Exercising a German Shepherd

Exercising a German Shepherd


German Shepherd Dogs (GSD) are known to be very active dogs. They were bred to do high intensity tasks. Because of this reason, lack of exercise causes a lot of behavioral problems in this breed. So, if you don’t want them to be barking out of boredom or nibbling the furniture, make sure they get plenty of exercise.
By plenty, we mean two hours of exercise every day. The time can vary according to how healthy and active your dog is. If it is not very energetic, you can certainly reduce the time. But make sure, there is some exercise, otherwise all of their pent up energy will go into destruction. Also, a German Shepherd puppy will need an exercise of 5 minutes multiplied by the number of months of hisage. For example a four month old puppy will need 20 minutes of exercise every day.
It is advisable that you don’t make it exercise in one go itself. Try to divide the timing throughout the day.
Tip: Set up reminders for when you want to exercise your dog on the Sploot app.

Walking
To begin with, it is necessary that you take your GSD for 30-45 minutes of walk every day. This will ensure that they are getting enough aerobic exercise.
Play Fetch
A GSD will not get tired from walking. To make it spend more energy, play fetching games with it. This will make it run more in short periods of time.
Have it pull you. For this activity, use a harness instead of a collar. And you can use a skateboard or a bicycle to make it pull you.
Swimming
Introduce it to the water when it is a puppy and you can take it for a swim now and then. Through all these physical activities, you might not be able to completely wear a German Shepherd.


So, you will need to indulge it in indoor activities. Some things that you can do are:
Stair exercise: Make it “stay” at the bottom on the stairs, and throw a ball on the top of the stairs. Ask your dog to fetch it.
Tug of war
A dog toy that moves on its own
Flirt pole
Provide a digging area: Make sure that the sand is not too hot
Apart from the physical exercises, a German Shepherd also needs mental stimulation. To provide it the same:
You can get them puzzle toys (and difficult ones because mind you, they are very intelligent),
Scent/nose games where you can make them sniff something and ask them to find it,
Strong chew toys because chewing occupies and relaxes them,
Learning new commands and tricks. They will catch these very quickly. Another thing that you can teach them are the names of different toys or things. They can learn many words and names.


To sum it up, a German Shepherd is highly active, not just physically but mentally too. It will need a 60 minute purposeful exercise everyday, along with more physical and mental activities. A lack of these will be a frustrated and unhappy dog, and we don’t really want them to be like that. Right?


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