Walking your dog to the beach this summer provides multiple psychosocial benefits for their development, regardless of your dog’s age. Often populated with many sights, sounds, and smells, your dog can experience a new and ever-changing environment. Active and busy social settings vary the predictability of routine and make your life exciting. Sand and water exploration provides a lot of neural development (brain cells). The exploration gives your dog the ability to experience different textures and sensations, stimulating neurons that may not excite on a daily basis. Dogs love learning about their environment! Exploring new environments together is exciting for your dog, and it also prevents territorial aggression that can form with strict routines.

Walking with your fuzzy friend in the park offers more sights, sounds and smells than at any other time, when the weather is nice. Objects, such as park benches, can be used for casual agility play, sparking your dog’s natural interest in “working” and impressing you. Socializing in active environments enhances your dog’s social development, allowing him to better cope with a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

Taking your furry friend to the dog park gives them a unique opportunity to explore different types of sounds and smells specific to other animals, great for canine socialization. The dog park allows dogs the opportunity to return to their undomesticated roots, intermittently, and rejoin the animal hierarchy and animal socialization form in a true “pack” nature. Although socializing this “pack” of animals can be helpful, it can also be made worse if a dog suddenly becomes overly aggressive, usually for reasons humans cannot easily understand on initial observation. However, off-leash freedom gives your fuzzy friend a different set of social standards than being on a leash, so off-leash dog play gives canines a chance to be less inhibited around humans and others. animals. Getting your dog to experience a balance between dog-to-dog socialization and human-to-dog socialization is an important piece of healthy dog ​​development.

Some people chose to monitor their dog’s fitness with the FitBark, a discreet, wearable device worn on the dog’s collar that constantly monitors their dog’s activity, sleep and nutrition, and is breed specific . FitBark easily pairs with your Fitbit, Apple Watch, HealthKit, or Google Fit device to monitor progress. Researchers and veterinarians have developed a unique algorithm to provide you with real-time quantitative data on your dog’s health. Great for finding out how your dog is really feeling and making it easy to communicate during follow-up vet appointments.

In this article, I discuss three popular areas for dog walking in the summer; the beach, the park and the dog park. Each area provides similar and unique ways that your fuzzy friend will socialize with you and other people, as well as other dogs. We recognized that there are basically two types of socialization that are beneficial to your fuzzy companion, human-to-human interaction and canine-to-canine interaction. Canine-to-canine play allows your dog to become less inhibited and revert to the “pack” mentality, which is very enjoyable for them. Wherever you go for a walk with your furry friend in summer, take your time and have fun! When you are having fun, so does your dog. Take the time to explore together and be sure to add adventure from time to time. You and your dog have a unique bond.