What does lack of exercise do to a dog?
Not getting enough exercise can cause health problems, such as obesity, but can also lead to behavioural problems. Bored dogs are unhappy dogs – they can show their frustration by chewing, barking a lot, toileting in the house and over-grooming (licking too much).
Can lack of exercise make a dog anxious?
Like humans, dogs need movement to maintain mental and emotional health. If your dog doesn’t get enough exercise, they may become depressed.
Early life experiences have a major role in the development of a fearful personality
The largest explanatory factors associating with fearfulness were maternal care and the amount of socialization during the puppyhood. Fearful dogs had experienced poorer maternal care and had been less socialized before the first three months of life. When comparing environmental factors between solely fearful (without other anxieties) and non-fearful dogs, we did not however find any differences in maternal care, suggesting that maternal care may be especially important in the development of anxiety comorbidities. This was further supported by the observation that maternal care differed in the analysis that compared a combined comorbidity anxiety group (fearfulness, noise sensitivity, and separation anxiety) with non-fearful dogs. We have also found earlier that dogs with stereotypic tail-chasing experienced poorer quality maternal care and had shyer personalities compared with dogs with no tail-chasing [35]. It is good, however, to keep in mind that in this study, the information on the maternal care quality came from the owners and not from the breeders. Some owners had contacted the breeder for further information on the maternal care, and some reported what they had witnessed when visiting the breeder before adopting the puppy. Not all responders were able to answer this question. The question on the quality of maternal care reached good test-retest reliability values when we earlier validated our questionnaire (maternal care quality: Spearman rs = 0.82, p = 0.0002, N = 15) [32]. Even though detailed behavioral observations of maternal care quality together with the later assessment of personality are definitely needed to verify our results, our observation serves as the first indicator of the magnitude of the effect of maternal care quality on the fearfulness in dogs. Early life experiences are well-known to have a large effect on behavior in all animals [36–39] including dogs [36]. Variation in the quality of maternal care has shown to have dramatic changes through epigenetic modifications in stress-coping behavior in rats [28,29], humans, and primates [40,41]. However, the research on maternal care and maternal behavior is completely lacking in dogs. It is well-established that maternal behavior itself has a heritable component [40], and breed-specific differences in maternal care have been observed in other domesticated species [42]. It should not therefore be surprising to find that dog breeds may also differ markedly in maternal behavior, considering the extensive existing variation in morphology and behavior between dog breeds. Domestication and human interference with maternal care may cause relaxed selection on maternal care, and severe defects, and even lack of maternal behavior has been observed in domesticated species [42,43]. Variation in maternal care through epigenetic or genetic factors may greatly contribute to anxiety-related behaviors in dogs.
The fact that puppy socialization was found as a major explanatory factor for fearfulness was not surprising. [19,44]. In Finland, puppies are routinely adopted to new homes at the age of 7–8 weeks, unlike many other countries, where puppies arrive to new homes between 10–12 weeks. The question on the amount of socialization reached very high test-retest reliability values on the validation of our questionnaire (socialization: Spearman rs = 0.94, p<0.0001, N = 34) [32], and it seems that owners are well able to remember the socialization events from the puppy period. Several studies have suggested that early environment and socialization affect avoidance behavior and aggression in dogs [19–21]. Dogs have a sensitive period during approximately 3–12 weeks of age, where life experiences and events have pronounced effects on later behavior [19,21]. The timing and the amount of experiences needed for a balanced personality may, however, vary across breeds.
Interestingly, the daily amount of exercise was the largest factor associated with noise sensitivity; dogs with noise sensitivity exercised significantly less compared with dogs with no noise sensitivity. Similarly, daily exercise was the largest environmental factor that was significantly different between dogs having separation anxiety and dogs with no observed symptoms. In addition, daily exercise differed significantly between solely fearful and non-fearful dogs (B analysis), and it was also nearly significant between fearful and non-fearful dogs (A analysis). Daily exercise-variable consisted of the minutes per day of walking multiplied by the exercise type (mostly free/ partly on leash/ all the time on leash). If analysed independently, both variables correlate negatively with noise sensitivity. The amount of daily walks was also found earlier to associate with fearfulness; dogs with shorter daily walks had more fear of loud noises, strangers, and startling stimuli compared with dogs with longer walks [27]. Exercise may work as stress resilience, and owners may therefore observe less fearful reactions. This hypothesis is also supported by the observation that dogs that are allowed to exercise freely had later onset noise sensitivity. The resilient effect of exercise on anxiety and depression has been recognized in humans as well [45,46]. The complete underlying mechanism behind this effect of exercise is not clear, but it is known that exercise increases serotonin production both in animals and humans, thus functioning as an antidepressant [47]. Recent studies also showed a reduction in oxidative stress and anxiety-like behavior as a consequence of moderate treadmill exercise in rodents [48]. Our study highlights the importance of exercise in dogs welfare and warrants further studies, including potential anxiolytic effects through the serotonin pathway.
The alternative explanation for the observed association between exercise and anxiety could relate to the owner factor: anxious dogs are exercised less because fearfulness challenges such routines. These dogs may, for example, run away, be less obedient, or behave aggressively when startled. However, Tami et al. did not find any difference in obedience between dogs with short compared with long walks [27]. Our results did not find any association between daily exercise and aggressiveness towards strangers, but we did find a modest association where dogs with less daily exercise were more aggressive to other dogs. We could speculate that these dogs may also have fewer experiences (due to shorter walks) and therefore be more fearful. However, puppy socialization did not correlate with daily walks. Thus, our and others data makes the alternative explanation for the observed association less likely. However, daily exercise was also positively associated with other routines that together may have an effect on anxiety. Dogs that got more daily exercise spend less time alone, and their owners had more activities with these dogs (training, etc) as well. The amount of daily exercise can thus be a variable that indicates the overall quality of general dog management.
A recent study suggested an association between dogs morphology and several behavioral characteristics [49]. They found a strong negative correlation between body-size and unwanted behaviors—smaller dogs had significantly more compulsive behaviors, mounting behavior, separation-related problems, urine marking, but most importantly, dog-directed fear, and non-social fear [49]. Our results do not support their finding. We included the size of the dog (average height of that breed) into all analyses, however, it was significant only when daily exercise was excluded from the analysis. Further analysis showed that smaller dogs are more often kept on leash compared with larger dogs (χ22,1720 = 108,03, p < 0.0001), and also get less exercise (rs = 0.30, p < 0.0001, N = 1708). Thus, the size of the dog may not be a major factor for fearfulness, but instead, small dogs most likely have different daily routines, such as exercise, which may confound results, if variables such as exercise are excluded.
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“Because exercise decreases anxiety overall, lack of exercise can contribute to anxiety-based conditions,” she says. “More specifically, lack of exercise and mental stimulation can lead to attention-seeking and destructive behaviors.” Learn more about separation anxiety in dogs.