Humans can monitor their health and fitness and keep track of their goals towards improving different aspects of their well-being. However, your pet has no idea how to keep themselves healthy and fit; thus, it becomes one of your responsibilities as the pet owner to ensure its good health and shape. A balanced diet and nutrition are not enough to keep your pet healthy and fit, so encourage them to be physically active.
Even when you and your pet are currently stuck at home, due to the quarantine measures, working from home, on day-off, or having no classes, you can help your pet stay active. To learn more about taking care of your pet, whether it be dog, cat, bird, hamster, reptile, read through Petsumer.
While staying at your living space, here are 5 simple ways to exercise with your pet:
1. Running Up and Down The Stairs
One of the best ways to keep your pet's energy and excitement up is to run up and down the stairs with them. Before doing this exercise, make sure your stairs are wide, reliable, and safe enough to do this activity. Eliminate all potential safety hazards from the stairs, such as slipperiness, small objects, and poor lighting.
If your stairs pass the given conditions, go for this exercise. This type of activity is more challenging for your pet than a stroll and run inside your neighborhood. Due to the change in elevation, muscle groups in your pet's arms and legs are more stretched and worked out.
2. Completing Obstacle Courses
To keep your creativity game going, set up some obstacle courses indoors or in your garden that you and your pet have to overcome. Obstacle courses are a type of agility training that exercise not only your pet's muscles but also the following advantages:
- Increase endurance
- Exercise natural instincts
- Improve coordination
Along with its advantages for your dog, completing an obstacle course with them also offers health advantages for you. This agility training can also challenge your mind and body and assist you in getting in shape. Lastly, an obstacle training course improves your bond and connection with your best companion.
3. Play Hide and Seek
Who said only children like to play a game of hide-and-seek? Get your whole family and pets involved for a fun game of hide-and-seek as a form of bonding and exercise. In this game slash training, assign your dog as the seeker and let your family members hide.
If your home is quite spacious, this game is ideal for your pet and family's exercise since you can play around the house. Except for its fitness advantages, you can teach your pet a few practical skills: recall skills, enhanced use of olfactory sense, problem-solving skills, and calmness.
Preferably, take a video of your playing session to keep this memory of your silly game. Some pet owners even share these in their social media accounts.
4. Have a Training Workout
For a more robust exercise that will harness your dog's capabilities, go for a training workout through teaching a few moves to your pet. Dogs usually excel in these types of activities. Here are some workout ideas for you and your furry friend:
- Use your pet's favorite toy to play fetch, while your other hand lifts weights.
- Do squats while holding your pet's food. Every time you squat, pass the treat around your hands while circling it around your legs. Allow your pet to eat the treat every time you go up.
- Improvised and modified push-ups can keep your pet engaged. When you lower your body and press up, extend your arm and pick up your pet's favorite toy. You can hold the toy upward for your pet to reach or throw and fetch with your pet.
- The best way to tone the lower body of your pet is through running exercises on the treadmill. Having this specific equipment in your home satisfies the need for vast space for running. Ideally, get your pet a dog treadmill than a regular treadmill.
5. Meet Up With The Furry Pals
Your pet might be getting bored at home with humans, so a great way to enhance their exercise is to invite their other furry pals over, whether from the neighbor, friends, or relatives. You can also do this if you have more than one pet in the house. Since they are used to seeing each other's faces daily, seeing new furry pals will make them more excited to play.
Once your pets have met up with their pals, let them play alone, but this can mean less exercise for you and them. Therefore, you can do the exercises or activities enumerated above with your pets and their friends. After all, the more, the merrier!
Final Word
Giving importance to your pet’s health like how you would on your own is a strong quality that pet owners should have. Generally, pets like dogs need at least 30 to 60 minutes of exercise everyday, so you should encourage them to accomplish this timeframe.
With the lack of opportunities to play and have fun outside, due to the current events, you can still keep yourself and your pet’s health and fitness in excellent condition through these exercises. Most importantly, have fun and cherish your moments!
