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Friday, August 15, 2014

Exercised Dog's are Happy Dogs!

My husband and I love to exercise, and so we wanted active dogs that would enjoy exercising with us. We make exercise a priority in our lives and believe that it is also important for our pets.

An exercised dog is happier, healthier, and more willing to be trained. They are also less stressed, less likely to have health problems, and less likely to destroy your house while you are gone.

Exercising for us typically includes hitting the gym (walking just doesn't cut it for us, but it might for you!), we both enjoy Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and go to an active MMA Competitive Fighting Gym  in our area. I also enjoy regular hiking, and other outdoor activities, whereas my husband likes to roller blade (that's how we got into joring) and swim.

Our typical day including dogs, because they are an active part of our lives looks like this:

Morning: We all get up, husband gets ready for work then walks the dogs or exercises them (depending on if its an "on" day or "off" day) while I get ready for work and make breakfast. Our then tired dogs are given breakfast and pottied one last time and then crated before we both head off to work or school in my case (Almost done! 1 year left!).

Afternoon: I do half days usually, alternating between work and school during the school year. The dogs are only alone for 5 maybe 6 hours at the absolute most, I'm always however home in the afternoon. When I get home we usually play pretty hard - I run them around off-leash in a privately owned field near where we live, they enjoy chase, fetch, and tug. Then depending on the day I will either drop them off at grandma's so I can hit the gym, or we will do a training session where we practice all the basic commands and off-leash recall (we do recall regularly to keep them sharp), as well as any new tricks we might be working on like "roll over", "turn" (circles), etc..

Evening:  Depending on the weather we might take a walk or play some more in the evening, if it's hot then their hard exercise will be later in the day and they might just get a walk in the afternoon (unless the pavement is too hot..).

Exercise is a great time to bond with your dog,
 inspiring confidence in themselves and trust in you.

Dante's favorite games are tug - we attached a rope to his Kong so that we could throw it and get him to run and play fetch, his reward for bringing it back is to tug with him. He also likes it when we play "keep away" - we run around like crazies swinging the toy every which way, forcing him to dodge, turn, and finally catch his prized toy.

Step 1. Size up the distance
Go Dog Go!
Good Boy!

Ziva loves her tennis ball! We use her ball during training times as a reward, as well as for play time since she loves to fetch. We can get her to do just about anything for her ball, whereas she tends to snub treats.

Frisbee too!
For the love of the game.


  1. Wonderful photo of Ziva and the Frisbee! Frisbee and fetch are favorites around our house. Although I haven't been able yo get a good action shot like yours yet. I guess we just need to play more.

  2. Exercise is so important for pups and their humans to really bond and stay healthy together. We walk and run together and often we dogs play chase and wrestle together! Great jumping shots of the pup too! Thanks for joining FitDog Friday!

  3. Paws on the back for humans who take time to exercise their canines. - Mason_the_aussie

  4. Love to see dog parents that understand the importance of exercise and make sure it's a part of the daily routine! I know ZIva and Dante appreciate it! Thanks for joining the Hop.

  5. Sounds like you've got a great routine! Lucky pups!

  6. I love exercising with our dogs as well! Way to go ~ a pooped pup is a good pup!!!


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