Walking your dog on the beach this summer provides multiple psychosocial benefits for its development, regardless of your dog’s age. Often populated with many sights, sounds, and smells, your dog can experience a new and ever-changing environment. Active and busy social environments vary the predictability of routine and make your life exciting! Sand and water exploration provides a lot of neural (brain cell) development. Exploration provides your canine with the ability to experience different textures and sensations, stimulating neurons that may not excite on a daily basis. Dogs love to learn about their surroundings! Exploring new environments together is exciting for your dog and also prevents the territorial aggression that can build up with strict routines.

Walking your furry friend through the park offers more sights, sounds and smells than any other time, when the weather is nice. Objects, such as park benches, can be used for informal games of agility, stimulating your dog’s natural interest in “working” and impressing him. Socialization in active settings enhances your dog’s social development, allowing them to better cope with a fast-paced and constantly changing environment.

Taking your furry friend to the dog park gives them the unique opportunity to explore different types of specific sounds and smells from other animals, great for canine-to-canine socialization. The dog park allows dogs the opportunity to return to their undomesticated roots, intermittently, and rejoin the animal hierarchy and animal form of socialization in a true “pack” nature. Although this “pack” socialization of animals can be helpful, it can also be made worse if a dog suddenly becomes overly aggressive, usually for reasons not easily understood by humans on initial observation. However, off-leash freedom gives your furry friend a different set of social standards than being on a leash, so playing with dogs off-leash gives canines a chance to be less inhibited around humans and other animals. Getting your dog to experience a balance between dog-to-dog socialization and human-to-dog socialization is an important piece of healthy dog ​​development.

Some people have chosen to monitor their dog’s fitness with the FitBark, a wearable, discreet device that attaches to a dog’s collar and constantly monitors your dog’s activity, sleep, and nutrition, and is breed-specific. FitBark easily pairs with your Fitbit, Apple Watch, HealthKit, or Google Fit device to track progress. Researchers and veterinarians have developed a unique algorithm to provide you with real-time quantitative data on your dog’s health. Great for finding out how your dog is really feeling and facilitating communication during follow-up vet appointments.

In this article, I discuss three popular areas for dog walking in the summer; the beach, the park and the dog park. Each area provides similar and unique ways that your furry friend will socialize with you and other people, as well as other dogs. We recognized that there are basically two types of socialization that are beneficial to your fuzzy friend, human-to-human interaction and canine-to-canine interaction. Dog-to-dog play allows your dog to be less inhibited and reform to the “pack” mentality, which is very enjoyable for them. Wherever you walk your furry friend in the summer, take your time and have fun! When you’re having fun, your dog is too. Take the time to explore together and be sure to add adventures from time to time. You and your dog have a unique bond.