“Ever wonder where you’d end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash?” ~ Robert Brault
January is ‘Walk Your Dog’ month, an opportunity to improve your pet’s health, fitness and overall well-being whilst increasing your own health.
Why is Dog Walking so Important?
According to the British Veterinary Nursing Association, 1 in 5 dogs don’t get a daily walk, and for those who do, their walks are normally no more than 20 minutes. When dogs aren’t walked regularly it can have a rather devastating impact on the dogs’ well-being:
- They can become bored (which could lead to bad behaviour)
- They can miss opportunities to socialise with other dogs
- They don’t learn about all the sights, sounds and smells of their environment.
Pet owners may not understand the importance of walking their dogs enough, they may feel discouraged by the weather or they might feel overwhelmingly busy with work and family etc. Nonetheless, it is important to be consistent when it comes to dog walking, it will benefit the dog greatly but will also have a very positive impact on the owner. The NHS reports that even a 10-minute daily walk can have lots of health benefits and contributes to the recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week.
What are the Health Benefits of Dog Walking?
Walking and Mental Health
Dog or no dog, regular walks contribute significantly to our well-being and good mental health. Regular exercise such as walking is actually recommended to manage mental health conditions such as depression.
Depression is an extremely serious and devastatingly common mental illness worldwide. It is most prominent in early adulthood and has risen with the explosion of social media and its associated risks, including cyberbullying and online hate.
Exercise, such as walking your dog, is one of the things you can do to help boost your mood if you have depression. You can find out more on the NHS website: https://www.nhs. uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/exercise-for-depression/
Safety Tips When Walking Alone
Walking has amazing benefits for our physical fitness and also our mental health. Nevertheless, we have to be careful when walking alone. In this world, there are many good, responsible and kind-hearted people but also in this world, there are people who have ill intentions. A person walking alone might be a target for such people.
Please see below the Safety tips when walking alone:
Digital Aids: Free Walking Apps
Get the most out of your daily/weekly walks with a fitness/walking app. There are so many fitness and walking apps available that can really help to make your walks worthwhile. These apps can:
- Show you how many calories you burned during your walk
- Persuade your friends/social network to get involved in a walking/fitness activity with you
- Help you to track your walking workouts with GPS
- Etc
Here are 10 free walking apps to aid your fitness while you walk your dog or go on your daily walks:
We hope this information was useful to you. We challenge you to become more active when dog walking and if you do not have a pet then we challenge you to invest in walking frequently, and make it your mission to meet or even surpass the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week. January can really be your month!
Thank you for reading this month’s safeguarding topic.
Please see below for information on LLC’s Safeguarding Officers:
