Does Your Dog Need an Exercise Routine?

Your dog’s life may seem like it’s all naps, snuggles, and more naps. But a good amount of their days should also be filled with movement. They don’t necessarily need to be a CrossFit champion, but they should be getting their steps and stretches in.

While some dogs, especially breeds like Border Collies, are known for needing a lot of exercise, all dogs — regardless of age, size or breed/breed mix — need regular exercise. Making sure that dogs get enough physical exercise is critical for their overall health and wellbeing.

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Exercise helps dogs to reach and maintain a healthy weight, improves their overall cardiovascular health, strengthens muscles, helps dogs age more gracefully, and lowers the risk of diseases. Daily exercise also helps their emotional health and can decrease symptoms of reactivity, and anxiety. As an American Kennel Club FIT DOG Instructor here are some of my favorite ways to create a fitness plan for your dog. As Jane Fonda says at the beginning of her iconic ’80s and ’90s exercise videos, “Are you ready to do the workout?!”

Before increasing exercise:

Before starting to bump up the amount of exercise your dog regularly gets, you’ll want to make sure that they are healthy and won’t get injured. Schedule a full physical for your dog, which will give their veterinarian the chance to let you know if they have any preexisting medical conditions like arthritis. Something like that could be aggravated by a sudden increase in exercise.

Having this information can help you prevent overexercising your dog, which can also be detrimental to their health and result in injuries. Increase your dog’s level of physical activity slowly. Just like you wouldn’t wake up one morning and decide to run a marathon after a lifetime of playing video games, you wouldn’t to overwhelm them with too much exercise when their body isn’t ready.

Get out and walk:

Regular walks are an easy way to add structured exercise into your dog’s regular routine. They are also a great way to keep pups physically conditioned and burn excess calories to help keep them at a healthy weight. Walking is a relatively low-impact way of increasing your dog’s exercise and helps keep them from being sedentary. If you’re looking to do more fitness-focused walking with your dog, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Start slow: Especially if your dog doesn’t regularly get out for walks, we want to build up their endurance by starting with short walks that last about 10 minutes. 

2. Build up endurance: Build your dog’s endurance by gradually increasing the distance you walk until your dog is comfortable with 30-minute walks.

3. Add in a warm-up: It’s good for our dogs to walk at a brisk pace, but they need to prime their body for exercise just like we do. Start off by taking a slower pace for 10 minutes to help your their body warm up and get ready to exercise. 

4. Cool down: Save about 10 minutes for a slow cool-down walk after your primary stroll. This allows for your dog's heart rate to return to normal and can reduce muscle stiffness after exercise. 

Stretching and conditioning exercises: 

Just like it’s helpful for humans to stretch or do some yoga to increase our flexibility and prevent injury, the same is true for our dogs. The easiest way to get your dog stretching is to teach them stretching-based trick skills.

Here are some simple stretching exercises that we can add into our dogs’ daily routine to help them increase range of motion and improve flexibility and mobility.

1. Treat-stretches

For this stretch, your dog will follow your hand with their body as you hold a treat. This is a simple way to help your dog stretch their spine and increase range of motion and their overall flexibility.

Start practicing treat-stretches in a quiet area without a lot of distractions. Get your dog’s attention by putting a treat on their nose, and let them lick or gently nibble at it. Then, slowly lure their nose toward one hip, hold it for a few seconds while they lick at the treat, then bring their head back to a neutral position, and repeat with the other hip.

While your dog is following the treat, you can gently hold their butt in place to encourage them to bend for the treat. These stretches should be done slowly to encourage a gentle stretching movement. This can help to loosen up your dog’s muscles while increasing their overall range of motion. 

2. Play bows

Many dogs naturally stoop down into a bowing position as they engage in play with other dogs or people. Other than being a signal that your pup is ready for playtime, it’s also an excellent stretch.

To help your dog get into the play-bow position, then get their attention with a treat on their nose. Slowly lure your dog’s head down toward the ground and then gently back towards their chest. As your dog’s nose follows the treat, their body will follow. Your dog will drop their front end. As their elbows touch the ground, use either a clicker or a verbal marker, like “yes” — and treat your dog.

When your dog is consistently following the treat into the bow position, you can start to introduce a verbal cue like “bow,” “pretty” or “curtsy.” After several practice sessions, you can stop luring your dog and just cue them to bow and reward them when they do.  

3. Paws up

Teaching your dogs to put their two front paws up on cue is a simple trick, but it’s a very effective stretch for helping them improve their balance. To start teaching them this trick, you need to find an object first that will be stable enough for your dog’s front feet. A chair, an ottoman, sturdy box, step stool, or coffee table can all work well for this.

Once you have selected the object you want your dog to put their paws on, get their attention by showing them a treat. Then, take the treat and slowly lift it up your dog’s head. Their body will follow the treat and lift their front legs up onto the object. When your dog does this, praise them and give them the treat. After a few repetitions of luring with the treat, you can start to introduce a verbal cue like “up” or “paws.” 

After several practice sessions, you can phase out the treat lure, and verbally cue your dog to put their paws up. When your dog puts their paws up, they are giving their rear legs — as well as their neck and back — a nice stretch. 

4. Spins

Spinning is a fun trick to teach, and it’s also a great way for your dog to stretch their spine. To teach your dog to spin, get their attention with a treat on their nose, then slowly move your arm in a large circle right above their head. Your dog will follow the treat and spin in a circle. When your dog completes the circle, praise them, and give them the treat.

Be sure to practice doing this in both directions so your dog is spinning both ways for optimal stretching. Repeat several times, and when your dog is consistently following the treat and spinning in a circle, you can introduce a cue of choice like “spin,” “circle” or “left” and “right.” The more you practice, you’ll be able to phase out the treat and just give your dog the cue to spin and then reward them with a treat after they spin. 

5. High five

Not only is the high five a cute trick for your dog to learn, but it’s also is an effective way to stretch your dog’s upper body, especially their shoulder muscles. The easiest way to teach them to offer the high-five behavior is to ask your them to sit and then have a treat in your hand.

Hold your closed fist with the treat inside out to your dog, and wait as they start to investigate. Ignore any sniffing or nuzzling at your hand, and wait for your dog to paw at your hand. When they do this, praise your dog right away, and open your hand to give them the treat.

The more you practice, and your dog is consistently pawing at your outreached fist, you can introduce a verbal cue, like “high five” or ”paw.” Next, try holding out your hand without a treat inside, and ask your dog to give you a high five. When they do, give them lots of praise and, of course, a treat.