Fenced Yards Offer Safety But Can’t Replace Walking Your Dog

For 143 days now, Quill and I have walked mid-mornings—a ritual born from loss, now our favorite part of the day. If you’ve been following along each week, you read about the unexpected passing of my sweet 12-year-old black Labrador retriever, Tinkerbell.

 

While our new walking routine was born out of tragedy, those walks have become Quill and my favorite part of the day. In this article, I share an update on our walking training, the importance of walking your dog, and how it can improve your relationship with your dog.

Walking Babe: Lessons from My First Labrador

When I first adopted my late Labrador retriever, Babe, we lived on the first floor of an old Victorian house in a downtown area. Our yard was minuscule, suitable for quick pee breaks but too small for even a game of fetch. Babe was only 2 when I adopted her, and we immediately began walking 2 to 3 times a day for 30 to 60 minutes each time. She came to me beautifully leash-trained, and our walks were a blissful bonding experience.

 

We walked along tree-lined streets, and we walked through downtown, where she put nose prints on all the shop windows. We walked past churches and past the bank, where the tellers flagged us down to give her treats at the walk-up window. We hopped in the car and went hiking in municipal parks and at Indiana Dunes State Park.

Fenced Yards are Helpful, But Can’t Replace Walking Your Dog

By the time we moved to our house with a fenced yard, Babe was a senior dog, and I had inherited my mom’s German Shorthaired Pointer. My husband already had a dog, and the three dogs played endlessly in our fenced yard. I would walk one of them at a time, but usually only when the weather was nice. With three small kids to play with and a huge suburban yard, they got plenty of physical and mental exercise.

 

When Jax arrived, I wanted to duplicate my bonding walks that Babe and I had enjoyed for so many years. We went on walks after I got off work, and on weekends, we would go to a local forest preserve. After Tinkerbell came along when Jax was 2, they played all day, every day in our yard, but we still went on frequent walks. Walks became more of a fun excursion than an everyday necessity. Sometimes the three of us walked together, and other days I took one dog at a time.

 

Fenced yards make life better for dog owners, from quick potty breaks to off-leash running and exploring. But it’s easy to grow complacent when you have a fenced yard, especially when you have multiple dogs who like to play together. However, taking your dog on walks is also an essential part of their daily activities, and our recent transition to a one-dog household has reminded me of their importance.

The Benefits of Taking Your Dog for a Walk

Many years ago, I saw something that said that going for a daily walk is a dog’s equivalent of reading the newspaper. They glean essential information on who walked that same path earlier. Of course, the modern equivalent is that going for a walk is like browsing their social media feed. The continually changing scents provide essential mental stimulation that they cannot get in their own yard.

 

Letting your dog sniff on walks is one of the best gifts you can give them and an important benefit of dog walking. I let my dogs sniff as long as they want, and I try to change up the walking route for added mental stimulation. The same way you don’t want to watch the same TV shows over and over, your dog wants to smell new things and explore new areas.

 

I often used to let Jax and Tink choose our walking path. Tink, in particular, always impressed me with her knowledge of the way home to our house. No matter which direction we headed in for our walk, she would lead us home. It also reassured me that if she were ever to get lost, she would know the way home. Right now, Quill and I take the same route most days because we are actively training, but I plan to start introducing new walks soon. That variety will be a great addition to our other dog enrichment activities. 

Quill’s Continued Walking Training and New Adventures

I recently wrote about the training I have been doing with Quill. We’ve been working on both reactivity training and leash manners. Reactivity training is going exceptionally well. We can now walk past other reactive dogs with minimal reaction from him. We can walk past 99% of humans and non-reactive dogs with zero reaction from Quill. To say I am proud of our progress as we develop our daily walking routine is an understatement.

 

Our loose leash walking is going more slowly.  I have started to look forward to our walks together.  I love watching him use his powerful nose to enjoy the experience of walking and sniffing every scent.  He still forgets that he cannot pull me toward every scent, but we are slowly making progress. After all, he’s a living, breathing dog, not a robot. He was bred to have a powerful nose, and we are improving our leash manners with every passing week.

 

With each walk, I feel our bond grow deeper, and it makes me happy to see him happy. Pretty soon, we will start going to some of the other walking trails in our area.  That’s what loving a dog is all about: nurturing their mind and body, and giving them the best life that you possibly can. I am happy when he is happy.

What We Owe Our Dogs (And What They Owe Us)

I’ve been thinking a lot about what we owe our dogs, what they owe us, and this is what I believe: we owe our dogs everything. They owe us nothing.

 

When it comes to the quid-pro-quo balance of our relationship with dogs, we humans absolutely come out the winner. Dogs provide us with endless joy, friendship, and companionship. They are always happy to see us, always up for a game or activity. They are loyal, with pure hearts, and no drama. In fact, the only time they break our hearts is when they leave their physical bodies.

 

My mission as a dog owner is to give them the same unconditional love that they give me, along with a lifestyle that makes them happy and fulfilled. It’s not fair to have energetic dogs without providing them with physical exercise, mental stimulation, and dog-appropriate enrichment.

 

We owe it to our dogs to spend time with them, to teach them the things they need to do to thrive in our home, and to provide what they need to be dogs. And one of the best ways to spend time with them is to let them sniff things out on a walk together. Walking is not just exercise—it’s how we show them love.

Checklist: 5 Ways to Enrich Your Dog’s Walks

✅ Let them sniff freely – sniffing is mental stimulation, not a distraction.

✅ Vary your routes – new paths = new scents, new experiences, new mental stimulation for dogs. 

✅ Practice leash manners with patience – progress matters more than perfection.

✅ Match the walk to your dog’s energy – seniors may prefer shorter strolls, young dogs need longer adventures.

✅ Treat walks as time for bonding with your dog – focus on presence, not just exercise.