Adorable Pit Bulls | Returning the Good Pit Bull Name »

Pit bulls need a lot of exercise. The saying goes “A Tired Pit Bull is a Good Pit Bull”. Properly, exercising your dog is a must. A dog that isn’t properly exercised will have to get rid of that energy one way or another. In many cases, that may be by chewing the leg off your new couch or jumping on every visitor you have over to your home.

Walking just isn’t enough exercise. Pit Bulls were intended to run for sport much like most terrier breeds. if you notice when you walk your dog, that he never really runs. He may walk faster but he never reaches a speed close to his running potential.

Jogging with your dogs is better, however it still doesn’t get the job done. The goal of exercising your dog is to run them at there best pace for a solid 20 to 30 minutes. I find that adding a good game of fetch to my walking routine tends to tire my pup out quite a bit.

I am lucky enough to have a fairly large open park, for the most part devoid of people, close by in my neighborhood. What I do to exercise my dog better is I walk her to the park, which is a good 20 minute walk away, then I pull out a tennis ball and we play a serious game of fetch. I am not talking short passes, I throw as hard as I can and she runs like crazy to get the ball. My dog lives for this game, she sees it as her job, and loves bringing the ball back to me as fast as possible.

I only do this with a dog that is well obedience trained, and will unquestionably return when given the “Recall” command. Also, I use the park when no other dogs are around. Due to the tendency of the pit bull breed to be dog aggressive, I won’t unleash my dog unless I am sure to be alone. At the first sight of another person or a dog, I issue a recall command and leash my dog. I trust my dog, however, I don’t trust others.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have a large open area to exercise your dog, there are many other things you can do. You could use a flirt pole or spring pole in your back yard as another way to increase your dog’s activity level. I have read of several people that have trained their dogs to use a treadmill. I haven’t tried this, however, I don’t doubt that it could be an easy way to increase your dogs activity through out the day.

Just remember to make exercise and important part or your daily routine with your dog. I have never had behavior problems with any of my dogs that have been properly exercised.