Dog Behavior Issues and Exercise
Does your dog have behavior problems? Does your dog chew furniture and destroy your house when you are not home? Is your dog aggressive with other dogs or people? Does your dog bark excessively, or maybe he excessively digs holes in the yard? He may even defecate or urinate in the house. All of these problems could be as a result of your dog getting insufficient exercise.
A dog with excess energy needs exercise to spend that energy, otherwise he may find his own ways to react to that pent-up liveliness. If he is not exercised regularly he will become jumpy and irritable, and probably exhibit some type of behavioral issues. He may use his pent-up feelings and energy to chew furniture. Or it may come out in some other type of behavioral problem.
Exercise relieves your dog’s stress levels. It helps him to forget about the problems he is experiencing during the day while you are not home and focus on something else. Do not believe that just because your dog is at home quietly by himself that he is not experiencing stress. Don’t forget that dogs were not meant to be sedentary creatures. In the wild they hunted and lived in family packs. That was the social structure they were bred into. In today’s world they may not be allowed to practice what in the past was normally part of their daily lives. This can be stressful for some dogs, and that stress can lead to problem behavior.
Dogs can often become bored and the result is often that he will then get into mischief. Exercise offers your dog a bit of mind stimulation that he may not get when he is by himself at home. Along his dog walks he will encounter many mind-engaging situations, such as noticing a squirrel meeting a new dog. A dog that receives the right amount of exercise will be tired and relaxed and as such will not be thinking so much about getting into mischief elsewhere.
A dog who is well-exercised will not display as much unwanted aggressive behavior. The exercise will calm him and relax him. He will tend not be as aggressive towards other dogs or humans because of that relaxed state of mind that results from his exercise. Also when you exercise your dog by walking him, he frequently encounters others along the way and becomes more used to their presence, thereby socially him with other dogs and people.
As you can see, making sure your dog receives enough exercise can help you get some of his behavioral issues under control. An exercised dog is a better behaved dog.