Your Dog Isn’t Bad. He’s Bored. The Backyard Fix That Finally Wears Out A High-Energy Dog

You did everything right today. A forty-five-minute walk this morning (the long route with the good sniffing along the fence line). Twenty minutes of fetch after work, until your shoulder started making a noise that shoulders shouldn’t make. You even filled the puzzle feeder, because someone on the internet said that counts as mental stimulation. And now it’s 9 PM, and your dog has just completed his fourth lap around the coffee table at a speed suggesting he’s being pursued by something only he can see. Underneath the frustration, you quietly wonder if you’re failing this dog. Or maybe something is wrong with him. So let me tell you the thing nobody mentions at the adoption event, dog parent to dog parent: Nothing is wrong with your dog. And nothing is wrong with you. Your dog doesn’t have a behavior problem. He has an outlet problem. From your couch at 9 PM, those look identical, but they have opposite solutions, and the reason nothing has worked is that you’ve been solving the wrong one. Let’s fix that because the solution is simple: it lives in your backyard and only takes about fifteen minutes a day. Your Dog Isn’t Bad, He’s Just Unemployed. Run through this list. (Be honest) ...