Walks are necessary for the mental well-being of your dog, as well as providing them with a minimal amount of exercise. Veterinarians suggest that you walk your dog at least twice a day, and try to go about a mile or so on each walk. This will give most dogs a little bit of a reprieve from the stress of being confined in a house all day with nothing to do. It will also provide them with the bare minimum they need as far as exercise and movement to keep their bodies from declining. A dog’s body is not meant to not move, and in fact they are built to travel at fast speeds in order to catch food in the wild. As a matter of fact, a dog does not really use the back leg muscles very much when walking, instead balancing on their front paws and steering with their rear. The back leg muscles are used when running or jumping over uneven surfaces, which is why we see so many dogs today that have muscles in their chest but nearly no muscle in their rear legs. A lifetime of walking on flat surfaces at a human pace causes the rear legs to atrophy and weaken, ultimately making it difficult for them to run or even walk in old age. In order to avoid these kinds of issues, it is necessary to not only provide your dog with exercise, but to provide them with the right kinds of exercise in order to allow their muscles to work as they are designed to. Walks at a human pace simply are not enough. This is why it is important to allow your dog to run as much as possible, giving them the actual exercise their bodies were designed for. Running and walking uphill uses their rear leg muscles and back muscles, as well as building better cardiovascular and lung function. Regular running exercise will allow your dog to live a healthier life today, as well as avoiding many of the problems that hurt dogs later in life.
As the weather gets hotter in Las Vegas, we find that we will walk our dogs even less than during the winter. Most dogs receive almost no walking exercise during the Las Vegas summers, and probably even less running exercise. While this is certainly not beneficial, it also avoids the issues that come with the desert heat. If you are walking your dog on pavement (as most of us do) that pavement will reach more than 120 degrees when the air temperature is only 77 degrees. This is a temperature hot enough to blister and burn a dog’s paws in less than one minute, causing damage to their skin. When the temperatures reach 100 degrees, the pavement can easily be over 160, ultimately melting the dog’s skin. This is painful and damaging to the skin and nerves in their feet, and needs to be avoided at all costs. This means that it is better to keep your dog locked inside and getting no exercise at all in the Las Vegas summer than attempting to walk them on the hot pavement. This is a terrible solution to an even worse problem, which is why indoor running exercise is so important to the desert areas of the southwestern United States. By allowing our dogs to get the running or walking exercise that their bodies need in a climate controlled and safe environment, we can provide our dogs with an alternative to wasting away in the summer. RUN DAWG Mobile Dog Gym provides this safe and effective exercise for dogs in Las Vegas, doing it all year long in a van that allows us to control the environment. We can keep the dogs cool while they work out in the summer, protected from other dogs or the issues that come with running in a dog park. The exercises are tailored to the dog’s fitness level and goals, helping weight issues, building muscle and assisting with mental stress related issues like destructiveness and aggression. The workouts are done using special equipment called “slatmills” which are treadmills built without a motor. The dog moves the belt by walking in place, motivated by toys, cheering and clapping, and positive energy by the fitness-coach. The dog will receive the best workout that they can for that particular day, doing it in a way that will not compromise their health or put them in danger of heat-related injuries.
