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Respiration rate will be affected in dogs by the type and duration of active play.

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My lab notebook was used to record results from each day.

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Does active play take a dog's breath away?

What is considered to be active play?

How much play is too much before they need a break to catch their breath?

What is a healthy respiration rate for dogs?

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This is Otis. He is a 13lb Shihtzu/Maltese Mix. He is 2.5 years old and full of energy!

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Day three we played fetch. He seemed to lose interest in some toys so we used several. We used a ball, a chew toy, and a rope. We used each for about 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes of play. His resting heart rate was 70bpm, and his active heart rate was 182bpm. This was definitely the activity that got his heart rate the highest! Having to chase a toy and bring it back several times can be quite exerting on the body.

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Dog
Dog toys (rope, ball, chew toy)
Leash (for walks)
Pencil
Lab Notebook
Stopwatch
Helper

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This lab measures the resting and active heart rates of a dog. To begin, I had my mom start the stopwatch for 15 seconds. While the stopwatch was going, I counted how many breaths my dog had taken during that time. Then, I multiplied that number by four to get the number of beats per minute. Once I had the dog’s normal resting heart rate, that gave me a baseline to look at the active heart rate. For three days, we played for 15 minutes with active play. Day one we played chase, day two we walked, and day three we played fetch. Each day immediately after play, I took his heart rate using the same procedure previously used to get his resting heart rate. I recorded the resting and active heart rates for each day of play in my lab notebook.

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We played chase... which basically is me getting him riled up and roughhousing. This definitely got his heart rate up! We spent about 16 minutes with this activity. His resting heart rate started at 72bpm, and after 16 minutes of active play it was up to 178bpm.

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Day two we went for a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. I have a naturally anxious dog, so he gets his own heart rate up monitoring the sounds and evaluating his surroundings during walks. His resting heart rate before leaving was 68bpm, and after the walk it was 164bpm. Not quite as high as day one, but definitely still a significant increase from the resting rate measured before activity.

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My hypothesis was accurate. A dog’s respiration rate is impacted by active play, type of play, and the duration of play. As seen in the graph above, respiration varied each day with different activities. A walk increased respiration rate, but not as much as chase or fetch raised it. Day three, playing fetch, raised the respiration rate the most. This is likely because of the energy used to run and chase an object, repeatedly bringing it back. Day two had a lower active respiration rate. We went for a brisk walk, and while it definitely increased the respiration rate, it didn’t seem as exerting as some of the other activities. Had we played for longer than fifteen minutes, respiration would have increased that much more. Errors could have occurred during play or if timing was off when measuring respiration rate.  This applies in real life, especially when playing with pets. It’s important to watch respiration rates during activity in humans and animals. Increased respiration is beneficial but can also be harmful if overexertion occurs repeatedly.