Walking your dogs

I once listened to an entire lecture at an American Veterinary Medical Association Conference on the merits of walking dogs. The speaker was advocating for veterinarians to recommend that people stop taking about yard size (which rarely matters) and instead to recommend walking dogs to combat boredom, poor social skills, obesity and even improve motility and normalize stool (who knew?)

So, I did, I came back and began discussing the importance of walking dogs. I wrote articles about it and became a huge advocate of not just parking pets in yards and houses, but actually taking them out into the world to sniff bushes and meet the neighbors.

I still advocate that. But, recently, I observed the limitations of walking our dogs.

I fostered (and, ok, adopted) a young border collie. When I got her, she was a wreck; 10 months old and filled with manic obsessions. She couldn't be outside for more than a few seconds before becoming intensely focused on shadows (it was shadow chasing that got her ejected from her previous home.) She was reactive to everything, barking maniacally at other dogs and kids. She found random items terrifying (pinecones and a bronze horse, for example). When the world became too much to handle she ducked her head under the furniture and 'checked out'. I imagined, if I let her she could shadow chase or check out for hours.

Of course, the first question anyone would ask with a dog like this, is how much exercise is she receiving?

According to the previous owner, this little maniac went on a two mile walk every morning and then had a large yard to play (but in reality obsess) in. She had an Australian Shepherd friend to keep her company.

Two miles.

For many people a two mile walk is a huge feat. It is probably further than most people walk in a week. However, as I began running this little girl on the ATV, I saw her race my older border collie at well over 25 mph. I saw her charge off into the desert to chase lizards and the shadows of passing birds. Two miles is the starting point for our runs, but most often they are closer to four. The speed is 7 mph (a trot), though the dogs are off-leash and can choose whatever speed they desire. The terrain is uneven and has a 480' elevation loss and gain in the first .8 miles.

A two mile walk to a healthy dog is nothing. Imagine if every day you took your young five year old child out on a leash. They cannot run, they cannot play on the monkey bars, and they cannot swing on the swings. You walk them for 40 minutes (20 minute miles are about the norm for a moderate walk). Then you do nothing with them for the rest of the day. Oh, they have toys, and a playmate, and a flat dirt yard, but you spend no time teaching them anything, no time challenging their curious and devious minds, and they are provided no further outlet for their young brains and muscles.

A walk isn't going to cut it folks. Dogs, especially puppies, need to explore a world that has contours and different speeds. They need to walk on uneven terrain to educate their body about movement. Other dogs are useful for this, but so are hikes in the woods, runs off the bike, and off leash play in safe places.

Yes, off-leash. There are risks to off-leash, I understand that, and I am certainly not advocating it for crowded suburbs or places where strange dogs lurk. Almost all puppies are far more interested in being safe and at your side than off being eaten by wildlife. Nature helps us out here. Yes, diseases lurk in the soil, but we can be smart and mitigate as much of the danger that we can.

Why are we mitigating danger rather than simply removing it altogether? Because puppies deserve to learn to be puppies. They should be allowed to make mistakes and play and fall and explore. Life is too short to be afraid of all of the 'what-if's'.

I work in the veterinary field. I have seen all the 'what-if's' and I will tell you what experience has taught me: Most pets get injured falling off of golf carts, at the end of flexileads, in their homes and in their back yards than they do having fun out in the wilds. Here in Arizona, where rattlesnakes abound, I will see more dogs who were bitten on leashes and in their own yards than out hunting or running off-lead.

Do all dogs need to be off-leash? Of course not! Do all dogs benefit from off-leash fun? Yes. Does that off-leash fun have to take place out in the wilds? No, of course not. I had a great frisbee dog who could have been happy never leaving the back yard if there were a steady supply of frisbee throwers to amuse her. I am not advocating that every dog needs to run after ATVs and hike in the mountains to be happy. What I am saying is that few dogs will be unhappy if you add some more dimensions to their lives.

Cody, my little border collie bit a kid at ten months of age. This is a serious issue, and according to her former owners she did it because she was so focused on chasing a shadow that when the kid walked into the scene she bit him. The kid was uninjured, and so Cody got a second chance in rescue.

Cody now runs 2-5 miles a day with her co-dogs. She runs up and down steep rocks chasing varmints. She comes inside and falls to sleep and can sleep for hours, hardly stirring. In the afternoon she gets 15-20 minutes of training. Weekly she goes out into the big bad world and has more structured training. She accompanies me on outside chores (except when the chickens are out) and is able to go days without even seeing a shadow.

Puppies have both muscles and brains, and both of these systems must be exercised and challenged. Adult dogs too seem happier when their world is full of adventure - it's hard to imagine why anyone would even have to say this out loud.

I have owned a total of 18 dogs spanning from my childhood onward. All but the first dog was largely off-leash their entire lives. I lost zero dogs to wildlife, accident and snake bite. I lost zero dogs to arthritis or weight-related issues. I lost almost every single dog to cancer and old age.

We're all off-leash, and we're all always in some danger in life. Car accidents claim millions of lives, but no one would recommend not ever going anywhere because of the danger. Life is brief, it is wonderful, it is dangerous and it is thrilling, we should offer that life to ourselves and our dogs, and if that means a little bit of risk so be it.

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