Simply exercising your dog into exhaustion won’t stop their anxiety!!!

I’m sure that most of you have been told by someone (who I’m sure means well) that a tired and exhausted dog is a happy, calm and anxiety-free dog.

Well, unfortunately that’s not quite the case!

If your dog is struggling with separation anxiety, you can’t just take them out for a long walk or have them chase after a ball a million times over (which is actually never a good idea!!), and then think they’ll be happily snoozing when you leave them home alone.

➡️➡️ Matter of fact, over-exercising can actually create hyperarousal, ESPECIALLY if your way of exercising your dog is to throw a ball or frisbee over and over again.

What you want to do is to find a good balance of physical and mental stimulation to set your dog up for success. And the mental stimulation can happen during a walk, as well as when you’re back home and preparing for an absence training exercise.

And what that good balance is of course depends on each individual dog’s needs (considering age, breed, triggers, etc).