Beagles are energetic, curious dogs. It’s in their nature to roam around, and they’re happiest when they have company. Once they pass puppyhood, they lean towards rapidly becoming overweight despite their active nature. Ensuring that your Beagle gets daily exercise will keep this canine in top health. In this article, we will be looking at the top exercises for Beagles.
If no one in your household can exercise with your Beagle, it’ll be best to hire someone who can. Merely letting your dog out in the backyard won’t do the trick. Beagles need exercise in addition to playtime, training, and free time.
Taking your Beagle for a daily walk would be ideal, however, you can do other forms of exercise too. Test what works best for both of you, and trust your dog for guidance. If they don’t enjoy a specific activity, they’ll show little interest.
How Much Exercise Do Beagles Need?
While still a puppy, exercise should not be overdone. Until about 18 months, a Beagles’ skeletal system has not fully developed, leaving them vulnerable to injury. Practicing self-directed play until your Beagle hits puberty is best to avoid disrupting normal skeletal bone growth. You can still take your puppy on walks, though you should remember to stay within the recommended guidelines – for every month of a Beagle puppy’s life, they should walk for about 5 minutes, twice daily.
After a Beagle has reached puberty, you’re free to release the hound! In addition to their self-directed play, you can start structured exercise sessions of 60-90 minutes per day. Let your dog lead the timeframe, though their energetic nature is likely to welcome the maximum. If you want some ideas, take a look at the best exercises for beagles listed below.
As your Beagle ages, its assigned activity time per day should decrease. Senior Beagles need exercise too, but not nearly as much as adults. Ensuring that they get about 30 – 60 minutes of exercise a day, split into two or more sessions, will be sufficient.
How Do You Mentally Stimulate a Beagle?
Mentally stimulating your Beagle will escalate its level of happiness and boost its confidence. Since Beagles are an intelligent breed, you should remember to pick the curious and creative part of their brains in addition to physical exercise. This form of exercise prevents boredom, which often leads to seemingly naughty dogs. Two easy yet highly effective mental games you can play with your Beagle is a snack hunting game and hide and seek.
Snack Hunting
- Keep your Beagle out of sight.
- Make a snack trail and hide some snacks in hard-to-find places like corners or under table legs and rugs.
- Call your Beagle in and after directing it to the trail, instruct it to find more snacks.
Hide and Seek
- Ask someone to help keep your Beagle out of sight.
- Hide in a relatively easy-to-find spot and ecstatically call your dog.
- Once your Beagle finds you, praise and treat it. Repeat the game by hiding in more challenging-to-find places.
Best Exercises for Beagles
1. Tug-Of-War
Playing tug-of-war with your Beagle is a great way to encourage exercise while keeping physical activity fun. Despite what many believe, tug-of-war won’t make your Beagle aggressive, especially if you’re strict and set some ground rules beforehand. Your rules could include:
- Not letting your dog grab the rope without your command.
- Not allowing your dog to grab your hand or aim at any other part of your body.
- Teaching your dog to let go of the rope on your command.
Besides getting rid of excess energy, tug-of-war will help your Beagle build confidence when you let it win. When this exercise is used correctly, it can teach your Beagle self-control too.
2. Obstacle Courses
Obstacle courses and agility training are some of the best exercises for Beagles, which are increasing in popularity. Because they’re such high-energy dogs, these provide them with an outlet for all their energy while ensuring that they get much-needed physical training.
Start by separating each activity of the course and teaching your Beagle how to do them. You can include a wide range of activities in your obstacle course, such as jumping through a hoop, running through a tunnel, racing up and down a ramp, walking across a skinny plank, and weaving through obstacles.
Once your Beagle has mastered individual activities, start putting them together and let your dog run through the course. It might take some time before your Beagle understands the concept, but once it does, it’ll be unstoppable!
3. Lure Chasing
Lure chasing is another great exercise for Beagles. You don’t need to purchase a fancy luring mechanism to get in on this either. You can tie a colorful ribbon to a big stick and simply run around the yard calling your Beagle excitedly to follow.
This exercise improves their focus, agility and keeps them physically active the whole time. To keep this exercise enjoyable, you can change the ribbon color, attach another type of lure like a rope, and even change your running style from straight to zig zags or circles.
4. Sprinting
If you slowly build up endurance over time, you’ll probably be able to go for a jog with your Beagle, but generally, they aren’t built for long distances. Beagles were originally bred for hunting, which makes them enjoy sprinting much more.
When you do high-intensity interval workouts with your Beagle, you’ll be able to reach the needed amount of exercise in a shorter period. If you don’t have a backyard with enough space for sprinting, consider a park or hiking trail that allows dogs but doesn’t have many others running around, as this can become distracting to your Beagle.
Do an initial 5-7 minute warm-up with a light jog or stroll. The warm-up can be followed with ten interval sprints, and then a cool-down exercise can be done. Make sure to give your Beagle plenty of water while doing this to avoid dehydration. In total, this exercise should take about 30 minutes, and you can even opt for a hands-free dog leash to help with the efficiency of the workout session.
5. Strolling
Taking your Beagle for 40-60 minute walks each day, at a fleet-footed pace, will exercise their minds and body. Slow down when your dog is eager to sniff around or socialize with other dogs they meet on the way. Allowing your Beagle to sniff things out will provide them with mental stimulation, and doggy interactions serve as an excellent opportunity to learn some essential social skills.
Walking is one of the best exercises for Beagles as it allows their muscles to stretch while helping them burn some energy. Walking also helps them retain muscle mass, keeps their metabolism working, which in turn prevents obesity. Strolling is also easier on their bodies, making this a great exercise for older Beagles.
Besides the physical benefits, walking helps with stress management, boosts a Beagle’s mood, and creates better behavior patterns.
If you want or have a Beagle, it’s important to know that they’re high-energy dogs, and you should adjust your lifestyle accordingly. If Beagles don’t have an outlet for their pent-up energy, they may start to display strange behaviors. This behavior can include restlessness and aggressive or destructive moods due to boredom and frustration.
Exercising with your Beagle is very beneficial to both their and your health, and it’ll help you build and maintain a strong bond. Beagles see exercise as playtime, and their loving, playful nature definitely appreciates this quality time with their humans.
I hope that this article on the top exercises for Beagles was helpful! If you are interested, visit the Dog Category!
