Focus less on tiring your dog out and more on fulfilling them.
The biggest misconception about dogs bred for purpose is that they need to be doing hours and hours of exercise a day to be happy.
It’s true that a lot of these dogs would happily run all day if you let them. And yes they do need a decent chance to work their bodies - they’re bred to be athletes after all. But for a pet home, all that non-targeted activity is going to make them fitter and want more and more as time goes on. Being in that constant high arousal state also means the dog is living under a constant state of stress - they might be tired, but it’s tired like a kid crashing after being high on sugar at a party all day rather than anything healthy or helpful.
Instead of looking only at the hours of running my dogs have done, I prefer to look at it from an overall fulfilment perspective, with a few main categories I want to cover in my dogs life. A lot of them overlap with each other so sometimes one activity will cover a few categories nicely.
1. Training. This works her brain, and tires her out more than any run can do. We can do this on its own eg practicing fancy tricks around home, or combine it with physical exercise like we do on adventure walks, eg structured walking where her job is to stay at my heel, practicing down stays and recalls.
2. Physical exercise. She does need a chance to run and move her body. Not all day (again, we’re not looking to just exhaust them), but enough to get that fizz out and enjoy some freedom. An hour or two of purposeful active time on a good walk/run is generally going to keep most dogs happy (when combined with the other categories).
3. Play! This can come under the training umbrella too, but is equally important on its own. I don’t mean the let the dog run wild with another dog at the dog park or run back and forward after a tennis ball where you are just the ball throwing human and they’re getting more and more wound up. I mean you and the dog genuinely enjoying each other’s company and playing games where the relationship is front and centre - tug or a flirt pole is a great place to start with a lot of the working type dogs as we can use it to replicate the jobs they’re bred for to an extent.
4. Other enrichment activities. This is about giving the dogs an outlet for natural behaviours. Things like giving them the okay to go sniff out on your walk and explore with their nose (their world is very much olfactory based, so having the chance to sniff around and explore that way is really valuable for them), giving them their dinner in slow feeders, kong toys or just scattered in the grass etc. It’s fulfilling those basic dog desires of chewing, sniffing etc in a productive way. Those activities are naturally calming too which is a bonus.
5. DOWN TIME. All dogs need to learn to just chill out and do nothing, and this is especially important for our working type dogs. This gives them a chance to destress and relax, and just switch off - think of it like a toddler going down for their nap. My dogs know how to go lie on a mat (place), and we also have regular crate or kennel time where they can have their own space and recharge. They might not want to chill out initially if they’ve been allowed to be an activity junky previously, but set the expectations and enforce it - you and your dog will be better off for it.
All of this leads to a fulfilled and good kind of tired dog who is so much easier to live with. Quality over quantity.
