Taking your canine buddy on a walk and playing with them at the dog park can do wonders for their health and well-being. Such activities help your dog stay fit, and they also serve as healthy outlets for their energy. Moreover, regular exercise allows dogs to get the mental stimulation they need. This, in turn, keeps them from getting bored and stressed.
With a regular exercise routine, you can rest assured that your dog’s happiness and health are taken care of. Unfortunately, when temperatures start to dip, it may be more difficult to take your dog outside and get them in the mood to move about.
How do you remedy the winter blues and ensure that your dog stays fit throughout the season? Below are some suggested indoor exercises that you and your pup can do from the comfort of home, plus a treatise on the importance of keeping your dog physically and emotionally healthy in the midst of taxing weather conditions.
Why Should Your Dog Exercise Indoors during the Wintertime?
Even though you’ve prepared winter essentials like winter-appropriate dog collars, dog sweaters, and dog boots for your pooch to wear, the cold weather can hinder them from enjoying their time outside. Exposing your dog to snow, ice, and wintry showers also makes them more susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia, so it’s best to keep them indoors.
Keeping your dog inside the house for the majority of winter can be challenging, but it’s worth putting in the effort to keep them fit all the same. If your dog switches to a more sedentary lifestyle due to the lack of activity, they could be at risk of developing weight problems that could tax their joints, hearts, and blood sugar in the long run. For another, if your dog doesn’t get enough mental stimulation, and if they succumb to their boredom, they may take matters into their own hands by causing chaos in your home.
5 Pooch-Friendly Indoor Exercises for the Winter
Thankfully, there are plenty of indoor activities you can do with your canine buddy to help them stay fit during winter. Here are five examples of pooch-friendly activities you can do together in the wintertime:
Tug-of-War
You may initially be hesitant to play tug-of-war for fear of encouraging aggressive behavior in your dog. But in reality, this activity is a wonderful outlet for your dog to release their natural energy, as well as learn the importance of following your commands.
Your dog has a natural urge to grab and pull things with their mouth. The moment they see the toy you’ll use to play the game, they’ll instantly get excited. But before you allow your dog to bite the toy, you have to calm them down first. This will help them understand that they have to follow your lead.
Make them sit and wait until you tell them to bite the toy, as this will ultimately improve their ability to listen and follow your commands. Once your pup has done what you’ve asked them to, you can signal the start of the game by saying “go.” Let your dog know that it’s time to let go of the toy by saying “drop it.”
Tug-of-war can get pretty intense, especially when you and your dog are both exerting a lot of effort to pull at their favorite tug toy. As a result, your canine will get enough physical activity to stay both fit and entertained.
Hide and Seek
Hide and seek isn’t a game that only humans can play. Dogs can also enjoy several rounds of this classic playground activity while they’re indoors, and it can encourage them to move around as well as sharpen their concentration and sensory abilities.
Setting this game up indoors can be tricky, so make sure that someone else is watching over your dog while you’re looking for a place to hide. Once you’ve found a good hiding spot, call out your dog’s name and wait until they’ve found you.
It’s a good idea to switch up your hiding spots, as this allows your dog to cover more ground and develop their natural wit. If you live in a two-story home, for example, you can hide somewhere on the first floor of your house for the first round. For the second round, you can choose a hiding spot on the second floor to make things a little more challenging.
Indoor Fetch
If your living space is big enough for your dog to run around freely, you can play indoor fetch with your fur baby. It’s basically like playing fetch outside, but with added warmth and convenience.
Before you start playing, it’s a good idea to prepare the room by moving the furniture around and removing any fragile items from the area. This way, your dog will have more room to run around in and not bump into anything that can break.
Indoor Obstacle Course
You can further utilize your big living space by building an indoor obstacle course for your dog.
A mini obstacle course is a great way to deal with your canine’s high energy and keep your dog fit in winter. It will also test their speed, agility, and endurance all at the same time.
You don’t have to buy fancy equipment to create your own obstacle course for your dog. You can use stacks of books, pillows, and chairs to create ramps, tunnels, and low-height jump obstacles for them to enjoy.
Treadmill Walking
As you may have seen on social media, it’s possible for your dogs to get some exercise with a treadmill. If you want to try a treadmill walk with your dog, however, there are a few things you need to keep in mind so that they don’t get hurt.
First, you have to make sure that your treadmill can actually accommodate your dog given their size. Next, you should start slow and only gradually increase the treadmill speed if you want your dog to run. It’s not advisable to go more than 5 miles per hour on the machine because anything more might be too fast for your canine.
Lastly, if your dog isn’t keen on the idea of using a treadmill, don’t force them to like it. They might develop a fear of the machine and start to distrust you. Try this method only when you’re confident about introducing the treadmill to your dog.
The winter weather can put a hold on your regular outdoor exercise routine with your dog. But that doesn’t mean that you should wait until all the snow melts to facilitate some healthy physical activity. The five indoor exercises listed above can help you keep your dog fit in winter and maintain your dog’s physical and mental well-being—all while strengthening the bond between the two of you.