Sadie's Exercise Program Part 1
As you can see I have been having some problems getting Sadie to jump on the trampoline for exercise. Even with Storms help I am having a problem getting her motivated. All kidding aside in my opinion exercise is one of the most important parts of your dogs daily routine.
I can not over emphasize how important exercise is to your dogs longevity. The worst thing about owning a dog is that for most of you your best friend will only be with you for 15 years or so and if they do not get enough exercise a large amount of that time will be spent in pain. It has only been in recent history that our dogs started getting things like Cancer, Arthritis, and other degenerative diseases . When I was young I don't remember knowing anyone that lost a dog to any of these aliments. And lets face it dogs in the wild don't get any of these things.
There are two causes for this problem, the chemicals in their food and water and lack of exercise. We can take care of the nutritional part of the problem by feeding a good holistic dog food with plenty of protein and only letting them drink untreated water. That means no city tap water. Exercise, on the other hand, takes much more time and effort on our part than just choosing the correct food and in my opinion has a more profound effect on our dogs health than the food does.
Genetically our dogs and their ancestors, like humans and our ancestors were hunters. That is our dogs have been genetically engineered to spend most of the day moving and tracking game and as a result their bodies have been engineered to move. I am not going to get into the science of it here but in general each muscle, bone and tendon is designed to be used, exerted and then decay only to be replaced with new cells. The cue for all this to happen is exercise, day in day out exercise. If your dog does not get daily exercise its body will think that there is no game to hunt and as a result gives a signal to its cellular structure that it had better conserve energy and get ready for a tough winter or drought because game is scarce. The result is that after only a couple of days without exercise their bodies start to shut down. No new cells are built and they will just lay around and start to decay allowing the old unused un-replaced cells to begin to deteriorate. All the food they eat is stored as fat and is no longer converted to energy. No new cell growth takes place and the cells start to decay. They become more susceptible to decease and our dogs get things like cancer and arthritis making their later years not only painful but much shorter than they need to be.
We have done this to our dogs and to ourselves by taking an out door creature whose genetic structure demands that they move to survive by hunting, and placing them in an environment that is contrary to their genetic makeup. We stick them in crates, pens, small apartments, tie them to trees and maybe if they are lucky they get a slow leisurely walk a few times a week. To compensate for putting them in this position we let them lay on the couch, sleep in our beds and feed them junk food. We keep them in a vegetative state just so we can be greeted at the door by a friendly face with a wagging tail. We spend thousands of dollars on veterinary care trying either to save our dogs life or make them more comfortable with drugs. We treat their symptoms but do nothing to get at the root cause. Lack of exercise.
However, like the commercial says "But wait I have some good news!" and its not that you can save money on your insurance it is that you can save your dogs life and help it live a longer and more productive pain free life with daily exercise. With daily exercise decaying cells are expelled from their bodies and replace with new healthy vibrant ones. Their senses are sharpened and minds kept active. With just a small investment of time on your part you can help your dog live a longer more productive life. Now I am not talking about letting your dog out into the back yard in the hopes that he will move around enough to stay healthy. It takes much more than that. It takes keeping your dog moving for an hour or so each and every day at 50 to 75% of its capacity.
At this point the first thing that comes to mind is. That's all well and good but how can I spend and hour a day exercising my dogs, an hour grooming them, an hour training them, work a full time job, and still have a life? That's a good question. You should have ask it before you took on the reasonability of a dog. I still struggle with that question myself but I have found some things that work for me and will share them with you in my next installment.
Next time Sadie's Exercise Program Part 2.
Watch and Learn. . . . . . . . . . . . . .That's a girl
Get up there. . . . . . . . . . . . . OK OK I'm trying
Almost there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This isn't so bad
Watch out you'll knock me off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ta Daaaa
As you can see I have been having some problems getting Sadie to jump on the trampoline for exercise. Even with Storms help I am having a problem getting her motivated. All kidding aside in my opinion exercise is one of the most important parts of your dogs daily routine.
I can not over emphasize how important exercise is to your dogs longevity. The worst thing about owning a dog is that for most of you your best friend will only be with you for 15 years or so and if they do not get enough exercise a large amount of that time will be spent in pain. It has only been in recent history that our dogs started getting things like Cancer, Arthritis, and other degenerative diseases . When I was young I don't remember knowing anyone that lost a dog to any of these aliments. And lets face it dogs in the wild don't get any of these things.
There are two causes for this problem, the chemicals in their food and water and lack of exercise. We can take care of the nutritional part of the problem by feeding a good holistic dog food with plenty of protein and only letting them drink untreated water. That means no city tap water. Exercise, on the other hand, takes much more time and effort on our part than just choosing the correct food and in my opinion has a more profound effect on our dogs health than the food does.
Genetically our dogs and their ancestors, like humans and our ancestors were hunters. That is our dogs have been genetically engineered to spend most of the day moving and tracking game and as a result their bodies have been engineered to move. I am not going to get into the science of it here but in general each muscle, bone and tendon is designed to be used, exerted and then decay only to be replaced with new cells. The cue for all this to happen is exercise, day in day out exercise. If your dog does not get daily exercise its body will think that there is no game to hunt and as a result gives a signal to its cellular structure that it had better conserve energy and get ready for a tough winter or drought because game is scarce. The result is that after only a couple of days without exercise their bodies start to shut down. No new cells are built and they will just lay around and start to decay allowing the old unused un-replaced cells to begin to deteriorate. All the food they eat is stored as fat and is no longer converted to energy. No new cell growth takes place and the cells start to decay. They become more susceptible to decease and our dogs get things like cancer and arthritis making their later years not only painful but much shorter than they need to be.
We have done this to our dogs and to ourselves by taking an out door creature whose genetic structure demands that they move to survive by hunting, and placing them in an environment that is contrary to their genetic makeup. We stick them in crates, pens, small apartments, tie them to trees and maybe if they are lucky they get a slow leisurely walk a few times a week. To compensate for putting them in this position we let them lay on the couch, sleep in our beds and feed them junk food. We keep them in a vegetative state just so we can be greeted at the door by a friendly face with a wagging tail. We spend thousands of dollars on veterinary care trying either to save our dogs life or make them more comfortable with drugs. We treat their symptoms but do nothing to get at the root cause. Lack of exercise.
However, like the commercial says "But wait I have some good news!" and its not that you can save money on your insurance it is that you can save your dogs life and help it live a longer and more productive pain free life with daily exercise. With daily exercise decaying cells are expelled from their bodies and replace with new healthy vibrant ones. Their senses are sharpened and minds kept active. With just a small investment of time on your part you can help your dog live a longer more productive life. Now I am not talking about letting your dog out into the back yard in the hopes that he will move around enough to stay healthy. It takes much more than that. It takes keeping your dog moving for an hour or so each and every day at 50 to 75% of its capacity.
At this point the first thing that comes to mind is. That's all well and good but how can I spend and hour a day exercising my dogs, an hour grooming them, an hour training them, work a full time job, and still have a life? That's a good question. You should have ask it before you took on the reasonability of a dog. I still struggle with that question myself but I have found some things that work for me and will share them with you in my next installment.
Next time Sadie's Exercise Program Part 2.
posted by Paw Paw Mike at 4:17 PM
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