Exercising and having regular workouts alongside your dog is a new major trend.
We’ve heard doctors tell us to start jogging, eating healthy, reducing fats in our diet and relax more. But what about the vets and their recommendations? Well, there’s plenty of advice from them too! As a matter of fact, you can combine the two and work on your physique and improve your dog’s fitness too. How do you go about doing something like that? Well, let’s start with something simple. Lunges!
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Lunges are one of the basic exercises you can do with your dog.
Have you gained weight lately? Okay, maybe not you, but your dog. And you want to (obviously) help them get more fit and healthier. Well, there’s probably no easier exercise to do that, than simple lunges. But, if you do them correctly – the effect will be amazing (for the dog, clearly YOU are in a great shape!)
It’s often said that dogs are a lot like people. That’s absolutely true. And in a number of ways. A sedentary lifestyle is bad for people, and it’s bad for dogs too. Exercise can ward away illness and disease and keep your dog looking and feeling great. In fact, exercising your dog is so important that some countries have proposed laws requiring dog owners to exercise their dogs on a daily basis! Obviously, we can scratch the dog calling 911 and snitching that you have not been exercising them lately, but hey – you have to do it for the dog’s own sake! It is an obligation, but it is a win-win situation. Everyone is happy – the dog (obviously), you, for doing your duty, and the police for not having to send a SWAT team to save the dog for lack of exercise!
There are a few simple steps to do lunges with your dog.
Step 1
Make sure you have your dog on a leash. Your feet should be together and your chin facing up. Focus straight ahead of you. To make it easier you can lock on some object or a landmark that will help you keep balance. And it would simply be nice not to stare at a wall, but look at something at least remotely interesting.
Step 2
Make a step with one leg and bend your other leg at the knees until you make a 90-degree angle. Your ‘back leg’ knee should not be touching the ground, that would be too easy. Then simply reverse to the initial position and make another step with the other leg.
Step 3
Now, where does the dog fit in here, right? It’s quite easy – make them walk alongside you for every lunge you make. You can get your dog to run from one ‘side’ of the lunge to the other when you’re shifting your front leg. This leaves the dog preoccupied with running around in a regulated and not chaotic way. The dog doesn’t know this, but you do!
Step 4
As always – you should start off easy. 5-10 lunges per leg is quite alright at the beginning and then you can go up as much as you want. Heck, you can start walking like this all the time instead of the boring regular step walking we do!
Keep your dog active with whatever you do. The dog will become so invested in the activity you’ll soon forget who’s really in charge!
