Help—My Aussie Never Seems To Get Enough Exercise

by Ashley
(OKC, OK)

Hey Aussie land. I have a 3 year old red tri and she is, to say the least, the love of my life. She was sort of just left at my door step when she was 10 weeks old by an owner that decided a puppy was too much work. Since then, we have been inseparable. When she first came into my life, I worked on a ranch in the mountains. She got to go to work with me every day and had 600 acres to roam around all day long. I sort of let her wander off on her own (always making sure I knew where she was though) and she would have so much fun all day.

Then, my employment changed and we now live in a house in the city and I work very long hours. She has a nice big back yard and I come home every day on my lunch break to let her out and throw the ball. She goes on hikes or to the lake almost every day that I am off work. The problem I am having is she just never seems to get enough. My sweet girl walks around with the ball in her mouth from the time she wakes up in the morning until I finally MAKE her put it down to go to bed at night. I don't know what to do. I feel horrible because I feel like she is not getting enough energy out, but I literally have run out of hours in the day to keep her occupied. We play at 4am when I get up for work. We play when I come home for lunch. We play when I get home. Then, like I said, every day I have off we go on an adventure (hiking, swimming, the lake, we travel a lot). I can take her to the park and throw the ball until she has to lay down from exhaustion and 5 minutes later she is ready to go again and chases me around the house with her ball.

This would all not be such a big deal if she wasn't starting to chew on her leg until it is raw when she's not playing. The vet said that it is out of boredom and separation anxiety now that she can't go to work with me anymore. She doesn't have allergies, she is on awesome food and she doesn't have fleas.

This is a long story to ask this, I apologize, but what can I do to help her get more energy out? I feel so bad that I can't be with her all the time, but I am literally spending every single spare minute I can playing with her or running with her. It just never stops. She is ready to go ALL THE TIME!

Does anything help? Should I get her those puzzle things to do during the day? I don't want my baby chewing her leg to shreds because she is bored. I don't know what to do.

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