This is probably the second most important thing next to housetraining. Developing your future champion is going to be a lot about good training, proper nutrition and great genetics, but exercise is going to be the thing that conditions their body and mind.

Dogs need exercise to be mentally healthy and prevent them from inventing their own ways to deal with their energy. These dogs are bred to work, not to be foo foo lap dogs. They have to have an outlet for their energy that is constructive instead of destructive. This includes mental energy as well as physical energy. Mind games are just as important as physical exertion.

It is also important to remember to keep the physical exercise age appropriate with young dogs whose bodies aren’t fully developed yet. Their skeletal system is not fully developed until 2 years old, so the general rule is no forced running until then. This would be road work with bike, horse or car; or anytime the dog is running to keep up with you. They should be allowed to run and play under their own willpower and allowed to quit when they want to quite. I like to let them run in fields but not chasing birds for example as they will keep chasing even when their body tells them to stop because their hunt drive is so strong. This will protect their developing hips and joints and give them longer quality of life.

Dogs who get enough physical and mental exercise are always better in the house.

Young puppies 8-16 weeks should never have forced exercise, and should not be walking much further than a couple of blocks in a day. As they grow we can increase the distance a little if we are still walking but we don’t want dogs/puppies under age two doing much running or jogging. This is the hardest on them as they grow. Swimming however is a great resistance exercise for dogs of all ages as it burns calories and works muscles without impact trauma on joints and bones. Of course this could be overdone as well since we do not want to increase hip joint wear. Certainly the young dog can develop stamina to go several miles a day, but this is not wise. Keep repetitive exercise to a minimum while they are growing to avoid problems later. Avoid jumping as well. In agility and other sports where dogs must jump, and we have to condition this response early, never let them jump much higher than their belly. Jumping up is not a problem, it is the landing, so if they jump up onto an object and have a ramp down that is safe as well. My rule of thumb I like to use is that a dog under two can walk one block for every month they are in age. Sure they can go farther, but we only increase risk of injury or damage. I also really like the idea of under water treadmills, but not everyone has one of those in the basement right? So it is easy to see that physical exercise alone is not going to do the job, and we don’t want the puppy doing any forced running or jogging, but they still need to run and jog as part of normal development. My solution to this is teaching dogs to retrieve. I like floppy Frisbees best, or balls on a rope like the Orbee brand (and they smell really good). That way we don’t have swallow/choking hazards. Never use tennis balls. The felt is abrasive, and the glue they use has been shown to break down enamel on the teeth. Your dog will have bad teeth if tennis balls are part of their routine. I take a floppy Frisbee in the back yard and throw it for the dog until their gait seems to slow, or they stop bringing it directly to me. Then I know they are getting tired or tired of the game and it is time for something else. I do this with adult dogs too. I love it because the dog is doing all the work and I am standing still. They need to know a retrieve anyway, and it is so easy to teach a young dogs to retrieve without force and compulsion.

It is far more important to work on mental exercise to get a calm dog or puppy than it is to work on physical exercise. So we do a lot of things that work the mind. Hide and seek is one of my favorites. I like to hide treats and toys and have the dogs search for them. They like this too. It connects to a primal part of their brain that is their hunt drive. All my training I try to connect to primal behavior it makes for more permanent learning. With retrieving we have prey drive, hide and seek hunt drive etc. It also conditions their nose and mid to work together which will really help later on for tracking, Search and rescue, nose work or scent detection of any kind. The dogs really enjoy it at as well. Food scatters are a great idea to add, you can take their food and scatter it on the lawn or across the floor and they hunt each piece. This increases food drive as well which is a good thing for later training, and teaches them to trust and follow their nose. It seems silly but when you put a piece of food on the floor for them, they can not see it with their eyes. They have to find it with their nose. The eyes are set in such a way on the head that distant things are easy to see, close things not so much. This will work their primal drives and wear out the mind as well. We also play hide and seek with my children or other adults if the dog is going to do any search work later in life or if you want the possibility of your dog helping to find a lost family member. I personally believe that it should be mandatory for every family pet to learn to do an area search for the immediate family members. You and the dog will have a great time learning this, and it may be a real difference between life and death someday. Consider strongly that advice.

Trick training ranks up there in my mind with some of the most important training a family can do with their dog for many reasons. It will work their mind at a young age giving you both piece of mind, and it makes them good ambassadors to everyone that meets them. I am not a clicker trainer, because I hate holding a clicker. But it works. Very well. In young puppies I think it is a fantastic idea to use clicker training for trick training. Everyone wins, it is always motivational, and a great lead in to obedience training. If you read much of my training philosophy you will see I do not believe in any correction or force training with young dogs. It breaks their spirit and their mind and there is plenty of time to polish the work later on. It is important first to teach them to want to work and that work will be fun. Get a book or Video or two or three and work on various tricks when you need to wear your dog out. 15 minutes of trick training will make them far more tired than 1 hour of physical exercise. You will both get more out of it as well in terms of relationship and enjoyment of one another. Not to mention how much easier it will be later on to work any obedience or advanced training you have in mind.

These are just some ideas to get you started going down the right road, use your imagination, and do things that you will enjoy but working the mind in a young dog or energetic dog is the best thing you can do. The path to a calm dog is one whose mind has been worked.