How much exercise does a Staffordshire Bull Terrier need?
Staffordshire Bull Terrier is rightly a popular dog breed, which is a popular family dog in England for a reason. But before you get one, you should be aware of how much exercise Staffordshire Bull Terrier needs.
A Staffordshire Bull Terrier needs about 1.5 to 2 hours of exercise and activity per day to be happy. Besides daily walks, you can take a Staffi running, biking or to agility. He is also enthusiastic about dog Frisbee. Additionally, it is important that you keep a staffprdshire bull terrier mentally occupied. Learning and executing commands is a good way to do this.
Table of Contents
Profile:
- Origin: Great Britain
- Life expectancy: 12 – 14 years
- Size: males approx. 36 – 41 cm / females approx. 33 – 38 cm
- Weight: males 12,7 kg – 17 kg / bitches 11 kg – 15,4 kg
- Use: Companion dog
- Coat length / coat color: almost all colors are possible (black, white, red, fawn, brindle), the coat is short
- Character: affectionate, intelligent, loyal, fearless, reliable, brave
Does a Staffordshire Bull Terrier need a lot of exercise?
Yes, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, like all terriers, needs a relatively large amount of exercise. The Staffi is an active dog with a lot of temperament. He needs physical exercise.
If you look at the history of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, you can guess that they are very active and made for physical work.
The ancestor of the Staffi is the “Bull and Terrier”, which was bred in England over 200 years ago. At that time, the dog was used for hunting rats, among other things.
Later it was also used for rat biting. Bets were placed on which dog would kill the most rats in a given time.
Activities with the Staffordshire Bull Terrier
To keep your Staffordshire Bull Terrier busy and active you can do the following activities with him:
Walks
The foundation of a good relationship with your dog is extensive and varied walks. 2 to 3 walks a day of 30 to 60 minutes are a good basis.
Make your walks varied to keep your Staffordshire Bull Terrier as busy as possible.
- Offer him different routes and do not always run the same way. You should run 2 to 3 different routes within a week.
- Give your Staffi time to sniff.
- Make your walks interesting. Take a retrieve dummy with you on your walk and let your Staffi look for it in between. You can also run cross country over fallen trees and do some sort of forest agility. Be creative.
Running
You can also take your Staffi for a run. The advantage is obvious: you do sports and your Staffordshire Bull Terrier gets exercise at the same time.
Cycling
Let your dog run next to your bike and make sure he gets enough exercise and gets tired.
Agility
Dog sports like agility are a great way to spend time with your dog, strengthening your bond with him while keeping him physically active.
Frisbee
Frisbee for dogs involves your Staffi running after a Frisbee you throw and trying to catch it in mid-air. You can certainly imagine how exhausting the sprints across a large meadow are.
Mental exercise
In addition to physical exercise, it is important to challenge a Staffordshire Bull Terrier mentally.
Ideal to integrate this into everyday life is obedience training or simply education.
Learning and executing commands like “sit”, “down”, “heel”, “recall” are all things that will challenge your dog mentally.
Frustration tolerance
Especially for dogs with a bad reputation, like the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, it doesn’t hurt to work on frustration tolerance.
While the Jack Russell with too little exercise is yapping at your Staffi, your dog remains perfectly calm.
To train frustration tolerance you need to create an expectation in your dog – and then not meet it.
- Your dog knows that when you get in the car and drive a certain distance, for example, you go to the dog park, which is incredibly fun for him. So he’s happy. But you don’t get out of the car, you make a quick stop, go back home, and then go to the dog park an hour later.
- You get ready for the walk, take the leash in your hand. Your dog is happy because it’s going out. Then you get undressed again, put the leash away and go for a walk with your dog only 1 hour later.
- Put a treat right in front of him. But he’s not allowed to take it – not until your command.
All these are situations that create an expectation in your dog which is not fulfilled. After the disappointment, he must first process this.
Social contacts
If you have the opportunity to let your Staffordshire Bull Terrier play with other dogs, you should do it regularly.
Playing with other dogs is not only a great way to keep your dog busy and tired, but it also encourages social behavior.
How much exercise does a Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy need?
Even if you have an active dog, the most important thing is that they learn from the beginning that there are breaks.
They need to learn that there are times when there is nothing going on. So don’t make the mistake of keeping them busy every time just because your dog wants to.
As a rough rule of thumb, you can walk your dog for 5 minutes per month of life. So you can walk a 3 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier for about 15 minutes.
The 15 minutes is a structured walk, or structured training. They say that puppies can’t concentrate enough after that.
Of course, this is not the maximum time per day but per walk or training. You can take your Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy for 2 to 3 walks of 15 minutes each.
Just be careful not to overwhelm him or get him used to an extreme level.
Who is the Staffordshire Bull Terrier suitable for?
The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is for active people who like to spend time with their dog. In England, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a family dog because it is gentle and cuddly with children.
He is not without reason also called nanny dog.
Signs of too little exercise
If your Staffordshire Bull Terrier has too little exercise and activity, the following symptoms may occur:
- Your Staffi will get frustrated due to too little exercise and may become aggressive. This is exactly what you do not want. Reinforce the prejudice against this great breed by keeping it wrong.
- If your Staffordshire Bull Terrier gets too little exercise and activity, it can also manifest itself through destructive behavior or excessive barking.
Conclusion: How much exercise does a Staffordshire Bull Terrier need?
The Staffordshire Bull Terrier needs a relatively large amount of exercise and activity to be happy. Besides daily walks, you can do almost anything with the Staffi.running, cycling, agility or even dog Frisbee are good ways to exercise your Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Besides physical exercise, mental exercise is almost as important. Training basic commands and obedience is a perfect way.
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