Hey, fellow pet lovers! 

It’s October and we’re currently in my favourite Season of the whole year, I think Autumn is the prettiest season of all, with Spring coming as a close runner-up. The first week of October is National Walk Your Dog Week so I thought I would write a post that talks about

• The various benefits of taking your pet on daily walks.

• A brief mention of obesity and our pets.

• And lastly, talk about a few of my girl’s favourite places to go on walkies.

Let’s jump straight in and learn all about National Walk Your Dog Week and Nia and Lily’s favourite places to on walks!

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National Walk Your Dog Week, 2018

1st of October was the start of National Walk Your Dog Week and to be completely honest I had never heard of it until a few days ago when I was hunting for some blog post ideas and came across a list that mentioned it. It was founded in 2010 by a celebrity pet lifestyle expert and animal advocate, Colleen Paige.

The aim of National Walk Your Dog Week is to raise awareness about pet obesity and various behavioural issues that affect our pets. If you have followed epoch.pet for a while then you will already know about one of my previous posts, Obesity and our pets, the shocking truth! Which goes into detail about the massive obesity problem that is plaguing our innocent pets all over the world.

Colleen originally started National Walk Your Dog Day which was on the 1st of October 2010 but felt that this was not enough time for pet owners to make a positive change or see the real benefits of taking your pooch out on daily walks. Therefore, she decided to change it to National Walk Your Dog Week and it has been that way ever since.

What are the benefits of taking your pooch out on daily walks?

My girls love going on walks just as much as I do, it is such a lovely break from work providing the weather is nice!! I and my partner get the girls out for as long as possible each day but they get a minimum of one hour every day. However, sometimes they are out way longer it all depends on where we take them really.

There are countless benefits to taking your pooch out on daily walks and not just for them but also yourself. Taking time out of your day to go on a brisk walk has many health-related benefits for you and your furry friend.

Here are a few benefits of taking your pet out on daily walks

• Taking your pet on daily walks provides them with essential mental stimulation and will result in increased good behaviour.

The first benefit to talk about is that taking your furry friend out on daily walks provides them with essential mental stimulation and will help your pooch to be better behaved.

I have noticed this a lot with my girls Lily especially as she is a lot better behaved if she has gone to the park and has had a good chase after the ball. Nia is lazy and half the time would be happier not going out at all but Lily could be out all day and that still doesn’t seem to be enough physical exercise or mental stimulation for her.

If you have a badly behaved pooch then you need to consider if you are giving them enough daily mental stimulation and physical exercise, because if not then this could be the root cause of your pet’s naughty behaviour.

• Strengthens the bond between pet owner and pooch.

The next thing to mention is that taking your pet out on daily walks strengthens your bond with each other. I love how happy and excited my girls get when we are going somewhere fun, say the park or the beach. It is so lovely as I can always tell how grateful they are since when we get back home since they give me and my partner so much love, which I assume is their way of saying thank you for taking us out.

If you want to build a close relationship with your pet then daily walks are an essential part of doing so and will help you to keep them happy each and every day.

• Daily walks help to combat canine obesity.

My gorgeous girls Nia and Lily, rocking their Xdog Weight and Fitness Vests at the park 🙂

If you aren’t aware of how big of an issue our pets are facing when it comes to obesity then check out these statistics from my post on obesity and our pets, the shocking truth!

The PFMA (Pet food manufacturers’ association) has done a nutritional survey at the London Vet Show for the last five years to compare data from each year. This year the survey consisted of 215 attendants and the results are pretty worrying, I think you will agree.

In the UK vets believe that,

• 52% of dogs are overweight.

• 47% of cats are overweight.

• Shockingly 83% of owners don’t think their pets are overweight.

In America, the statistics are just as bad and in APOP’s 2017 clinical survey, it was found that

• 56% of dogs were classified as clinically overweight (body condition score (BCS) 6-7) or obese (BCS 8-9).

• 60% of cats were classified as clinically overweight (body condition score (BCS) 6-7) or obese (BCS 8-9) by their veterinary professional.

To learn more about obesity and our pet’s read my full post after this one, Obesity and our pets, the shocking truth!

• Daily walks help to improve your pets physical and mental health.

Daily walks help your pet both mentally and physically. I know for myself how much physical exercise makes me feel better and the mental benefits I get from doing even just a half an hour workout or so makes such a positive difference to my overall mood and the same can be said for mans best friend.

Our pets love going on daily walks and this is because they are getting all that crazy energy out and are able to fully relax after getting a good walk.

• Daily walks help to socialise your pet.

As well as the physical and mental benefits your pet gets from going on daily walks, they also get a chance to socialise with other pooches. This ensures they act normal around other dogs and learn proper behaviour from a young age. My girl Lily has always been hit or miss with other dogs whereas Nia has always been perfect.

However, taking your pet out on daily walks means more interactions and an increased level of normal canine behaviour, which results in a happy, sociable pooch.

• Daily walks help to decrease loneliness in our pets.

