Giving your dog love, making it part of your family, and providing exceptional care will greatly enrich your life. While gratifying, owning a high-energy breed can be somewhat demanding for people. Dogs that have a lot of energy need more physical activity and mental engagement. Here are some of the things that you should do to care for an energetic dog.
Identify Your Dog’s Needs
A dog’s energy levels can depend on many factors. Breed, size, age, and other health factors can all impact a dog’s physical exercise needs as well as its requisite mental stimulation.
Look at information about your dog’s breed from professional breeders and veterinarians. Consider approximately how much time your dog needs to be active each day, and build some time into your dog’s normal routine for the right amount of exercise.
Be Active With Your Dog
When you integrate your dog’s exercise needs with your own, it will support your health and help you achieve your fitness goals. To keep up with a feisty four-legged athlete, fuel your body with natural foods that are rich in protein and vitamins. Also, use an energy supplement like Thrive to build up endurance. What is Thrive and why is it good for exercising? Popular energy supplements don’t have much nutritional content and instead contain a high concentration of stimulants. In contrast, Thrive fuels your body with the raw materials that it needs to optimize how it expends energy towards physically demanding activity.
Plan regular long walks, runs, and hikes. If you have a large breed dog with good leash manners, bringing your dog along for a bike ride will be a blast. Pretty much all dogs love getting out to run and play. Your dog will be thrilled every time it gets to have fun and be active with its favorite person.
Don’t Try to Change or Punish an Energetic Dog
Dogs’ energy levels may change over time. Older dogs tend to have a little less get-up-and-go in them then puppies and young dogs. If you’ve got an amped up puppy, it’s reasonable to assume that its exuberance will wane after a couple of years. However, you can’t try to rush this process. Discouraging your dog from playing, ignoring your dog, reprimanding your dog just because it wants attention won’t make your dog less energetic. Instead, trying to suppress energy could be psychologically harmful. In fact, high-energy dogs with no outlet are prone to act out destructively or aggressively.
Putting a dog in a cage is not a good way to take care of it, and this is especially true of high-energy dogs. Confinement in a cage is understandably distressing to dogs, so it can make separation anxiety even worse. Also, it can injure joints and soft tissues. If you need to protect certain areas of your home while you’re away, use a gate to restrict access to an entryway.
Keep an Eye Out for Changes in Energy Levels
Lastly, it’s important to note that you should be attentive to your dog’s energy levels. Fast and dramatic changes in your could be cause for concern. General lethargy or disinterest in stuff that your pup is usually excited about may be an indication that it is experiencing an urgent medical problem. Likewise, frantic-seeming outbursts or extreme agitation can be indicative of serious emergencies such as kidney failure. When you observe a rapid change in your dog’s energy, don’t hesitate to reach out to your veterinarian for immediate assistance.
Having a dog can bring tons of joy to your life. To make sure that your dog has a rich and joyful life, you need to be attentive to its energy levels.
Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/h7VBJRBcieM
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