Work/Life Balance for Your Dog

The conversation for humans to strive for work/life balance has been a thing for a long time, right?  Simply stated, it is in our best interest to have balance in all areas of our life, work, play, sleep, eating, relaxing and learning.  Guess what?  The same goes for your dog and you are the one who knows what the best balance is for your dog.  But in case you are curious about how to cut up the pie, read on.

For a dog there are factors to consider.  For instance, their age and breed are two very important factors.  A dog ages about 7 years for every one of ours which means their minds and bodies are on the fast track of development.  That first year takes them all the way to our 2^nd grade level of activity.  And by the time they are 7 years old they are in mid-career mode.  By the time they are 10 they are in their retirement years.  As for the traits of your dog, lucky for us the AKC has a wealth of information in each of the seven groups to help guide you.  If by chance you have a mixed breed dog, you need to understand their make-up and decide which traits are the strongest and then be aware of their particular balance needs.  My Puppy Boot Camp Service assists families in identifying which breed(s) compliment their family’s lifestyle so they can live together happily for many years.

My dogs are all from the sporting group.  They are agile, energetic and loving to all family members.  But they require a lot of exercise on a daily basis, which keeps me moving!  In order to meet their needs, we walk, swim, go on bike rides and they go to day care.

The exact opposite of the sporting group would be the dogs in the toy or non-sporting groups.  Examples would be the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (toy group) and French Bulldog (non-sporting group).  They tend to be smaller dogs who are playful, gentle and graceful.  The Cavalier King Charles was originally bred to keep royalty warm by laying in their laps for hours.  A kind of non-electric heating blanketJ

So, what about their work/life balance?  In a dog’s world, working can look like playing because they are using their noses to smell and track down toys and treats or herd dogs they are playing with. Playing could be playing with humans, toys or other dogs.

How much activity should your dog have on a daily basis?  Keeping their age in mind, it changes over time.  Between the age of 2 months to about 1 year a dog needs multiple intervals of work and play throughout the day.  They are so eager to learn, love and play that nothing feels like work at this point.  During this time it’s a great idea to do formal training so they learn good social skills at home and when they are in public.  You can “work” them on average about 1/2 hours a day of actual training time 4-5 hours per day of play. The rest of their day they will be happy and balanced with quiet time in their crate and maybe a nice walk in the evening.

When your dog moves into young adulthood (2-7 years) things change a little.  At this point, your dog is mature in their body and should be fairly balanced in their head. At this point, your basic training should be completed and you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your hard work with the dog.  By this time, a nice long walk with you each day should be enjoyable for you both.  Your dog will also enjoy getting out to play with others a couple times per week as long as you introduced him or her to playing with others when they were younger.

At about 8 years of age your dog is middle aged, or mature.  This is when you definitely want to dial into your dog’s ability and needs.  They may want more naps throughout the day and they may not want whole days of high levels of stimulation, like at day care.  For some dogs coming to day care every day is overwhelming and do better coming about 2 days per week with less intense activity the other days.  Examples would be taking a leisurely walk with you, going to a dog park for 30 minutes or playing frisbee in the back yard.

With your dog’s age and breed in mind you can put together an awesome plan to give it work/life balance and together you will enjoy each other’s company for many years.

Cheers,

Julie

NOTE: photos are compliments of the amazing clients at Paws In Time!