie daycare or the dog parks you have available in your area.

You can also go to a park and throw a Frisbee or even play soccer with them some dogs enjoy and are very good at playing soccer; if you dog enjoys swimming take them to a beach that’s near you.

You could also take them to one of your local dog training schools and sign them up for agility classes that are a lot of exercise for you and your dog. You will be running with them around an obstacle course were the dog with go through tunnels and chutes, walk on a dog walk and an a-frame, they will also go on a see-saw, jump through a tire, and go through weave poles, there are others that could be added to the course as well.

There is also something called fly agility it is a dog sport that mixes agility and fly ball together; the dog is sent to retrieve a ball that is thrown from a fly ball machine and then return it too the handler. The course is about 30m from start line to the box and it uses agility obstacles. New Zealand fly agility association administers the sport.

There is another dog sport that started in the UK and European countries but it is getting started in the U.S; and it is called flying disc, the dog makes an amazing leap and snags the flying disc; and then returns it to the handler.

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