I dare you to go outside with your dog and start running. Chances are, either you or your dog or both of you will be out of breath by the time you reach the next street.

How often do you exercise your dog, really? And I don’t mean taking a walk around the park or tossing it a ball a couple of times per day. I mean real exercise that wears your dog out – the type that, when you’re all finished, sends your dog straight to its sleeping spot for a restful, satisfied nap.

In this day and age people don’t seem to pay much attention to whether the breed of dog they’re interested in getting suits their lifestyle or living space. You see German Shepherds in tiny apartments, Boxers in cramped backyards, Australian Cattle Dogs in two bedroom houses. It’s great that we have the option of getting any breed we desire. After all, why should it be a problem? You get a Border Collie, you feed it and bathe it and play fetch with it when you’re free. You even take it to puppy school and maybe more advanced Obedience classes. The dog gets to laze around on the couch all day. You’re taking care of your pet, right?

Well, not really. While you seem to be taking great care of your dog, you may notice some underlying issues below the surface. You come home to a destroyed couch, so you lock your dog up in a crate or in the backyard when you leave next time. But then you come back to a crying, howling dog and maybe some not-so-kind words from your neighbors about the noise – oh, and maybe a few freshly dug holes where your garden used to be. You decide that your Border Collie is getting out of line and hire a personal dog trainer to fix your pet, which doesn’t seem to be much help. Then, you maybe start noticing that your dog seems to be getting a bit chubby around the waist and that you’re having to take it to the vet more often with little (or big) health problems. Your dog doesn’t seem as energetic and full of life as it was before.

Do you want to know one possible reason why your dog may have been exhibiting destructive behavior and chewed your couch to bits in the first place? Boredom and excess energy. And the reason your dog may have been crying and digging holes in the backyard all day? Boredom and excess energy. The dog trainer probably didn’t help because your dog’s only problem isn’t with training – it’s with, you guessed it, boredom and excess energy. Of course each dog is an individual, but we see too many dogs and their owners falling into this type of pattern. Just about everybody has known somebody who has complained about these types of “behavioral” problems with their dog despite extensive training efforts. If you asked them how many times they exercise their dog, you likely would have heard something along the lines of “Oh, we let him out to go to the bathroom every day.” or “Oh, we toss the ball for him in the yard”.

Too many owners leave regular exercise out of the equation. They think that a walk around the block is all that any dog will ever need. This simply isn’t true. A pug may be happy with such a walk, but the aforementioned Collie will go nuts with boredom and excess energy if this is all the daily exercise it gets. All dogs were bred to do a certain job and some of these jobs require dogs to be more energetic than others. Your Border Collie, for example, was bred to herd cattle. This requires it to run around after cows and sheep and other livestock for hours on end. It requires a great amount of endurance and drive to work. It doesn’t matter that your particular dog has never seen a cow in its life – herding and working is in its blood. Your Border Collie is craving the type of physical activity it was bred to be good at and it is your job to provide it with said exercise. Our dogs rely on us to keep them happy and healthy and keeping them fit is a huge and essential part of their needs.

Here at 1 Fit Mutt, my goal is to help dogs achieve optimum fitness and happiness levels through regular exercise sessions. I realized that too many dogs don’t get the exercise they require. This lack of an essential outlet for dogs’ energies manifests itself in behavioral problems such as excessive barking, destructive tendencies, hyperactivity, and even aggressive behavior. On top of this, dogs who aren’t given the exercise they need can become overweight and develop all sorts of other health problems.

So right now I dare you to go outside with your dog and start running. See if you can make it to the next street and keep going.