When to Start Taking Your Dog for a Hike

Video Transcript

So if your thinking about going for a walk in the woods with your dog you might be thinking about what age is appropriate when can you start taking your dog or to what age is can you take your dog for a walk in the woods. Really you can start taking your puppy for a walk in the woods as soon as you get them. Puppies are at an age stage where there going to be following you everywhere so actually walking in the woods is a great place to teach them to walk off the leash. It's a safe place there aren't cars driven all over the place, there aren't people walking all over the place, and you can have a nice outing with your puppy on a wooded trail and reinforce them for coming, play a little bit of hide and seek, so starting at a 8 weeks or whenever you get your puppies an ideal time. If you get a dog that's a little bit older and your not sure how there going to do in the woods then you should start off with a long line 20, 30, 40 foot long line or a flexi leash like the type I showed you earlier. And that way you'll actually get a sense of how your dog is going to do in the woods whether there going to stick around with you or whether it's going to be so over whelming and interesting that there going to take off and explore on there own. If they do that of course there's a chance that they might get lost so before you let your dog off leash in the woods you want to know how there going to react to being off leash. Ursa is a 4 year dog she's been walking in these woods everyday since she was 8 weeks old, great for them as exercise if I walk 2 miles she's usually walked about 4 or 6 with all the running back and forth. Walking in the woods with an older dog is also a great way of keeping up with their physical fitness one of there problems with older dogs is as they get stiff and less comfortable they start to move around a little bit less. If you keep them walking keep them walking in the woods one it keeps there interest going, its stimulating environment but it also keeps there muscle mass from actrofeeing so they stay actually a lot healthier so in terms of what age your dog has to or can be for walking in the woods the answer is at any age it's just you want to make sure that you take the appropriate precautions when your taking your dog in the woods that you know that your dog will be safe when you bring them into the woods.

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