What Happens If You Don’t Walk Your Dog? Understanding the Impact
As a dog owner, daily exercise is one of your key responsibilities. But life doesn’t always go as planned, leaving you wondering: what happens if you don’t walk your dog? In this post, I’ll explore the impact of skipping walks—whether it’s for a day or for extended periods—and the repercussions it can have on your dog’s health and behaviour.
As we all know dogs require daily exercise to keep their minds right, bodies tight and reduce energy levels. For many dogs, the walk is their given exercise of choice.
Regular walks are great for helping mobility, keeping dogs active, allowing stimulation, socialisation and exploration.
But what if you do miss them?
The Occasional Day
Let’s start off with the occasional day. Missing a walk here or there won’t cause too much of an upset to your dog.
We all have off days, or maybe life has other plans for us, or maybe we just want a day in bed, whatever the reason is the occasional walk isn’t a major upset.
Some dogs won’t mind this, some may actually do better after a day away from triggers and high arousal.
Saying all of that though, the other dogs that have higher pent up energy levels, or those with anxious energy may require some form of substitution.
Providing boredom busters such as lick mats, Kong’s, puzzle toys and snuffle mats are all great ideas of keeping your dog mentally stimulated from home throughout the day. You can find out more here on my blog post how to mentally stimulate your dog.
Exceptions
Having the odd occasional day off doesn’t make you a bad person just as long as you don’t make it a habit.
Keep in mind that even though some dogs won’t mind a day off, some dogs will require you to make up for it with some sort of stimulation, or they may find other ways to keep themselves entertained.
The Occasional Week
What happens if I don’t walk my dog for a week? Anything longer than a couple of days will start becoming detrimental for a dog.
After a few days you will find your dog starting to become both bored and restless. Without providing sufficient stimulation and a bit of exercise you may experience unwanted behaviours such as destructive ones, barking, digging etc.
Neglecting exercise for this long won’t cause a major hit on mental health but making this a habit will start to make an impact.
Exceptions
Taking a week off isn’t as bad as it sounds but I’d only recommend it in a few circumstances.
Firstly is doctors orders. One of the few times it’s acceptable is if your vet has instructed you to. This could be for many reasons but keeping your dog stimulated and active (depending on vet instructions) will help avoid boredom and destructive behaviours.
Secondly is for decompression. If you have a reactive dog or a dog with high stress/anxiety levels then sometimes taking a week away from triggers and overarousal of the outside world can help reset a dogs system to a better playing field.
Longer Periods (2+ Weeks)
Finally what happens if I don’t walk my dog for longer periods? Anything longer than a week starts to become a very risky territory. This is when mental health and severe boredom starts becoming a concern with issues like depression and anxiety being taken into consideration.
Some dogs without their daily walk or sufficient alternative will find themselves starting to gain weight without having means to burn it.
Joint issues and muscle atrophy will start coming into play over longer periods of time.
Boredom busters may be able to ease boredom but over longer periods of time these start becoming more inadequate without a proper routine that involves exercise.
At this period behaviour issues may exacerbate or develop due to the pent up energy such as barking, reactivity, chewing etc.
Exceptions
For this the only exception is doctors orders. 2 weeks without a good excuse doesn’t have an exception.
There may be cases of decompression here but that would more be the severe cases, plus with adequate exercise and stimulation longer periods would still be too long.
Alternatives to Walks During Busy or Stressful Times
There are times when life gets busy, and daily walks aren’t always possible. But even when you can’t get out for a walk, there are alternative activities you can incorporate into your dog’s day to keep them stimulated and fulfilled.
#1 – Scatter Feeding
Engaging your dog’s natural foraging instincts by scattering their food can help keep them mentally and physically occupied. A 20 minute scatter feeding session has similar benefits to an hours walk!
#2 – Puzzle Toys and Lick Mats
These are great tools for mental stimulation, helping to tire your dog out even when they don’t get physical exercise. Mental stimulation for dogs should be a critical part of your dogs daily routine. I love to give Jasper lick mats throughout the day to relieve boredom, anxiety or to help him settle down after intene activities.
#3 – Training and Games
Incorporate short training sessions or games of hide-and-seek inside the home. These activities can help keep your dog engaged and reinforce important behaviours, even when you skip a walk.
#4 – Sufficient Outlet
As much as I love walks, they aren’t the be all and end all if you have a good enough outlet system that meets your dogs needs. Some dogs like to chase, some biting, some hunting, some seeking etc. Finding activities that provie a sufficinet outlet for your dog will do so much more than taking your dog for daily stressful walks.
These alternatives can provide your dog with much-needed stimulation when regular walks aren’t possible, ensuring they stay balanced and happy.
Importance of Regular Walks, Exercise and Stimulation
For many dogs, going on a walk is their exercise of choice. Some dogs get to run around, some chase balls, others go to dog parks.
Regular walks are great for mobility, mental health and stimulation but for many dogs it isn’t adequate exercise.
Exercise involves running around and burning that energy off. High energy dogs or those with high stress levels cannot get away with regular walks.
Walks should be used in addition to your daily routine along with adequate exercise and stimulation. You shouldn’t rely on just walking your dog.
If you’re wondering about the balance you can read more about mental stimulation Vs physical in my blog post.
Final Thoughts
In closing the occasional day or so is not an issue, but if you don’t walk your dog for longer periods of time you can start to expect mental issues, weight management issues, boredom and unwanted behaviours.
As long as we don’t make missing walks a habit and provide adequate alternative stimulation you won’t have anything to worry about.
