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With temps at 20 below with the wind chill a couple of weeks ago, I found it necessary to exercise the dogs inside because it is just to cold for a five month old pup to be running around in cold weather like that for extended periods of time.

Nala is a puggle and is almost two years old. Remi is a Vizsla/Griffon cross and is just over five months old. These two will spend all day fighting and playing, but that just isn’t enough to calm down the drive of a five month old hunting dog. After speaking to my cousin, who has a Great Dane, she explained how I could run them on the treadmill to burn some energy. The following is the steps that I took to teach Remi how to run on the treadmill.

Step 1:  Put the treadmill up against the wall and put a chair or something else on the other side to block the view and minimize distractions.

Step 2:  Place something in front of the treadmill so they can’t jump off the front. This will also help minimize distractions.

Step 3:  Get the dog on the treadmill and have them sit and stay briefly. Give them a treat. Repeat this step to help them understand that the treadmill is a good place to be.

Step 4:  With Remi on a leash, and my wife in front of the treadmill with treats, we started the treadmill. Remi panicked and tried to jump off. We kept the treadmill going and Liza held a treat in front of Remi to get her attention on the treat. When she started walking, we would say “walk”, and give her a treat.

Step 5:  Keep giving treats as they walk, but lengthen the interval between treats. This will keep them going and trying to get the next treat.

Step 6:  After a couple of short sessions you can increase the speed little by little until you find a comfortable speed for your dog. Remi is at a comfortable fast walk with the speed at 4 on our treadmill.

Step 7:  Repeat the whole process as much as you feel necessary for your dog to be well exercised. As they become more and more used to the treadmill, slowly stop giving treats until the session is over, and remove the lead while standing near them.

Step 8:  After some work and practice you will have a dog that enjoys running on the treadmill and you will be able to walk away for short periods of time while they work out.

Hope this helps with the cold weather puppy exercise.

Nate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.