Ways To Exercise With Your Dog So You’re Both Happy And Healthy
Fitness is essential to not only your wellbeing, but your dog’s wellbeing as well! Making sure your pup is getting enough exercise can be as rough as motivating yourself to get fit as well, especially if you don’t have a backyard for zoomies available. Working out with your dog is a great way to kill two birds with one stone! Not to mention, working out with your dog can only strengthen your bond with them, so it’s really an awesome activity to do together! But, walking and running our dogs can get boring, and might not let us work as hard in a shorter period of time. So, here are a few ways to exercise with your dog to make sure you’re both in tip top shape.
Skate with them
I love skating and I feel like it’s a great workout for someone who gets bored running. If your pup isn’t bolting in all directions, you may be able to safely skateboard or roller skate with your dog. Make sure before you even try, you are solid and steady on wheels and also make sure your pup is tied to you somehow. If you fall, you don’t want to accidentally drop the leash! After taking all precautions, it can be so rewarding to skate with your pup. Especially if they have much much more energy than you, in this case, you’re exerting less since you’re on wheels. Additionally, if your dog is a puller, you might not have all that much work to do yourself.
Agility training
Agility training keeps pups sharp and fit! With all the obstacles they’ll have to encounter while running, your dog will likely exert themselves more quickly than with other exercises especially since it’ll take lote of mental legwork in the beginning for them as well. I also love the idea of agility training for owners as well! You work to keep close to your dog, but with all the excitement, you often wouldn’t even know you’re running.
Hiking
Hiking is obviously a great workout for people! And dogs definitely want to join in on this fun! Before setting foot on a trail, making sure what the rules are around dogs and leashes is important for the safety of everyone! Being prepared with lots of water for you and your dog is also necessary to a successful hike with your furry companion.
Swimming
If it’s hot outside, I’m looking for the nearest body of water to go for a swim in. Imagine the relief a dog covered in fur must feel. Not to mention, swimming can be so fun for everyone! If you’re playing fetch or swimming laps with your doggo, it’s a surefire way to have fun while working out with them.
Stadiums/Stairs
Did anyone else have to run up and down the steps of their high school stadium over and over again for gym? Well, aside from being torturous, it’s such an effective workout. The cardio plus the functionality of stepping those stairs will surely give you and your dog a great workout! If you’re running stadiums with your dog on-leash, this is also a great opportunity to work on their on-leash listening skills, as well as working on not pulling if they do.
Intense playtime
A lot of the time, nothing beats some intense playtime with your pup. Getting your doggo all riled up and ready to do zoomies not only makes for such a fun time for them, they’re really getting all that built up energy out with intense playtime. Whether that’s wrestling, hide and seek, fetch or just having crazy time with your dog, they’ll love you for it, and so will your body!
Do you have any other ideas for ways to exercise with your dog? Let us know in the comments!