The dog park is by far the best way for my dogs to get their energy out and get exercise. Luckily, Nashville has a great dog park about two miles from where we live. Since both of our dogs are high energy and also herders and also very athletic, the dog park meets all of those qualities.
When our dogs get there, you know because they are barking at the other dogs and chasing them at blazing speeds. The herders are here! They run and chase anything that moves, which means that they are constantly on the move if there are a lot of active dogs there at the time. The dog park is also good for the purpose of socialization. After going week after week, I can tell that they are more and more comfortable with the new dogs they meet...now if only I can get them more comfortable with the dogs on our block...
What I love about this is that after they play around and get tired, they are the SWEETEST dogs. (I mean Sara Beth is always sweet, but Copper is our little butthead. :) ) And even he was super sweet last night. I think it just goes to show you that if you have an active dog that is misbehaving, it may be partly due to lack of exercise.
One thing I try to do after we leave the dog park is practice walking back and forth near the fence line and the sidewalk leading to the dog park. While the dogs are tired, this is a good time to practice and reward their good behavior interacting with dogs on leashes or seeing dogs at a distance. Now, it'd be good for me to take them home and then for a walk to practice even more, but often our schedule doesn't allow for that.
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