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This come to us from Anne Good’s Daily Dog Blog, A.G. Out Loud! I thought it was a great post with an interesting subject that you guys would enjoy. Thanks to Anne for letting us repost it here and please be sure to check out her site right here!
— Kenn
It’s freezing here in the Midwest and it has been for awhile. Subzero temperatures and tons of snow does not make for a great walking environment for dogs…especially short-haired, small dogs like mine. Zoey and Leroy do really well with just playing around the house…they are pretty mellow.
Stella is a different story (blame it on the Jack Russell in her). If Stella doesn’t get enough exercise and mental challenge, she is CRAZY. I’m talking chew on our furniture, bark incessantly, terrorize the other dogs, hyper-active crazy. Not only that but she doesn’t let us sleep at night if she hasn’t had enough exercise. It’s pretty pathetic when your newborn sleeps through the night, but you dog gets you up 3-4 times! Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Enter…the treadmill.
I’d seen dogs use treadmills before so I knew it could be done. One night at 3am after waking up for the third time, Don got up, put a harness on Stella and put her on the treadmill. Twenty minutes later Stella was Miss Cuddle Bug and went right to sleep. So now we’re going to walk her for twenty minutes on the treadmill everyday. It’s great both physically and mentally for her. As for the sleep interruptions…I’ll report back on that later!
My guy will only walk the treadmill for treats, but I try it for the rainy or freezing cold days. I have a boxer who, despite hating the snow/cold, wants his twice daily walks or he drives us nuts. Unfortunately, he now begs to go on the treadmill but only to get goodies.
Thank you for posting the Stella and the Treadmill Post. I have been trying to figure out for the past week how to get my Whitney on the treadmill walking. I used the harness & leash like they did in the video, pretending to walk along side of her and she did it the very first try! She just finished doing her first 1/4 mile walk, I am so proud! And I really think she was having fun!
Your welcome Susie!
This is the great blog, I'm reading them for a while, thanks for the new posts!