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Meeting the Needs of High-Energy Dogs
Recently, I took care of my brother’s dog, Roo, while he was on vacation for two weeks. Although Roo, a cattle dog mix, is about 12 years old, she is a super-athlete because she always joins my brother in lots of his super-athlete activities, including multi-mile walks, hikes in the woods, jogs, bike rides, romps on the beach, etc.
While with me, Roo was lucky if she got a 1-mile walk per day though, due to the horrendous cold, some days there were no walks at all. Thankfully Roo is also highly food motivated and loves food puzzles, so I allocated a large amount of her regular meals to use in multiple puzzles throughout the day, both calming puzzles (like a Toppl) and active puzzles (like a Wobbler Kong and Rumbl). The trick was to stuff the toys in a way that made them last a long-ish time. You’ll see in the video that her techniques for food extraction are active and joyful!
She also LOVES training sessions and so I usually had at least two sessions with her each day, to provide some additional stimulation and enrichment.
Between those two activities, I felt like I was filling the aerobic-exercise void fairly well. Roo was pretty gracious about it anyway. What do you do with your dogs when aerobic exercise is not in the cards on a given day (like, if the weather is bad or you’re feeling poorly or the dog needs to recuperate after an injury)?
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12 Replies
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Looking forward to hearing everyone’s ideas!!
My default go-to is to stuff most of my dog’s kibble, some raw and canned food together into 3 Kongs. I do this at breakfast time, then freeze the remaining 2 for lunch and supper. Also I love doing Mari Valgma’s movement puzzles (btw has anyone else tried these?) when I don’t have time for a longer exercise period. My Lab is calmed down and ready for a nice settle after less than 5 minutes of MP.
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Cool, @grace — love that you mentioned the movement puzzles and glad to hear they help your dog calm down. ????
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Yes I do Mari’s movement puzzle work with my dog. He loves it.
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I actually play fetch with my dog in the house. I have a long hallway which is covered in rugs. He’s only 20 lbs so maybe for a larger dog it would be a disaster. I also do what I call Bowls and Boxes game. I put an array of bowls and boxes together in a group. I throw a low value treat away from the boxes and while Atticus goes to get the treat, I throw another treat (higher value) into one of the boxes/bowls. When he comes back he has to find which bowl/box contains the treat. And then we just start all over. I saw this posted somewhere (it is not my original idea) but don’t remember where.
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What a fabulous game, @Atticus . Thanks so much for sharing this idea!
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Another great topic! Usually, I chime in with anecdotes about Mal’s problematic behavior, but our boy was crazy energetic and whip smart, too!
Mal LOVED working complex Nina Ottosson puzzle toys. His absolute favorite was the Dog Casino. He had to pull out the bone locking pins before he could open the drawers on the side where a cookie was hidden. He played it as a puppy up until he passed. With sniffy walks in our yard and puzzle toys, he enjoyed a lot of enrichment even when he felt poorly when he had bad arthritis days.
Caber will work Mal’s old Nina Ottosson toys, too. His favorite is the Dog Twister. I’ve also introduced Caber to FluentPet talking buttons. He seems to be getting the hang of them to communicate a bit differently with us. So far his favorite buttons are “ball” and “Mama”. I can only blame myself when he spams the Mama button over dinner ????
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Wow, that’s one advanced puzzle board you’re describing @PerpetualCleric — very impressive Mal could do that so expertly!
I’m looking forward to more posts about Caber and those communication buttons. Sounds like a lot of fun. ????
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Love how busy Roo was. That’s fantastic.
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She is quite entertaining to watch, @Shari . When she’s at her home, she knows where her ratty toys and twisted ropes are stored in a low drawer, opens it when she needs to re-kill something, and has a blast while in spirited predator mode!
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Great topic! Pugsley loves his Toppl! I used to open it for him when all of the dry food was gone so he could get the treat I blocked one of the holes with but one day I was busy cooking when I realized he was able to pop it open on his own. (See video) obviously he’s very food motivated ???? @grace thank you for introducing me to Mari Valgma movement puzzles. I started a basic one today and Pugsley is worn out!
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Wow — Pugsley sure is tenacious, @Pugmalion !
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