Fun Outdoor Activities To Do With Your Dog

Dogs give us so much pleasure, they are always happy to see us when we get home and they get really excited when anyone picks up their leads ready to take them out for a walk. Dogs just love to be active, so after spending the day at home alone when you are not around, they look forward to playing a few games with you as soon as you walk through the front door.

Just like humans, dogs like a little bit of routine in their lives. This includes when they are fed, when they go out in the garden and when they go out for their walks. Most dogs love to go for a ride in a car too – although some dogs are not that keen. Spending time with your dog is a pleasant experience, especially if you create a few fun activities for both of you to do together. Playing around outdoors helps stimulate your dog's mind and it certainly improves their health with all that extra exercise. Here are a few fun activities you might like to do with your dog and they are things your pet will really enjoy.

Take Your Dog Hiking

People who own dogs love getting outside and going for walks, and when the weather cheers up, the great outdoors can be stunning. With spring in the air and summer looming, it's time to think about planning a few weekends away with the family and your four legged friend. There are some brilliant areas around the country where you can take your dog hiking – think the fun your dog will have with all those wonderful new smells and the excitement of meeting new things!

The Lake District offers some of the best hiking trails in the country and it's a superb place to explore with the help of your canine friend. You might find your dog loves water and enjoys a good swim – just make sure the water is safe for them to do so first though and that they can easily get out of the water when they want to.

Dogs Love to Play Fetch!

Dogs love to retrieve things for their owners – playing fetch with your dog is such a simple activity but it is one that your dog really loves to do. You can include the game on a walk to spice things up. Parks are great areas to play fetch with your dog, but you have to be careful not to be disruptive to other people who may be in the park with their dogs too.

Try not to use sticks either, because they could injure your dog. A stick could get caught in their teeth or throat which could end up with a visit to the vet. Instead, invest in a good and safe dog toy or ball that you can take with you on your walks. This is one game that will keep a dog happy for hours and at the same time them and you extremely fit!

Take Your Dog For a Run on the Beach

You may not realise it but the majority of people in the UK only live around 70 miles away from a beach. Think about organising a day out to the coast with your dog. This is one activity that dogs adore, not only do they get to run along the sand, or pebbles but if they love water, they get to swim and mess around in the waves as they pound on the shore too. This is a great day out not only for your dog, but for you and the whole family too – lots of fresh sea air, what could be better?

The thing to remember is that as summer approaches, many beaches do not allow dogs on them. You need to plan your trip well and make sure you choose a dog friendly beach to go to and remember to take a lead or two just in case you need to keep your dog on leash.  Click here to view our article on the UKs top dog friendly beaches.

Put Up an Obstacle Course

You may not be the sort of person to take your dog along to dog training sessions and you might not have the time to join a dog activity club. However, there is nothing to stop you from setting up your own obstacle course in your back garden. You should include things your dog can jump over, a tunnel they can go through and poles they can go in and out of. The best part is that you don't have to spend a fortune to set up the obstacle course because you can use things you already have around the house and garden.

Old tyres are great for building obstacle courses for dogs – they make great supports for jumps and you can even create short tunnels with them too if you cut the tyres to shape. Dogs love to interact with their owners, so when they do well going around the course, you have to reward them. If they get very good at it – you might want to enter your beloved pooch into a local dog show so you can have a bit of summer fun together.

Outdoor Activities Reinforce a Bond

If you organise outdoor activities with your dog and do this on a regular basis, your dog will love it. As a bonus you get fit, your dog gets very fit and mentally they will be extremely happy. The other bonus is that by playing lots of games with your dog, you are reinforcing a bond with them. This is particularly useful if your dog is usually a bit naughty or disobedient.

By playing with your dog you are getting their total attention and this has a very positive impact on any behavioural problems they might have. You might suddenly find, a naughty dog is too tired to chew things up and a disobedient dog might suddenly start listening to you and behaving a lot better than they did in the past which has to be a very good thing to achieve, and all done through having a lot of fun together.