Reading another thread got me wondering about what I actually give my dogs in the way of exercise when I talk about a not giving them much exercise some days. I came up with a "light" exercise day consisting of the following -

Mornings start off with a short off leash run in the field. I walk about a third of a mile and they run around.

We do a 10-15 minute chuckit game or something similar sometime during the day.

Then they either accompany me on chore rounds (where they get to stretch their legs and practice OB with down-stays and listening around distractions (ie, the sheep) or they have another off leash run while I walk about 3/4 of a mile. Some days they get both.

I guess even on a "light" exercise day they're running 3-4 miles between off leash romps and play sessions.

I will admit that during the winter months, we don't do much. I have a large space in my basement and spend much of the winter proofing, training tricks, etc...anything to keep my dogs' minds busy. I am lucky that my dogs are great in the house and are content to just chill out if necessary. I usually take a few obedience classes during the winter months as well.

In warmer weather, we are walkers. We walk several miles a day in different locations. We also do backyard agility and take agility classes.

On Mon-Wed, I get up early and bring Vigo over to my mom's house for an hour or so before I go to work. That is where Grace and Kira live most of the time. We walk, play and train. Weekends are all about the dogs

Grace and Kira also get additional walks/etc with my Mom or sister...Vigo gets walks/etc with my husband and my nephew who lives with us. Very much a team effort!

we go to our local park almost every day- even when its snowing. The park is huge and has fields and trails. We usually do 15-20 minutes of Frisbee (with the little dog chasing the bigger dog so they both get a good run) and then we do obedience or go on the trails.
on the day or two we dont go out, we do obedience and games indoors.
During the spring, summer and fall its alot more varied.We go swimming and hiking all over the place, usually for a couple of hours and weekends here are all about the dogs as well so anywhere we go (usually canoeing and hiking) the dogs go with. Neither my husband or I can stand being indoors much and get cabin fever as fast as the dogs do.

I work two jobs at approximately 75-80 hours a week so I did my research and chose a low energy, giant breed dog that doesn’t require tons of exercise. I still try to get her out at least once a day for 30 minutes or so and I'm lucky enough to have a park about 5 minutes from my house.

While we're at the park, we practice our obedience, play on the kid's playgound equipment (if there are no kids there) and then have a little off-leash run in the fully enclosed soccer field chasing a stick or ball.

We do our extra training when I finish work at midnight in the parking lot behind my house and but occasionally, her only exercise for the day, is a walk down to the mailbox and back.


Edited by Debbie Martin (02/27/2012 12:41 PM)
Edit reason: spelling mistake

I have 5 dogs - all requiring different exercise needs.

So for my two German Shepherds, they run 3 hours a day, and that is split between off leash runs while I hike, chuck it/frisbee sessions and swimming in the summer. In addition to that, they do 4-9 hours of formal obedience training in classes/week and 2-5 hours of one-on-one training withe me - year round. When getting ready for competition their training and exercise schedule will nearly double.

Definitely in the winter we do less (ie the schedule above) and in the summer we do more (ie 7+ hour hikes on weekends, more outdoor training classes, kayaking on weekends). They are high drive AND training for competition, so their needs are extreme.

For the Chi/Pom, Leonberger and 9 year old husky mix, they get about 2 hrs everyday out on the property (3 acres) and two 4 hour runs off the property per/week which includes an Obedience training portion at the beginning, and end of the run.

The Shepherds and the Chi also do demos for schools (Bite Prevention), hopefully soon also the seniors home and they do Canada Day demos in the summer.

I'll acknowledge it up front, not nearly enough.

For our old girl (15 years old), we walk twice a day, about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile each time. We also mix in a game of gentle tug or fetching in the evening. That's about all she's able to handle. Her idea of fetch is chase after something I throw, get there, pick it up, then drop it and walk away, forgetting why she ended up there to begin with.

Our 3 year old mal gets two brisk walks a day during the week, each about 2 miles long. On real bad days, we hit the treadmill instead. I also come home at lunchtime to give her about 15 minutes of some fast paced game like fetch, tug, finding hidden objects, or agility to stretch her legs. On weekends, we do at least one 4-5 mile hike per day on the bike paths, sidewalks, or wooded trails plus about a half hour of fetch or chuck it each day. Every day we do about 15 minutes worth of obedience drills or similar play.

lets see ok
Working six days a week 10 nours per day its lucky my dog
comes with me
So before work we get about an hour of OB tug work and ball
chasing
during work hours she only gets about 2 short breaks so we make
them count with really intense ball tug action
After work she gets to go crazy
whatever she wants to do untill bedtime
( run chase ball tug play run with neibors dogs etc )

Spoons

Shem hetep
Nuk au neter

we don't work to hard in the winter, few minutes to run around the 5 acres checking for cats then in the car for errands the bank for treats, post office, store etc.then a park for training on playground equipment then lunch at arbys she has a arby's jr roast beef sandwich and half of my milkshake. then a few more errands, home by 2pm for our nap.( it's great be retired.) later she's run's around the farm for a few minutes she's ready for a treat and tv when it's nice she swims everyday for a hour. one day a week we train with the k9 unit. this spring we'll train for 12 weeks, they are starting a new dog. i'll take her through the class.

Something like this:

AM: obedience session (retrieve, heel etc), ball reward
followed by letting him run around the backyard, occasionally I let him play with a yard toy.

Afternoon: our long walk to 2 diff school grounds, play chuckit until tongue is blue (repeat 3X) walk to next field and work on something (ex: distractions or agility). Some times we play the find it game.

Evening: another walk and maybe a find it game with yard toy.

If I don't have the energy its bicycle and or lots of chuckit fetch.