03/10/2024
The Importance of Decompression Walks
I want to start by saying I have always taken my dogs on off leash hikes. I do it for myself more than the dogs and it is one of my favourite parts of dog ownership. However, in recent years we have turned towards increasing fitness in our dogs and this meant that off-leash walks were something fun that we did on weekends when we had time and things like biking, sprint-work, long leashed-walks, trot-work, swimming, and tread-milling became the basis for our dogs fitness. At one point, our adult working dogs were getting 2hrs of exercise a day in total. Off leash walks meant more risk of injury and less consistent exercise for targeted muscle groups.
One spring one of our young males, Rise, ended up with a minor tear on his ACL. This was most likely structural as his whippet-like body does not build muscle as well on his back-end as well as just the fact that young boys play rough. He ended up on complete rest followed by gradual increase in activity. He was miserable. Even when he went back up to regular exercise and was considered 'healed' he had become increasingly reactive on walks, snappy with dogs in the house, and needed to be crated after exercise so that he could go calm down. He even began to become very uncomfortable when one of us was in his personal space and grew to resent cuddling and kisses. He was constantly on edge.
I had listened to a podcast on the importance of decompression walks and had recently discovered a new trail nearby that was safe to walk my dogs on off-leash. Because it was the middle of winter and the streets were too gross to leash walk anyways, I started walking the dogs off leash daily. They can take a break from fitness for a little bit, I though. The podcast (From Cog Dog Radio for anyone interested) suggested to look at when the dogs started to calm down, time it, and then double that for walk-time. For most of our dogs this was about 15-20 minutes, for Rise it was almost an hour before he began to relax. I noticed that while most of our dogs were more or less the same, both Rise and our other young male, Spec had incredibly drastic results. Spec went from being incredibly busy in the house to sleeping by my feet while I worked all day. Rise slowly started becoming his old self and for the first time in almost a year he is finally starting to relax. He is so much easier to walk on leash now, he is much more forgiving about dogs in his space, and when he comes home from off leash walks he does not need to be crated until he calms down.
I will say though, who he walks with greatly predicts the outcome of his walk. He does not enjoy walking with the two younger boys and instead prefers to go at his own pace, sniff, and not be touched or played with by any of the other dogs. Instead of taking an hour to calm down, he now takes about 15 min. So we now do two walks. One for Spec & Dusk so they can enjoy playing and romping together and one for Rise so he can enjoy some peace and quiet with calmer dogs.
Are off leash walks dangerous? Of course. Everything is dangerous. Our dogs have been punctured by sticks on numerous occasions, had run-ins with wire fences, and have come up lame with burnt pads more times than I can count. However, I will continue to take them off leash because the benefit and joy they get from being dogs and enjoying themselves far outweighs any downside they may get. Another benefit that structured exercise doesn't provide is full-body muscle use and coordination. When dogs are running they use everything from their tails to their toes, dodging, jumping, and using their body in every way a dog is meant to.
If you are having behaviour issues with your dogs, one of the first things I would look at is how much exercise they get and then look at the type of exercise they are getting. Dogs that are reactive or always on edge can greatly benefit from relaxing time on their own. If there isn't anywhere safe for your dog to be off leash near you (Fun fact - most leash-reactive dogs are much better with dogs when off-leash) check out fully fenced in places you can rent such as Keshet Kennels, Carp Country Canine, Walk With Me Ottawa, Barkwood Forest, and Dogs All Day. If I've forgotten any great places to book don't hesitate to comment below!
We are an Ottawa/Gatineau based team of dog trainers specializing in engagement and dog sports.
