Siberian husky are known as ‘winter’ dog, their excessive coat make them the perfect breed for the winter. Exercising are part of ‘must do’ for huskies, they are born with a lot of energy and burning them is going to make Husky healthy and happy. Since husky loves the cold weather and exercising is their daily activities, then exercising your Siberian husky during summer might be a challenge for you owner. You have to keep them cool but on the other side they also need some exercise. These things will challenge your to brainstorm any idea to keep your Siberian husky moving without making them get over-heat.
Here are 5 tips to exercising your Siberian husky during summer:
1. Doing Indoor Exercise
When summer comes and the heat outside is getting high, husky normally will prefer to stay indoor where Air Conditioner is on. They like to stay on the cooler temperatures, if you have a quite space in you place doing an indoor activities are the best way to keep your Siberian husky cool and also happy. These are some indoor exercise you might want to try when with your husky:
Doing an old fashion game like fetch and keep away could help your dog to stay active and release their energy. You could also do it while doing some chores work.
Start from taking your husky favourite treats and hide it around the house, it could be behind the curtains, under the table, just beside a desk or anywhere you could think of. After that, ask your husky to search for their treats, it will keep them busy looking for their treats also will physically tire them off through the process.
- Run Up and Down the Stairs
If you live in two stories house, it will be a great way to tire out your husky by using the stairs. The steps add an additional challenge to your husky’s exercise, because they engage different muscles than those used on a regular walk or run and also by using the stairs it will add an extra level of difficulty with the change in elevation. In order to make your husky move, you could grab their toys and put them on the bottom of the steps while you standing on the top of it, and ask them to bring it to you. Do it for a several rounds, and they will be tired and burn their energy down.
- Put Your Husky on Treadmill
Running on treadmill is a great way of indoor exercise for your husky. But before you ‘leave’ them alone running on treadmill, you should make your husky comfortable with the sight and sound of running treadmill. After that, put their treat on the treadmill to keep your husky on the treadmill. Start from the lowest speed, then after they start to feel comfortable you can gradually increase the speed. You should never tie your husky on the treadmill. You should stand in front of treadmill and holding a treat in front of him, that way your husky will have more courage to use the treadmill.
You can set up obstacle course from many things around the house, like boxes, couch cushions, pillows or books and make obstacles that your husky must navigate. Map the things out and lead your husky through various obstacle. This activities will challenge your husky both mentally and physically.
2. Early Morning and Afternoon Walk
When summer comes and the sun is getting more un-friendly for your husky, you should take them on early morning or afternoon walk where the temperature is getting cooler and the sun is still hasn’t up yet or already dawn. When you take your Siberian husky to walk, make sure you hose them down before the walk and carry plenty of water for you and your husky to avoid any dehydration, make sure to pass many water stops as you can to keep them cool. Make them walk in the grass or dirt, not in the concrete or asphalt to avoid any burning paws. Take them to the park or places where there will be plenty of trees, usually husky likes to stay under the shade of tree.
3. Take them to Swim
Siberian husky enjoys water, when the weather gets warmer swimming can be a very enjoyable activities for your husky. Siberian husky is a breed that has athletic and powerful limbs that can make swimming easier for them. Husky generally not swimmer, but they like to lay down in the water especially if the weather is getting hot during the summer, it can be the perfect way to exercising your Siberian husky during summer.
4. Play in Kiddie Pool
Usually most owner of Siberian husky provide a kid pool for their husky’s cool zone. Kiddie pool usually fill with water for your husky to play, sometimes a lot husky owner like to add ice cube inside it just to make the water more cooler for the husky. If you have a quite spacious backyard, you can make your husky play around there and cool down inside the kiddie pool. Put some of their toys inside the pool, they will have lots of fun getting soaked and also tired and burn their energy down.
5. Carrying a Backpack
Siberian husky loves to run, by putting a backpack on them is a great way to quickly tire them out. Backpack that design specifically for dogs are easy to put on, it just need to be tuck around your husky and you could also place a lot of thing to add weight and tire them our more quickly. Siberian husky are working breed, putting them backpack will come naturally for them, most people will put some ice pack inside the backpack to keep them cool. Your husky can carry the backpack anywhere they go, when they are at home, when they walk, or when they just laying around the house. They will get tired more easily.
Exercising your Siberian husky during summer time could be a huge challenge, you need to fight the heat if you ever go outside, or you are afraid your husky will be hydrate. There are still many way to exercising your Siberian husky during summer, you just need to use your brain to come up with different activities that did not affect the heat. Heat exhaustion usually paired with dehydration means they are losing more fluid than the fluid they taking in. Don’t forget to watch for dehydration and over heat sign from your husky to avoid any bad incident to your lovely Siberian husky.