I hope you enjoy this guest blog by Jo from Pippin Pets Dog Training, let me know in the comments below
Activities to do with your dog
When you think of activities to do with your dog, we often think the faster the better. Agility classes are hugely popular, as well as flyball, or even gundog training. Maybe you just like lobbing a tennis ball as far as it can go, or flinging a frisbee. Do you constantly throw the ball repeatedly all through the walk? All of these involve running, jumping, twisting and tight turns.
Are you doing good or harm to your dog?
If you just throw balls for them, the adrenaline kicks in and they cannot help but want more. You’ve got a junkie on your hands! Have they become obsessed with the ball and won’t respond to you unless you have it with you? Do they just bark and bark to get you to throw it – and you do, so now you have a barking problem? And instead of tiring them out, they get even more wired? And fitter. They come home still bouncing so you think you need to walk even further to have any effect.
Sounds like you?
Forget the athletic stuff and let’s start exercising our dogs based on their intrinsic needs.
My dog training experience
Reba, my cocker/bichon, loved agility. I was not so good. If I couldn’t keep up, or forgot what was next (most common), she would run through the tunnels, or run off! But being a lazy spaniel, she much preferred searching. And I wanted to protect her joints as much as possible, and keep our bond strong so she would listen to me out and about.
The brain uses more calories than muscles, and a dog has over a third of their brain to scent detection, so it makes sense to utilise that in order to enrich them naturally and tire them out. Their breathing rate goes from a resting 15 breaths per min, up to 200 when intensively sniffing. This is why they get a good workout standing still, and excellent for any dog that has limited mobility, whether age, surgical recovery, or arthritic. And still equally as good for puppies who cannot walk far. In scent detection classes, we teach the dogs to confidently search new and novel items for a specific target scent (clove or kong are most popular).
Yes, red Kong! You can chop it tiny and is a very unique smell – it’s quite popular and used by several sniffer organisations
I’ve had a dog that found clove repulsive, so I now do Kong for all my beginner clients!
Low impact dog training classes
Another really good calm class is Rally – this is like a slo-mo obedience course with instructions cards you move to in a set order. The aim is for your dog to walk steady by your side, turning with you, responding to sits and stands on cue, and hones their basic skills. A close bond is needed as you work together to get around the course. There are more moves you can be doing, and more technical fancy things but it’s low impact. This protects their joints too which hopefully slows down any arthritic tendencies. Official trials require real precision, but the dogs need to be ‘prancing’ while looking up to the sky….our version is an ‘ish’ and just being at your speed, close to you is more than enough for us! Fun is more important.
For us, Rally is a brand new offering, and I am taking Reba to be a demo dog. I have deliberately not practised much with her before so that we can go through any troubleshooting live in front of my wonderful clients, and it’s a chance for me to do something new with her. She has to settle and watch my client dogs after a little demo, and just an hour of eating treats, walking and watching was enough – she was shattered! A tasty healthy chew when she got home finished her off for the day.
These classes are not just for the mobility challenged, as teaching your pup to be calmer can help in just living with them. Often our world is hectic, and your dog can be too, so keeping the adrenaline low but also finding their ‘off’ switch can really make a more happy household. Each dog takes their turn, so they learn to settle between goes.
Mental challenges for your dog
Mental challenges keeps their brains active, and satisfies their basic needs. It taps into their key core functions of sniffing and problem solving, and increases the bond with you as we only do reward based training which is guiding them to what we want them to do, instead of being negative and startling them.
Why not give these exercises a try? Ditch the ball chucker, and play ‘find it’ games with your dog’s food or favourite toy. Even hide it out of view of your dog so they really have to use their nose! Or can you get your dog to walk by your side close to you around the home? Do they respond to your cues quickly? These are things you can practice on a rainy day instead of a manic walk and your dog will still be very happy and tired.
I hope you enjoyed the blog and got some new information about low impact dog training, please leave any comments below, and also let me know what you do with your dog and what activities they enjoy.
Has this got you thinking about joining a class, if you are near Jo in Guildford, Godalming, West Horsley, Cranleigh & surrounding areas, then get in touch with her here, or thinking about some new training treats, then grab our most popular training treats in a bundle here
Do you have a tail or story to tell? Maybe you want to tell me about your dog’s favourite activity, day out, holiday or maybe they have a funny story? I want to hear from you, drop me an email to [email protected]
