Creative Ways To Let Your Dog Get More Exercise

After a recent treat to the vet with my beloved chihuahua Janice, I was faced with the simple truth: Janice is fat. Trust me, it’s hard for a loving parent to believe. How could there possibly be anything wrong with my beloved pet? Is it my fault?

The vet said that I can certainly restrict her diet, but since I only feed Janice high quality kibble and no human food at all, there’s probably more to the equation. I was quick to admit that I live in a small town house, and while I do my best to take Janice for frequent walks there’s just not much opportunity for her to get much exercise, especially during the winter when it’s cold and we just want to stay cozy.

After talking with the vet and doing a bit of research online, I figured there has to be a number of creative options I can use to get Janet more active time throughout the day. This is especially the case when I’m gone for work, when she’s pretty much just sitting at home and watching TV. Yes, I watch her through the camera. And yes, maybe, I use the camera’s treat feature to feed her treats once in a while. Or maybe once a minute. But that’s besides the point.

Here are some ideas I’ve come up with to help rid Janice of this terrible affliction we call canine obesity:

Hire a Dog Walker

This was the first thing that came to mind when I sat down and thought about it. It seems so simple, just hire a dog walker for Janice! This way, while I’m at home I can make sure that she is getting outside for a walk and enjoying the fresh air. There are a couple of downsides though. I need to let someone into my house to get Janice ready for the walk. This means I have to trust that person, and I’m not one to trust another easily. The other issue is that a dog walker will only walk Janice for a set period of time, so while this helps it’s probably not going to fix the problem entirely on its own.

Install an Invisible Dog Fence

This is an idea I got from trolling around the internet a bit. I came across this website which goes into detail about some options for wireless and in-ground dog fencing that you can use to set barriers for your pet without having a physical fence. From a practicality standpoint this makes a lot of sense. Fences are expensive, and in my case nearly impossible to install by the time I get approval from the association. This is a great alternative, and it would give me a way to let Janice roam a bit more when I’m home for the day. The problem? As mentioned before, I’m not always home. This might work in conjunction with dog walking, but to get Janice back in shape I’m going to need a little more than this alone.

Teach Janice to Exercise

Then I took a step back and thought to myself, “Wait a minute, I go to the gym every day. Why can’t Janice?”. I could buy her a treadmill, teach her how to do HIIT intervals, get her doing some yoga for flexibility, the whole nine yards. Why didn’t I think of this in the first place? I went and got started with teaching Janice, and she was less than amused. I guess I had to fall back on a combination of the two previous options.

So, that’s what I’m in the process of doing. I’m looking for a trustworthy dog walker to take Janice for a stroll throughout the day, and at night I’m planning to get her an invisible dog fence so that she can be active and outdoors while I’m cooking dinner, watching TV, or whatever the evening may have in store. I’m also going to cut back on feeding her dog treats with the camera… I’ll admit I’ve gone a little over board.