Exercise

[04100824]

How much exercise do you give your dogs?

[Romanwild]

I go by feel most of the time but 2 - 3 walks a day is a minimum. By walk I mean at least a mile.

I try to run them next to the bike a few times a week and let them play with the spring and flirt poles a couple of times as well.

When I get harnesses there will be more of a structured routine.

[SpiritFngrz]

My husband runs with Satin Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday mornings about 3 miles each time. She also gets at least a mile walk every night.
Even with all this, she still has energy left over. If she didn't get the exercsie, she'd be a beast!!

[Maryellen]

i think it depends on the dog.. some are higher energy, some arent.. i would start out slow, and build your way up to more time/miles with walking or running or bicyling..
with rufus he gets 20 minutes hard exercise every night, only because he is a true couch potato and doesnt ask for more then that..

[babyreba]

Reba is ancient, so she only gets 2 walks around the block per day--one in the AM, one in the PM--becuase that's all she can handle without hurting herself.

Tucker walks with her, then gets his own walks, roughly a mile each, per day morning and night. Then he gets about 1/2 before I go to work of hard ball/tug/chase in the yard. And another 1/2 hour to an hour of the same in the evening. And sometimes if he's extra hyper, I'll get "the dot" out to play with. The Dot is a red laser pen, and I'll sit on the deck in the dark and turn it on so he can chase it around the yard till he's panting, tired, and happy!

[04100824]

i think it depends on the dog.. some are higher energy, some arent.. i would start out slow, and build your way up to more time/miles with walking or running or bicyling..
with rufus he gets 20 minutes hard exercise every night, only because he is a true couch potato and doesnt ask for more then that..

Oh, we're already just about full-throttle! Doug and I have a 4-mile stretch that we either walk or rollerblade almost every night, plus we take him to the tennis court once a week or more, and we go out of town to the lake or the country most weekends, so Reno gets PLENTY of running and play time. I was just curious what other poeple do... Reno would go berzerko if we didn't give him some sort of exercise every single day. He's definately keeping us in shape.

[lipshipsattitude]

Rory is very high maintenance when it comes to exercise. If I havnt walked her for two days I come home and she is CRAZY but she is only 18 months so I like to keep her active! We walk a mile to the beach, uphill, walk about 1/2 a mile on the beach and back home at least 4 days a week. I got sick a while back and hadnt walked her well for about a week and maybe I'm crazy but I could swear she lost muscle mass. I love her muscles so I can tell when i'm slacking off. The vet said she has a athletes heart, I have NO idea what that is but I was very proud, ha ha!

[katiek0417]

With Sacha, I run 4 miles with her or bike 3, then drop her off and grab Nisha. With Nisha, I only run 1.5 miles or bike 2. I try not to push the puppy as hard because she's still growing (even though she has more energy to burn). We also do two more additional walks per day which add up to 1.5 miles/dog. I can't walk them together, yet...I'm looking forward to being able to so I can walk longer with them.

They also train (formally) twice a week (bitework), and we do regular training twice a day....Because I include play/fetch with each of them, they get exercise doing that....

[rockermom]

Myself nor Rocky get as much exercise as you guys. Good for ya all. We take one walk a day about 1mile. I had planned to do more walking and they went and sealed and tiny graveled the paved road and it bothers Rocky to walk on not to mention the dust that makes me ill. We dont have sidewalks. My son has begun biking up and down our road which is private with Rocky. Thats about enough for him he lays around all day. He is almost a year old now. Lazy puppy! and Lazy Mommy!

[SisMorphine]

Wally and I try to walk for 1/2 hour a day, but lately with my back the poor boy has only been getting exercise on the days that my employee is here. I throw her an extra couple of bucks to walk him. We also do a 2 hour-ish walk on Sundays with a group of Greyhounds. I try to throw him out in the kennel yard but he prefers to spend his time peeing as opposed to playing with the other dogs.

[Hoyden]

PETEY: He gets about 30 min - 45 min. of playing ball every other day and a 1/2 to 1 hour walk on the days he doesn't play ball

BIRDIE: Hard to judge because I take her with me just about everywhere now. I walk her for at least 45 min. in the early AM and again for 30 min. at lunch. She is up and down, in and out, going, going, going all day long.

The Gremlin plays outside with the dogs unless it's raining or snowing too hard. She generally wears them out doing her agility course, chasing them and playing tag, throwing the ball, or what ever new ideas pops into her curly little head. The dogs are generally EXHAUSTED by the time she is done with them.

[SpiritFngrz]

There's nothing like Gremlin exercise. I think I am going to have to send Satin over your house for a Gremlin ass-whooping!