Exercise and Enrichment

Exercise is a very important part of weight loss, as it burns excess calories, helps develop lean muscle mass, and improves the cardiovascular health of your dog. Some more basic forms of physical activity include brisk walks, jogging, and interactive play sessions. By increasing the inclusion of these activities into your dog’s life, you are working towards promoting your pet's overall fitness and well-being and reducing the consequences of animal obesity.

If you are unsure how to begin incorporating more physical activity into your pet’s life, we recommend consulting with your veterinarian. Their advice will ensure that the exercises will be suitable for your dog’s current fitness level while working towards your goal of weight loss.

Go Beyond the Walk

Walking throughout your residential area is an important part of increasing activity levels in your dog. By diversifying the exercises of your pet, they can enjoy the benefits of stepping outside of their routine and improving the fitness level of different muscles than ones they regularly use.
It also helps to increase the intensity of the exercise - boosting the burning of calories - by reducing the amount of time your dog may spend sniffing (which can be a frequent distraction during regular walks).
Some different exercises to try include:
- Swimming
- Hiking
- Dog agility training
- Going to the dog park
- Playing fetch

Motivation

First and foremost, there are so many benefits of increasing the activity and decreasing the weight of your dog.
- With a dog of ideal body weight, they can move better, have higher energy levels and increased playfulness, and importantly, have a longer life expectancy.
- Exercise is a way to support the bond between you and your dog. Take a look at our 'Strengthen the Human-Canine Bond' for more suggestions on how we can build this relationship, without the use of food.
Exercising can be a very low-cost way of creating a fulfilling, long life for your dog.
- We recommend considering the potential consequences of obesity, considering the correlation with increased cases of musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases.
- With these diseases, vet bills can increase and can place a serious financial burden to the situation.
Exercise offers your dog mental and physical stimulation, that can reduce the consequences of dog boredom we sometimes see through problem behaviours - like chewing furniture or digging in the backyard.

Breed Specific Exercise

Over 350 dog breeds exist in this world, all with different sizes and appearances, temperaments, and purposes. There are seven major dog groups: working, herding, hound, sporting, non-sporting, terrier, and toy.
By tailoring your exercise plans to activities that are dog-group-specific, they will likely be more enjoyable for your dog.
- An example of this could be incorporating more swimming into a Golden Retrievers' life, as they were historically bred as hunting dogs to help retrieve game from waters.
The Spruce Pets offers a diverse range of dog breeds that exist today, providing information on history, training and care tips, diet and nutrition advice, and more! Here is the link.
Similar information also is provided by The Kennel Club here.

Enrichment

Enrichment is an extremely useful tool that stimulates your dog both mentally and physcially, improving their overall wellbeing.
Enrichment must be valuable for your dog, and can be summed up into five categories.

Social enrichment involves increasing socialization with other dogs, or even species.
Nutritional enrichment occurs through the promotion of natural feeding behaviours in order to earn their food. This will change up the meal-time experience of your dog, stimulate their appetite, and increase their level of activity. There are a wide variety of feeding enrichment toys out there. Some examples include slow feeders, puzzle feeders, and snuffle mats.
Occupational enrichment gives the dog a task, such as playing fetch and training new tricks.
Sensory enrichment stimulates the different senses, like sight, sound, and smell. This could be something as simple as playing soothing classical music at low sound levels to have a calming effect for your animal.
Physical enrichment involves changing the environment of your dog by providing novel toys, walking in new locations, and playing with them in different ways throughout the day.

References Association for Pet Obesity Prevention conducts survey. 2023. Petfood Industry. Available from: https://www.petfoodindustry.com/news-newsletters/pet-food-press-releases/press-release/15469809/association-for-pet-obesity-prevention-conducts-survey Bartges, J., Kushner, R.F., Michel, K.E., Sallis, R., Day, M.J., 2017. One Health solution to obesity in people and their pets. J. Comp. Pathol. 156:326-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcpa.2017.03.008 Cairns-Haylor, T., Fordyce, P., 2017. Mapping discussion of canine obesity between veterinary surgeons and dog owners: a provisional study. Vet. Rec. 180:149. https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.103878 Gossellin, J., Wren, J.A., and Sunderland, S.J., 2007. Canine obesity - an overview. J. Vet. Pharmacol. Ther. 30:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2885.2007.00863.x Kipperman, B.S., German, A.J., 2018. The responsibility of veterinarians to address companion animal obesity. Animals (Basel). 8:143. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani8090143 Kushner R.F., Blatner, D.J., Jewell, D.E., Rudloff, K., 2006. The PPET study: people and pets exercising together. Obesity. 14:1762-1770. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2006.203 Schipper, L.J., Vinke, C.M., Schilder, M.B.H., Spruijit, B.M.. 2008. The effect of feeding enrichment toys on the behaviour of kennelled dogs (Canis familiaris). Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 114:182-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.01.001

Paws N' Pounds Plan

Exercise and Enrichment

Go Beyond the Walk

Motivation

Breed Specific Exercise

Enrichment

Paws N' Pounds Plan