“I have a 9 month old [insert high drive, high energy breed here… let’s call it a German Shorthaired Pointer] GSP. I walk him 2 miles most days and sometimes go to the park. I don’t know what do do anymore, even if I walk him 2 miles he is still so crazy! It’s too cold to walk more than that and I work so it’s hard to get home early enough while there is still light. And I have kids who need homework help so we can’t do much at night.. and then…”
I swear I read posts like this once a week on various web forums. It really drives me nuts on a multitude of levels–breed choice and appropriate exercise being two of the major annoyances. I will get to choosing an appropriate breed in another blog post. Given the weather the last few days, the issue of appropriate exercise has really hit home.
It’s been really cold here recently -2F to about 15F air temp. While Shayne tolerates the cold pretty well, poor nearly-naked Rio does not. They are both fine outside to do some running in the snow but ask them to go for a walk and within minutes Rio is shivering and uncomfortable, and both quickly suffer from snow building up in between their pads causing them to limp and causing me to try to clean their feet… or carry them back LOL. I’m willing to be uncomfortable outside if my dogs are content… but if they aren’t terribly happy, I can’t say I’m disappointed to get to stay inside where it’s warm and dry.
So, I have two high drive, high energy dogs stuck inside except for a few short chuck-it sessions outside. How will I ever survive?!?!
Well, just so happens I spent some time filming some of the fun things that can be done to keep everyone sane and happy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erkar9GQGaM]
Love this. I’m going to repost! 🙂 I love find me. And now I want to start with the nose work… that looks fun! 🙂 I bought our first interactive game. A plastic version of the NO toys. I’m excited to try it out.
Glad you enjoyed!! It’s my fake-ish version of noseworks LOL… I dont know the details, so I just make it up as i go along for fun! 🙂 interactive games are SO much fun!!! I LOVED getting to see how very different Shayne and Rio are….they approach the NO toy so differently… it’s very interesting!
Your cats are awesome! I laughed out loud during the nose games. It looks like they want to play too.
What gets me most about these people is that I don’t know what kind of answer they are looking for. It doesn’t take a whole lot of creativity, really, and there are loads and loads of resources out there. Are they hoping someone will have an instant fix to tire out their dog so they don’t have to do anything? Why did they get a dog if they don’t want to spend time playing with him? It baffles me.
Great video, though!
Jefferson, the grey cat is SUCH a goof. He and Rio wrestle around all the time! He also plays with the Nina Ottosson toy… and he’s learning clicker training! LOL..weird cat!
I’m with you… it really does drive me bonkers when people get moderate-high energy dogs w/o any research… just HOPING the dog they get is low-key. When they end up with a high energy dog they don’t do anything to tire the dog out and then complain about it… well, if you would take the dog out for some fun, he probably wouldn’t be a monster in the house! But I digress LOL!