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Balancing Act: Exercise, Training & Fun For Dogs, Cats & Parrots & Time For It All | Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week

11/2/2015

7 Comments

 
Typist: Bethany
Everything in life is a balancing act. Constantly adjusting the balance of how I spend time with my pets sometimes feels overwhelming. When the dogs, cat and cockatoo are not interested in training, I wonder if they are getting enough exercise. When Wilhelm, Brychwyn, Huxley, Amelia and Leo are not focused when we are on pet friendly adventures, I wonder if we have been doing enough training. I want my pets to lead enriched, happy lives so mentally and physically stimulating them is extremely important to me. But finding the time and balancing the schedule to get the right amount of training and exercise plus making it all exciting and fun feels like a full time job.
Rough collie Huxley, miniature dachshund Wilhelm and Cardigan Welsh corgi Brychwyn head out on a dog walk.
Exercise...
Rough collie Huxley, miniature dachshund Wilhelm and Cardigan Welsh corgi Brychwyn practice a stay during a dog walk.
... training.
Training is Exercise
Of course, training is often exercise. Dog sports like agility, Flyball and herding involve a lot of running. Leo gets a lot of exercise practicing tricks that involve flapping his wings and walking. Even Amelia gets a work out when I attempt to put cues to jumping or we simply practice her recall. Yet no matter how active and fun the pets positive reinforcement training sessions, it is still work. My job as a Pilates instructor is often great exercise but it's my job. I want to get my heart rate up when I don't have to think. I like the pets to have the same relaxed exercise time. All work and no play would make my pets and I dull!
Exercise is Training
Walking is the activity all of the pets most enjoy as leisurely exercise. But every walk is a training walk. The rules of society apply no matter where we walk. It is work for the dogs to not bark at, well, everything. I have to make sure we follow traffic rules. Leo and Amelia have to keep their leashes and harnesses comfortably loose. Even playtime in the yard or house has rules to follow. We often practice "quiet," "give" and "take" cues at playtime as well. After all, it is important that all the pets are always learning and staying fit. And both mental and physical stimulation activities should always be fun.
Adventure cat Amelia enjoys time outdoors while practicing her leash and harness manners.
Fun?
Trtion Cockatoo Leo practices his
Fun!
Timing Is Everything
My experience has been that some dogs and other pets are more open to training after or during exercise while others consider exercise a training reward. Since sharing both physical and mental stimulation time with pets increases the human-animal bond, it doesn't take long to figure out what kind of exercise and training timing makes the most sense for each individual pet. Wilhelm focuses better on cues before exercise. Brychwyn pays better attention when he is tired. Huxley needs training and exercise time evenly mixed together as he considers moving a reward. It is always best to catch both Amelia and Leo right after a nap to get some training mixed with exercise in with them. Then I get back to balancing how much training and/or exercise we do in he time we have together.
Is there a perfect balance of challenging mental and fulfilling physical stimulation for my pets? I haven't yet found this balance for myself! I regularly remind myself that there are plenty of pets in the world not getting daily exercise or any sort of mental stimulation through training. So it's okay that I may not get my pets the perfect amount of training and exercise. As long as we have fun while I try my best to fulfill their needs, our bond grows deeper. And that bond is what matters most.
Miniature dachshund Wilhelm wearing a gold AMPT Animal protype.
An AMPT Animal monitor protype in gold on the collar of miniature dachshund Wilhelm. This activity monitor plus wireless clicker will make balancing fun exercise and training time simpler.
A dog activity monitor with a wireless on-collar clicker can help dogs get enough exercise and have fun training too. The AMPT Animal monitor is coming soon!
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How do you balance exercise and training time with your pets?
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This is Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week, November 2 - 8, where we are learning and sharing about exercise and training. As always, any and all posts and comments about positive reinforcement training methods for pets of all kinds are welcome. Positive Reinforcement Pet Training Week always begins on the first Monday of the month so our next event will start December 7th. Our goal is to build a community of bloggers and readers committed to positive reinforcement training methods and every month we share with, learn from and support each other. Enjoy!
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7 Comments
Lauren Miller link
11/2/2015 11:59:08 am

You're right there's definitely a balancing act going on. I balance it by doing exercise and training at the same time and I also try to add extra training sessions at home when we are not out and about.

Reply
Bethany
11/2/2015 12:30:39 pm

We do most of our exercise and training at the same time too. But we all need some time off to just play! Thanks for joining the hop and for your comment.

Reply
Rebekah link
11/2/2015 04:01:54 pm

I struggle with balancing "one on one" time with each dog. They share me all the time, so making sure that they spend equal amounts of structured alone time with me is tough.

Reply
Tenacious Little Terrier link
11/2/2015 04:48:49 pm

Every walk is a training walk for us too. So we always end up doing at least some form of training every day! I generally just try to balance it out by making sure Mr. N gets some form of stimulation every day and it works out in the end.

Reply
Lara link
11/2/2015 08:00:39 pm

It is so hard to balance, especially with a full time job. When I had my young foster dog briefly, I saw just how challenging it was to add one more personality and need set to the mix. I really admire all you do with your crew!

Reply
Kari link
11/3/2015 02:41:45 pm

My dogs think cats look really funny on leashes!

Reply
Emma link
11/7/2015 02:19:10 pm

Easy, Mom simply eats, lives, and dreams dogs! Actually, it has been really hard lately with work, blogging, and training. Mom has to walk or run and walk twice in the morning and twice in the evening because of Katie which take over an hour of extra time each day, then Bailie had a tracking test and I had nose work trials, so that was 2-3 days of training 1-2 hrs each time the past two months. It all paid off and we got our titles, but now we are scaling back a bit until spring. Mom loves it all, but that real job really puts a damper on the time thing.

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