How to Mentally Exhaust your Dog!

When you work with dogs everyday, you tend to get a common question. "What do I need to do to tire my dog out?" Well, there are several answers to that question but the first one is my favorite.

The majority of my clients "walk their dog everyday" but that is not nearly enough (in my opinion).  Quite frankly, a walk is usually not tiring at all for many dogs. In fact, many of you have dogs that are bred to be very, very active. Some of you have dogs that are bred for sporting, such as a Labrador Retrievers, where as others have dogs that are meant to herd cattle. The list of uses for dogs are endless and the point is, more often than not a walk is not enough.

Lets look at it from a different angle. In my years of training dogs, I have learned a lot. One thing I do on a daily basis is give people examples that they can relate to. So I am going to do that for you as well. Picture an athlete who has been very active his entire life. I'm willing to bet a lot of money that a 20-3o minute walk does not phase him very much.

Now picture that same athlete spending 20-30 minutes doing something mentally stimulating such as studying for a final exam. Which is more tiring? When you are working very hard on something that requires your mind to be engaged, you will get tired. 

Now lets go back to your four legged friend here. What I am saying is that 20-30 minutes of walking is not very mentally stimulating. So try this, try training your dog for that same amount of time. Again, I would be willing to bet a good chunk of change that your dog comes home and passes out. Why? Because you are asking your dog to use his mind. 

People tend to overlook the benefits of dog training. Most think that you "train your dog" and it is over. Nope, not how it works. Think of it as working out, the more you do it the better you get at it, right? Same thing in the world of dogs. The more you practice with your pooch the better he will be. 

Now, back to the benefits for your dog. I tend to get side tracked sometimes. Training a dog is very mentally exhausting. They are literally learning from another species, take that in for a minute.. Impressive?

1. They are listening to your verbal commands
2. They are watching your body language- which foot you step off with, we also give them cues based on how me move for example.
3. Many people use hand signals too-- those are not learned over night.

All of the above are mentally draining. You have to remember you are teaching an animal a new language. Think of how hard it is for us humans to learn a language...

All in all, training your pup has many benefits and I strongly urge you to try this out. So next time you have some down time or are out on a walk. Throw a few training sessions in there and let me know if were able to tire your dog out, I bet you will.

Jimmy Cee

"A Trained Dog is a Happy Dog"