Why I Don't Recommend Exercise For Badly Behaved Dogs

I'm going to let you in on a little secret:

You don't have to spend hours exercising your dog to get good behavior.

In fact, it can actually make behavior worse. How do I know this? Most of my clients have tried the "more exercise" suggestion in an attempt to address bad behaviors like jumping, nipping, anxiety and excessive barking. I've seen many dogs conditioned like Olympian athletes, habituated to hours of elevated endorphins each day. Who still jumps on guests. And breaks out of the crate. And ignores obedience commands. The physique of Rocky, but the impulse control of a two year old. 

I have a lot of runner friends. They talk about the runner's high as this amazing, drug-like feeling. In fact, many of them freely admit that they can't go a day without a long run before they start getting fiendy. Sound familiar?  Exercise addiction resembles drug addiction for a reason. The neurotransmitters involved are exactly the same. When your dog exercises, his body releases feel good chemicals called endorphins. For all you science buffs out there, endorphins bond to the same receptors as prescription opiates. Yes that's right, your dog is jacked!

For good reason, too! Back when your dog was a wild wolf roaming the plains, exercise NEEDED to be rewarding. Wolves need to exercise to find food, run away from danger, and migrate. Over time, as dogs were domesticated, they stopped having to hunt for food and just started hanging out with us humans instead. Pretty sweat deal. 

Still with me? The main point of this paragraph is to drive home this point: Exercise turns your dog's body into pharmacy that is open 24/7. And if he's anything like most dogs in training, he's got unlimited refills on a prescription for more exercise. 

The Exercise Myth

Imagine this. Your house is robbed while you are away on vacation. When you get back, you begin picking up the pieces and trying to put your life back together. You take a week off work just to sit on the phone with your home insurance company. You install a burglar alarm just in case your house gets picked again. It's hard to sleep at night, and you wonder if the robber will ever return.

A few weeks later, someone else in your neighborhood is robbed. This time, the police apprehend a suspect, who was (to your horror) armed and dangerous. You breathe a sigh of relief and sleep a little easier that night. The next day while cooking dinner, you happen to hear a news report on the television.

The suspect is found guilty and punishment has been decided: four laps around the park each day until he agrees to stop with this whole business of armed robbery.  In an effort to relieve the strain on the prison system, all criminals are now being diverted into a mandatory exercise program. "A tired criminal is an ex-criminal," a talking head on the television explains.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Exercise will not stop bad behavior. Dogs do not need to be tired to follow the rules and respect boundaries. Dogs practice behaviors they find rewarding. Jumping on a guest doesn't suddenly become less rewarding after a 3 mile run.  The rotisserie chicken on the counter doesn't become less appetizing after an hour of fetch. Without consequences, dogs have no reason to stop bad behaviors.  

The Right Way To Exercise

But wait, isn't exercise good for dogs? Of course exercise is good for dogs.  It is part of the bare minimum standard of care, along with food, shelter, and water. All living creatures spontaneously exercise to accomplish their #goals - to migrate from place to place, to find or hunt or grow food, to build shelter. To go to work. 

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people label the prong or e-collar as abusive, yet blindly ignore the dull, largely indoor environments in which most American dogs live out their short lives.   There is no rally cry for the hordes of dogs who spend years roaming the same confines of their mediocre suburban lot. Their exposure to the world is completely and totally dependent on our willingness to show up and teach them how to be in it. Unsurprisingly, most dog owners seem to have upwards of two hours per day for social media, but not a spare 30 minutes to walk the dog. 

This all to say:  I am NOT saying "don't exercise your dog." I am definitely pro-exercise. What I am saying is this: don't fall into the trap of using exercise as a discipline method. Address undesirable behaviors with consequences. Reinforce desirable behaviors with rewards. Don't wait for the day when your dog is "too tired" to practice bad behavior. It may come too late, or never at all. 

Instead, find ways to work your dog's brain as well as his body. 

How do we work a dog's brain? Well, one great way is to implement a daily walk routine. It doesn't have to be a next-level, off-leash hike. You don't even have to go very far. But I have a feeling that, after you put in the work of teaching your dog how to walk nicely, you'll want to go farther and farther each day. 

The basic purpose of the structured walk is to migrate with your dog while keeping him in heel. Again, the goal is not to tire your dog out (because exercise doesn't stop bad behavior). The goal is to simply be in the world together with your dog.   Representative of the thousands of years of primal canine-human history, there are many relational benefits to moving around in the world together. Executed properly, a structured walk will:

1) Teach your dog to focus on you in a highly distracting world
2) Provide crucial mental stimulation

Leave your cell phone at home. Practice the fine art of mindfulness out in the world with your dog. Remember the reason you got a dog in the first place. 

Now I want to hear from you. What was your experience with using exercise to address bad behavior?