As my dad loaded by bike into his car outside St Pancras train station, I looked at the bike I loved with a sense of numbness.
I did not want to see it for a looooong time. 🚴♀️🤣
Over the previous four days I had cycled 300 miles from London to Paris and I was exhausted, emotional and while feeling incredibly proud of myself, I really did not want to sit on that bike for a long time.
The following day I remember while still feeling exhausted and quite achey, I was also extremely restless. The sense of having to ‘move’ was so weird. Sitting still was not an option.
Over the next couple of days I was extremely irritable and struggled to focus.
What was going on?
Someone suggested I go for a ride after work, I looked at them in disbelief – I wanted a few weeks break from ‘that bike’. They then looked at me and rather than suggest, they informed my I had to go for a ride to ‘sort myself out’. 😱
Totally confused, I asked what on earth they were going on about. From experience as a marathon runner they recognised what was happening. My body and mind had become so accustomed to the amount of cycling I had been doing leading up to the big ride. Now that I had abruptly stopped, my body and mind did not know what to do with themselves.
I went home, got my bike out of the garage and went for an hours ride. I came home feeling like ‘me’ once again. 🤩
Thoughts of another long ride were way off in the distance, so my cycling became a lot more manageable, with a few rides a week, as and when I wanted to go out.
🐶So as a dog owner, if you are wondering why I am sharing this story with you, I see this scenario play out with dogs on a fairly frequent basis.
Especially with high energy working breeds.
If you own a spaniel, a pointer or maybe a collie, before you even brought them home, were you told multiple times that you would need to, ‘walk them for at least two hours every single day’?
On the farm where I used to keep my horse, the sheep dogs were incredible athletes. Their jobs were intense and the speed at which they covered the miles was quite something to witness. 🐑
Once a puppy has reached adulthood, the walking and exercise can grow in earnest, often with voices of others reminding you that you must walk your particular breed multiple hours every day. Owning a working breed is a serious matter when it comes to maintaining the level of exercise they need – or is it? 🤔
I often think of it like a ‘catch 22’ situation. Owners walk their dogs for 2 hours a day as that is what they are told to do. Their dog’s body and mind becomes accustomed to this level of exercise, so the expectation and level of fitness is there. They have essentially trained an athlete. If you suddenly stop this, what happened to me when I suddenly stopped cycling, happens to the dogs. They don’t cope very well. 🤯
On days where the dogs are not walked for 2 hours (or however long their dog is used to), owners often see undesirable behaviours manifest.
The phrase one owner said to me may sound familiar, ‘if he does not get at least two hours of walking a day, he spends the evening bouncing off the walls. He needs two hours to tire him out, so we get some peace’.
A question I love to ask owners in this situation is, ‘would they like their dog to be an athlete, with a serious training program, or a family pet that is happy to fit in with walks that work for everyone?’.
The majority of owners prefer the second option. And this is achievable for everyone, even if you have realised you already have an athlete at the end of the lead.
Firstly, going cold turkey is not a great idea, as I realised when I came home from Paris.
Reducing walks gradually over a couple of weeks is a great way to start. Alongside this, bringing in some of the games based training is an amazing way to keep your dog’s mind and body active.
Have you ever heard the saying that with, ‘some dogs it is virtually impossible to physically tire them out, however you can mentally tire them out’?🤩
I love to help owners replace some of their walks with training games in the garden or home, especially appreciated by most when the weather is either too cold or too hot, or if they live somewhere remote in the darker months.
Playing around with your routine helps, in fact having virtually no routine with your dog will be like a gold to you. ‘What a dog rehearses, they become’, so if your dog rehearses going for a walk every morning at 7am, they will expect a walk every morning at 7am.
You can vary the route, the distance and whether you go out for a walk or stay home and play games.
A lot of our games have a big focus on fitness. I see many dogs that will happily go for an hours walk and come back still wanting more, yet 15-20 minutes of some training games and they are ‘cooked’. 🤩😂
Another situation I have helped an owner with, was a dog who was walked for a couple of arduous hours every day while the children were at school. After school had finished, they would come home wanting to play with their furry friend. He, on the other hand was tired, having walked miles. In the same way that children and adults can get grumpy when over tired, so can dogs – and they need a lot more sleep than we do. His owners were seeing him be a little short with the children, which worried them.
We cut back the duration of his walks and they started to see him be a lot more relaxed around the children. This made life easier for everyone, including the dog.😍
One final thought I have for you is to do with your dog’s bucket. The longer they spend outdoors in an environment where you cannot always control what they are exposed to, the greater the chance of their bucket being filled and over flowing. Another reason the family above were seeing their dog be a little grumpy at times with their children.