Daily walks help to decrease loneliness in our pets, a lot of our pooches are stuck in the house and are home alone for the majority of the day since we owners are at work or out and about for most of it. This means many pets are bored and the one thing they have to look forward to is their daily walk with their human best friend.

By taking your pet out once or twice a day it gives them something to look forward to, gets them into a good routine around your work schedule and most importantly keeps them healthy and happy.

Well now we know what the benefits are for our canine friends but what about ourselves?

Just like there are many benefits for our pets when going out on daily walks the same can be said for ourselves.

• Daily walks provide you with a much-needed break away from work, family responsibilities and everyday stresses.

Life can be a challenge sometimes with ever-increasing work stresses, family responsibilities and everything else on top of that, sometimes you just need to take a break from it all.

I work from home so thankfully don’t have to deal with the mundane travel to and from work but I still easily get stressed with my ever-growing to-do list and my blogging responsibilities. However, when I feel myself getting wound up and my productivity starts to go down the drain I have two options, either follow a quick yoga video and hope I am recharged with enough positivity to tackle the task at hand or get the girls out on a nice relaxing walk.

Both are great and having a pet means you have a responsibility to get them out on a daily walk and you cannot escape this, even if you feel you don’t have enough time to do so. I see taking my girls out on daily walks as a blessing and without that much-needed break, god knows how I would function!!

• Taking your pet out on daily walks benefits your overall health.

We all know that sitting down all day is very bad for our health and actually causes a myriad of health problems from back pain, weight gain and it even decreases your lifespan. By going out on daily walks your benefiting your overall health in a variety of ways such as

• Maintaining a healthy weight.

• Helping to prevent or manage various conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

• Strengthening your bones and muscles.

• Preventing back issues or pains from sitting at a desk all day.

These are just a few of the many health benefits that come from going on daily walks with your pet, so the next time you cannot be bothered to do so remember all the added health benefits for you and your furry friend.

• Taking your pet on a daily walk has a positive impact on your overall mental health.

I mentioned above that taking your pet on daily walks provides you with a chance to reset and have a little break from everyday stresses such as work or family responsibilities.

By going on a daily walk and taking a short break out of your day, this will have a positive impact on your mood, overall happiness and in turn, help you to be more productive and effective in tackling your to-do list each day.

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Nia and Lily’s favourite places to go on walkies

My girls love going on walks just as much as I do and some of their favourite places to go are

• South Shields Beach.

We have a lovely beach and coastline where I live, in fact, considering we are only a few minutes away we probably don’t take the girls enough. However, that is because there is an annoying ban on dogs going on the main beach from May to the end of September but thankfully it’s now October so we can take them on.

I remember the first time we took Nia and Lily to the beach, separate occasions of course since we had Nia for a whole year before Lily came alone. The first time we took Nia on she just started to dig and ever since then this is what she does when gets on the sand.

Whereas the first time we took little Lily on the beach she decided to go for a swim straight away, I was so shocked since Nia never did that, she always just stays away from the water. Surprisingly I struggled to find a photo of Lily on the beach so Romeo the Rottie took her place and helped fill the gap.

• The Leas, South Shields.

The Leas is another place that I love to walk the girls and this is actually where the Great North Dog Walk takes place each year. It is our go to when the girls aren’t allowed on the beach during the Summer as you can still walk along the coastline and then go on to the Leas to chuck the ball.

• The Park.

The park is Lily’s favourite place to go in the whole world!!! 

Nia seems to like going here too but nowhere near as much as Lily, she really loves it. As soon as we hit the park the girls know they are going to get to run around off the lead and chase after the ball which makes them so happy.

I love going here as well because if I or my partner is feeling a bit under the weather it is literally two minutes from home and means we don’t have to go on a massive walk, since we can just stick the girl’s Xdog Weight and Fitness Vests on and know they are going to get a good little work out with minimum effort required.

• Peaceful Walks around the nearby Graveyard.

We have a lovely little quite graveyard full of trees and squirrels a few minutes walk away from where we live and it is such a peaceful place to take the girls on a little walk. It is two seconds away from the park so what we normally do is take the girls to the park to chase after the ball then end with a quick little once around the graveyard before heading home.

These are some of my girl’s favourite places to go on walks and personally for me, my favourite place out of all of the above has to be either the beach or the graveyard, as they are both so peaceful. However, Lily’s is 100% the park and she is devastated if we walk past and don’t pop in for a quick chase of the ball and I would say Nia is pretty indifferent and doesn’t seem to have a favourite.

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I hope you all liked today’s post and if you did then let me know by hitting that like button and giving it a share so other pet owners can learn about the many benefits of taking your pooch out on daily walks.

Also head over to our Facebook page and post a photo of your pet to let us know where their favourite place to go on walkies is, or tag us in your photo @epoch.pet when your out and about this week since it is National Walk Your Dog Week.

If you haven’t checked out last weeks post then head over there now as it was a fun and creative Simple 10 step DIY Cat Scratching Post.

Thanks for checking in and be sure to follow/subscribe to the epoch.pet to never miss a post and follow us on social media, or get in touch with us on Facebook @epoch.pet

Weekly posts every Tuesday and Saturday!