Extremely comfortable dog beds

……..but if you have hyper active dogs it doesn’t matter how comfortable the dog beds are, they will still not settle and sleep.

In the Tuffies household we have three German Wirehaired Pointers and they are FULL of beans. These dogs are not the sort of dogs you can have as sedate pets in the house all day, lounging on superior dog beds because they need a lot of exercise and stimulation. In fact, when dog owners talk about giving active dogs plenty of exercise before they will settle down on their dog beds, it might seem that enough running is doing the trick, but I believe that it is simply mind-exercise dogs need. I remember someone telling me about their German Wirehaired Pointer that was used for stalking. If you shoot deer from a high-seat, you sit and wait for the deer to appear and shoot them from the seat. This particular chap used to take his GWP and leave it at the bottom of the seat. IF the disaster happened that he shot a roe deer badly and it started running off, he could send the dog to make sure it was stopped and despatched of quickly. The other reason for having the dog would be for shooting in the summer in high grass. A fallen roe deer is not very big and you can simply lose track of it once it is down. If you have a dog, it will quickly locate the fallen deer via the scent. So this dog was sitting under the highseat for hours waiting quietly, 100% alert, but without moving a muscle. He said the dog would come home from these intense, but motionless, hours totally exhausted falling asleep in his comfortable dog beds at home. The dog had not done anything physically, but had been mentally exercised.

Likewise, I take my three pointers (on days when we are not out working them) with me on the push bike. They run along side with me for some serious exercise. We are out for about an hour. When they come home, they are fairly tired and will scoff their food before settling in the house on their dog beds. These dogs are out in the garden all day where they can run around a play all day, but it never stimulates them enough.

My point is, that if I take them on the bike OR just walk them, they have been mentally stimulated to the same extent because we are out for an hour both times. The walk is much less physical, but of course the dogs are sniffing all along and looking and feeling.

So you don’t NEED massive exercise for dogs in order to make them settled. You can just give them stimulation, mentally, for them to want a good, settled sleep in their comfortable dog beds.