Life is Motion

This PIB is the result of the lifestyle of canine packs in the wild. Canine packs are migratory and they change locations in response to the changes in seasons, as well as the migratory patterns of their prey. The daily lives of canine packs involve being in motion as well. Hunting and patrolling the territory keep canines on the move many hours of the day. This is another instinctive pattern that many dog owners don’t address, and failing to do so can result in additional stress and anxiety for domestic dogs.

The importance of this PIB is motion with purpose. Dogs instinctively understand the purpose of the hunt and of patrolling a territory in the wild. When dogs are confined to a human yard or house, they frequently seek (and can’t find) a purpose for the motions available to them. Many unwanted dog behaviors are frustrated attempts to perform actions they understand in a restricted environment such as:
1) Barking endlessly.
2) Digging for no apparent reason.
3) Jumping repeatedly for no reason.
4) Running in circles.
5) Sniffing endlessly.
6) Chewing continuously.
Often domestic dogs perform these (and other) behaviors frantically or obsessively. They are frequently performing behaviors they understand, but to an extreme because they don’t know what else to do in a human environment. These otherwise normal behaviors are overdone to relieve the dog’s stress and anxiety. Instinct drives a dog to perform behaviors that contribute to the well being of the pack, but lacking human instruction, they are limited to the behaviors they know how to do. So they overdo those behaviors.

A couple of thirty-minute walks per day and thirty minutes of active play per day will go a long way toward alleviating this kind of stress and anxiety. Frequent visits to places outside of the yard will also help. Opportunities for the dog to socialize with other dogs outside of its own territory provide relief as well. Training and play can occur outside of our yards too. These are all activities with purposes that dogs can understand and they address the instinctive need for the dog to be in motion.

Dogs are provided with the drives and energy levels needed to survive in the wild. If we don’t find ways for the dog to consume its energy, the energy will consume the dog.