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Every dog needs walks, and dog walks are a great way not only for your dog to exercise, but for you to get your exercise as well. Dogs use walks to use their brains and tame their active mind. Walks can do that as well for humans. But going for a walk, every day, often along the same path, can get a bit boring. So it might be interesting to add a bit of spice to the walk by integrating little things to help you make it more interesting.

Simple and Complex Additions to a Walk

Some of the ways that walks can become more interesting are simple. You can go a different path. You can add a bit of jogging to the walk. You can try walking with someone else and their dog so that both you and your dog are more stimulated. If you have a dog with herding instinct, you can try to instigate that instinct so that your dog is chasing you around and trying to keep you in one place.

But you can also look into more complex additions to dog walks. For example, you can try:

• Integrating Tricks – Carrying a little baggy of treats on you and randomly integrating tricks can actually help your dog behave better while also making the walk more interesting. Trick training can be a good way to teach your dog to listen to your commands at any moment, which can – in some cases – save your dog’s life.
• Surprise Directional Changes – While walking your dog off leash can be a bit risky (we would never do it here at FurBabies), if you do have a dog that is well trained to walk off leash, you can try mixing things up by randomly changing directions and see if your dog notices. This can be a bit fun and make the walk more interesting.
• Toy Play – Dogs that love toys can find bringing a toy or tugging on a toy a fun way to go on a walk, and many owners find that this can be more enjoyable for them as well. If your dog has a tendency to hold onto their toy, you can let them carry it on the walk so that they’re using their protective instinct along with the other sites and smells. If your dog loves ropes, you can interrupt the walk for a bit of fetch or tug of war while on the go.

You can try to play training games or even hide and seek, placing treats or toys in places that they can find them (as long as they are in places unlikely to be found by other dogs).

You should also take your dog to places that are more likely to have smells and scents. Usually, these are environments that are more fun for the owner, and the sense of smell takes up a large portion of a dog’s brain, so if they are often smelling things on their walks, they are more likely to feel like the walk was productive and will rest more when they arrive home.

Dog walks are good exercise for both you and your dog. But if you are finding them to get a tad dull, there is no such thing as a bad way to make them more exciting for your pet. The more they excite you, the more likely they are to excite your dog as well.