Re: exercise

In Reply to: exercise
Posted by:  Susan
Posted on:  May 29, 2001 at 09:42:18

: Mattie, my 3 year-old female, is a wonderful little girl! We recently moved from TX to CT. She HATED the snow! Now that the weather is nice, I'm having trouble finding parks that allow dogs. (In TX we walked several miles every night)Also, each neighborhood I've tried to walk in seems full of loose, large dogs and I end up snatching her up and heading home quickly. My question is that even though she's getting no exercise, she won't play with me for long. I try to get her involved in a game or new toy but she seems to tire of playing with me quickly and just wants to be petted. When she's feeling restless, she just gets a good game of chase going with my Aussie male (he can never catch her). I'm wondering why she won't play with me for more than a few minutes at a time? She just quits chasing the ball or whatever toy we have and curls up on me to pet her. I'm still on a hunt for a safe place to walk my dogs, but until then, we're stuck with yard and indoor games and I'd like to get her involved. Any suggestions?

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Hi, Susan,

This kind of thing isn't unusual. I look at it sort of like this. When I was a kid, I had more fun going to the movies with my friends than my parents. It wasn't that I didn't love my parents, but my friends were just more exciting. They were more like ME. My parents on the other hand, got a different type of attention from me than my friends did. My friends were equals, but my parents were my guardians, the people who punished me when I did wrong, and the people who I wanted most to please.

Sometimes, dogs think along these lines. They see their master as an individual who has a purpose, and playing might not be included in that purpose. In your terrier's case, she may be looking at you strictly as her protector, her alpha and the source of true comfort, and she may just not attach "play" to you. Don't think of it as a bad thing, because it could just be a matter of real respect that she's showing you.

As for getting her some exercise, is there a fenced in, little league, ball park somewhere that you can run her in? If you bring your pooperscooper, they may not have a problem with you letting her run around with your Aussie while safely fenced in. I used to do this with my German Shepherd before I had actual land for him to run on. You could also contact some people in the "dog business" (groomers, vets, trainers, etc.) and see what they'd suggest for your area. I know my trainer lets people use his land to run their dogs on, so you may find something like that.