11 Effective Ways To Make Sure Your Older Or Arthritic Dog Gets The Right Exercise
Until you have an older dog, you don’t realise just how different their needs are. We imagine our pups romping around forever, but as they get older, their mobility and exercise requirements can change dramatically. Although they are likely to have more health issues than when they were younger, senior dogs still need to get regular exercise. So, what is appropriate exercise for older dogs?
In this article:
Exercise for older dogs and dogs with arthritis
Hydrotherapy
Is walking good for older dogs?
Walking aids for older dogs
Dog pushchairs and prams
Dog wheelchairs
Exercise snacking
Reduce certain physical exercise
Mental stimulation
ACE Free Work
Scent work
Good exercises for older dogs to do at home
Canine massage
Balance and stability exercises
Physical exercises for senior dogs and dogs with arthritis
Cavaletti Poles
Keep a dog journal
Senior dogs can suffer a range of common, old-age problems, including deafness, blindness, and perhaps the most common, mobility problems. There are also illnesses that are seen more in older dogs, such as dog dementia, cancer, and heart problems. All of these things might make it difficult – or even impossible – to walk your dog or play with him as you used to.
Exercise for older dogs and dogs with arthritis
As I write this, my beautiful boy, Mino, is approaching his 13th birthday. For a large breed dog, that’s an impressive age. Like many senior dogs, he has a touch of arthritis. Dogs with arthritis may suffer pain and stiffness, but they still need regular exercise.
The best way to keep your senior dog physically healthy is a multimodal approach. By incorporating several different types of activity, we can try to best meet our dogs’ physical and mental needs.
Hydrotherapy
If your dog likes being in water, swimming can be excellent exercise as it doesn’t put as much strain on stiff and sore joints. It helps build muscles and maintain strength in a very supported way.
Mino lived for most of his life with access to rivers, lakes and a pool, so he got to swim regularly. Where we live now though, we don’t have easy access to any of that. I took him to a lake this summer but the water was quite cold and that’s not good for an older dog.
Thankfully, there are several great hydrotherapy businesses near me. Hydrotherapy is a wonderful way to help maintain and / or build muscle on an elderly dog.
This is an expensive treatment, but many pet insurance policies will cover it. I’m very grateful that Mino can have weekly hydrotherapy sessions. He absolutely adores swimming, so as well as keeping him fit and avoiding further muscle wastage, he has fun too.
Lots of hydrotherapy centres have both a pool and an underwater treadmill. Whilst both are great for building up strength and muscle tone, Mino really didn’t like the treadmill. He enjoys swimming so much and the treadmill wasn’t at all fun for him. Each dog is different though, and your vet will advise you on which form of hydrotherapy is best for your dog.
Is walking good for older dogs?
Most dogs still love to go for a walk, regardless of how old they get. Be prepared to rethink your daily dog walk. You will probably have to change one long, daily walk into several, shorter walks. You may even need to make rest stops along the way.
Let your dog set the pace. Be mindful of the weather – older dogs can struggle to maintain a healthy body temperature. Avoid the heat of the day, and equally, consider whether it’s too cold. Our dogs’ paws can really suffer on hot or very cold surfaces alike.
What’s the terrain like? A slip for an older dog can result in a more damaging injury that his younger counterpart. When I take Mino out in his dog wheelchair, he has good footing on tarmac and grass, but slides around on gravelly, dirt tracks.
Also, as dogs get older, going up and down hills may become more difficult too. With Mino, there is a very slight uphill incline on part of one of our walks. I always try to encourage him to take this stretch more slowly – he still thinks he’s a puppy!
Walking aids for older dogs
Dog pushchairs and prams
Consider whether your dog would benefit from a dog pushchair or pram, or in the case of a disability, perhaps even a wheelchair. Getting your dog a pram could be a game changer for him. Rather than being restricted to short walks nearby, with very little change of scenery, you can take your dog further afield.
He could ride safely to his favourite park, which may lie just a little too far for him to walk to, and then enjoy sniffing around it freely and full of energy when you arrive.
Or you could enjoy long walks, with him popping back into the pushchair every now when he needs to rest.
Dog wheelchairs
Mino’s illness means that he is unable to walk for more than a few minutes before his rear end begins to collapse under him. I got him a wheelchair a few months ago to extend his walking time and give him a better quality of life.
This one tool has improved his ability to maintain muscle mass and stay mobile more than any other thing. See a full review of wheelchairs in this article.
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Exercise snacking
Rather than a traditional, lengthy walk each day, exercise ‘snacks’ are better for older and arthritic dogs. This means regular, but shorter, bouts of exercise. This will help to keep their joints mobile without tiring them out and risking over doing it.
‘Exercise snacking’ is a great way to help reduce stiffness and allow them to maintain an active lifestyle.
Mino loves to go out on a walk. His daily walk is still so important to him – dogs need the benefits that sniffing brings. However, he is no longer able to walk for an hour and a half each day. In fact, he can’t even walk unaided for 15 minutes anymore, so we have had to adjust his walks.
Just taking him on a ten minute walk allows him to catch up on the pee-mail in the neighbourhood. Sometimes he just wants to lie down and sniff, which is fine. I don’t pull him along, or expect anything of him. I treat this time as his, to be a dog, to enjoy being out in the world and do his thing.
Reduce certain physical exercise
You’ve possibly seen advice warning you of the dangers of throwing a ball or frisbee for too long for your dog. This kind of intense, strenuous exercise can lead to injury, even in a younger dog.
