How many times you said or heard: «I’ll take the dog to soil»? Numberless times, because unfortunately it is a widespread belief that the aim of the walk of the dog is exclusively to let him pee. In the worst cases, the laziest owners “solved” the problem of the walk, teaching him to do his needs on an absorbent sheet: they do not realize that, in doing this, they are mistreating their dog.
Prevent the dog living in the world, socializing and playing with his similar and with people, exploring and making new experiences, and above all, reinforcing and improving the relationship with his human companion, it means denaturalizing and making him unhappy. Moreover, it is a deprivation of the most beautiful and fulfilling part of the human – dog relationship: the walk should be a pleasure, and not a duty, because the aim of having a dog is to live it, and not to suffer it.
A dog would need to go out at least three times per day, spending part of the walk for his physiological needs.
He must have the possibility to explore freely, smelling the most varied environments and contexts as possible (and so it is forbidden doing the same “tour”: if you are bored, he will get bored, too), that are dog-measured.
Smelling is a fundamental activity for the dog, thanks to which he collects information about the surrounding world. And this explains the insistent sniffing of other dogs’ faeces: doing this, a dog learns the “gossip” of the dog passed before him, from the sex to the health, until finding his mood… You start understanding how harmful a yank to bar him from putting his nose in a pee can be? It is quite like if someone teared your newspaper away, while you would read it.
These directions are also valid for those dogs which have the luck of an available garden. Indeed, this “addition” often become a golden jail, from which the dog never gets out because «he has the garden». Nothing more wrong: the possibility of get out in the closed garden do not substitute the walk, because it has not the richness and variability of stimuli and experiences the rest of the world offers.
The alternative can be the investment of the walk time in a more constructive way, cultivating the relationship with the dog. For example, finding the time to play is important: a well-played game is an activity which strengthen the bond and the collaboration. To be sure to realize a well-played game, it is important to remember that throwing a ball for half an hour it is not one of our best friend’s favourite activities. Furthermore, physical activity generates the production of adrenaline, and consequent excitement, which is not inhibit after just few minutes of running, and can be traduced, once at home, in chewing and destruction of objects. So it is important to know the dog’s enjoyments, in order to propose him games in line with his motivations. Obviously, smell-based games, such as searching for food or objects, are recommended because of their stimulating, fulfilling and relaxing effect.
Lastly, the walk should foresee the possibility to interact and socialize with other dogs, not just in dog-reserved areas, but also (and even better) in freedom, because the tight and narrow spaces of these areas might generate frictions among dogs (and, in consequence, between owners), which, if have had the possibilities to know each other in adequate spaces, with the right distances, would have choose to ignore and continue each in its own way.
Whatever is the activity you will propose to your dog, and the place in which you choose to bring him, keywords must always be “respect” and “knowledge”. Learn what you love and what makes both of you happy… and do it!
TRY THIS GAME!
Throw some snacks of your dog on the floor and let him get them. Make this play harder time by time throwing the snacks further or hiding them behind the objects in the house.
Once the dog become confident try the game outdoor in the park, so it’s harder to find the snacks in the grass.
The further step is to make the snacks in little pieces and leave just a smell path in the park, at the end of the path you can hide a bigger snack or a toy for him. It will be like a reward.
