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The
importance of exercise for the maintenance of the
general well-being and happiness of the dog has been
highly overrated. The complexity of modern civilization
has imposed such severe restrictions on the exercising
of dogs that it is often quite impractical or totally
impossible to give the dog the amount of exercise
that, according to its natural attributes, it would
seem to require. In spite of this, the adjustment
of these animals has been so remarkable that they
seem not to have suffered any substantial loss of
vitality, nor has their longevity been materially
effected.
From
the standpoint of the dog's natural inheritance and
physical attributes, its exercise requirements would
seem to be prodigious. When sporting or working dogs
are on the job, they may run as many as fifty to a
hundred miles a day almost effortlessly, and they
would seem to require fifteen to twenty miles of daily
exercise solely to keep their muscles in a proper
state of vigour. Even the terriers and nonsporting
varieties seem to need four to five miles of exercise
just to warm up.
Only
the toy breeds present no exercise problem; these
little animals usually can get all they need under
ordinary conditions. If a dog is exercised according
to its natural dictates, it will achieve a razor-sharpness
of exuberant well-being very similar to that of a
highly trained human athlete. But it is only the relatively
rare dog—such as the farm or range animal, the hunter,
or the animal on a large estate—that is living under
conditions ideally suited to its natural attributes.
Most dog owners live either in small homes or apartments.
While the small-home owner can allow his animal to
romp in the back yard for many hours at a time, it
is still rather unlikely that any but the smaller
varieties of dogs can get sufficient exercise in this
manner. The apartment-house dweller in most cities
is forced by law to restrain his animal on a leash
when taking it out for a walk. How any dog, outside
of the toys or small terriers, can get sufficient
exercise in this manner is hard to imagine! But when
all is said and done, what has been the over-all debilitating
effect of this lack of exercise on dogs?
Amazingly
enough, not very much. In spite of the physical disadvantage
we have imposed on most of our dogs in not keeping
them tuned up to athletic razor-sharpness, they still
seem to be clean, sleek, vigorous, happy, and healthy,
and they generally live to a ripe old age. Only occasionally
will difficulties arise that are directly attributable
to lack of exercise. When animals such as Great Danes
are raised in one- or two-room city apartments, they
will sometimes have physical breakdowns after several
years of such preposterous confinement. But even such
occurrences are not as common as is generally believed.
Sentimentalists may claim that it is the love of dog
for man that somehow has made up for this deficiency.
Scientists will be more modest and will probably suggest
that it is simply a manifestation of an admirable
adjustment; that furthermore it may be a practical
demonstration of possible proof that we have tended
to overestimate the importance of exercise to dog
health, and that some of our old ideas regarding exercise
needs for dogs may have to be revised.
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