There’s a great tip in this video by Dr. Dobias (VetMD). Rather than throw a ball, which requires your dog to brake suddenly, make it into a game of hide and seek. Cover your dog’s eyes when you throw the ball so he sniffs out the toy instead. He can still run to find it and fetch it, but it won’t put as much pressure on his joints. It’s so much healthier: I love this advice!
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The other game Dr Dobias refers to is to play chase with your dog. I play this game every day with both of my dogs. We trot round the house, Mino ahead of me with a toy in his mouth, me pretending to chase him, and my other dog, Toxa, running behind us chasing me!
We jog gently around large objects, like tables, so there is no sudden stopping in corners, and therefore no sudden braking. Doing this for 5 minutes is the equivalent of a short walk outside for Mino and we stop before he begins to show signs of tiredness.
Here is another video by Dr. Dobias with a few more suitable games for older dogs. The tug of war game is not an option for Mino, since he has a spinal illness, but my girl Toxa loves it.
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Dr. Dobias makes an interesting comment about using something soft to play tug, so it won’t damage your dog’s gums or mouth. Elsewhere I have heard him warn against pulling too much when playing tug, so as to avoid putting pressure on a dog’s neck.
Mental stimulation – canine enrichment
Very often, gentle and controlled exercise can be incorporated into games and activities that provide our dogs with mental stimulation too. In addition to his daily walking, Mino gets mini exercise enrichment sessions at home throughout the day.
ACE Free Work
My favourite activity for providing him with gentle mobility and mental stimulation is free work.
This can incorporate lots of different ‘stations’, such as snuffle mats, lickimats, cavaletti poles and rugs / mats / towels laid on the floor. It’s cheap and easy to set up – it just requires your dog’s dinner and a bit of thought on our parts as pet parents. Be careful not to do this activity on slippery surfaces – you don’t want your elderly dog falling over. You can find more information on how to do free work in this article.
Scent work
It’s easy to provide controlled exercise through playing games at home. This is crucial for us on rainy days as Mino hates going out in the rain. Give him a dirty stream and he’ll be straight in there, but one drop of nice, clean rain on his snout and he’ll shoot back inside!
Sometimes the game is to look for his favourite toys, sometimes it is food. It can be as simple as wrapping up his squeaky toy in a blanket and getting him to find it. Or, it could be hiding food and treats around the room and then encouraging him to search them out.
Good exercises for older dogs to do at home
There are lots of home exercises that are really useful for our golden oldies.
Canine massage
We’ve been lucky enough to work with a canine chiropractor and McTimony practitioner – this led to me giving Mino regular massages. Gentle canine massage is easy to do and helps supply fresh oxygen to your dog’s tired muscles. See how to give your dog a massage here.
Balance and stability exercises
Wobble boards and balance disks can help our dogs work on strength, flexibility, balance, and proprioception, but in a controlled environment. For specific health problems, a canine physio would be able to assign some therapeutic exercises suitable for your dog, for you to do at home.
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Physical exercises for senior dogs and dogs with arthritis
Mino has other health issues that make it difficult for him to stand for long nowadays, but before, we used to practise these exercises:
Weight Shifting
This exercise will activate the stabilising muscles around the legs and back. Get your dog to stand squarely. Pushing gently on either his front, or his hind limbs, gently move him from side to side.
If he manages this very easily, try a circular movement, going forward and back as well as side to side. Don’t do too many – no more than 10 from side to side – and stop if your dog seems tired or in pain.
Three-legged standing
Again, get your dog to stand squarely. Lift one leg up so your dog has to balance on 3 legs. Complete this exercise on all 4 legs. A recommended time would be to start with 10 seconds and see if you can progress to 30 seconds. This exercise will help with stability and muscle strengthening.
These exercises are featured in this fantastic video by Dr. Megan Kelly and Dr. Peter Dobias. It’s a long video, but well worth the watch. It’s full of information about arthritis in dogs. If you only want to see the weight shifting exercises, start at 36:50
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Cavaletti poles
Cavaletti poles can help to encourage a healthy range of motion in the joints. You can use broom handles, pipes or poles. Measure the distance between your dog’s front legs and hind legs. Space the poles on the ground at this same distance. Start with 3 poles and gently encourage your dog to walk over them.
In order to step over each pole, he has to bend the joints in his legs, thereby maintaining a range of motion throughout his joints. Start with 3 repetitions – if he can do this well, without kicking any of the poles then you could begin to increase the height of the poles bit by bit. Also, you can add more poles, building up from your original 3.
Do the exercise twice daily, but monitor your dog to make sure that he is not tiring. If he begins to kick the poles a lot, then go back a step, lowering them slightly or reducing the number.
Keep a dog journal
I maintain a journal noting the exercise my dogs get – I note how Mino is after a hydrotherapy or exercise session. It allows me to measure what’s working and what isn’t, what we can do more of or what we need to cut back on a little.
I’ve learned, for instance, that if we do a few games of chase at home, he will tire much more quickly at his hydrotherapy session later that day. Because of that, and so that he can get the most benefit and joy from his swimming, I don’t give him much exercise at all on hydrotherapy days.
How much exercise does your senior dog need?
Each dog’s exercise needs are different. My last golden oldie managed, and needed, much more exercise than Mino, but Mino has a debilitating condition. Obviously, if your dog struggles with any of these exercises or worsens after doing any of them, stop them and see your vet or canine physio for a check-up.
Conclusion
A multimodal approach is the best way to make sure your elderly or arthritic dog is getting healthy exercise. Don’t overdo it. Change or introduce one thing at a time so you can see what effect it has. By keeping an exercise journal you can monitor and measure what works and what doesn’t, and also easily see which exercises your dog enjoys more. Whatever he does, let it be fun for him too!