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Honestly, how much excersise?

8K views 42 replies 39 participants last post by  lovemygirl 
#1 ·
Ok, so I keep reading on multiple threads, about exercising our dogs. And to be honest, some if the dogs are getting waaaaaay more excersise than I can give a dog.

My dogs have always been fine with 20-25 minutes of training daily or the same in pure cardio walking. I have had and trained multiple SAR dogs. They are working dogs, get worked a few times a week. But never have I lived with a dog that needs 4 hours of excersise a day. Like so many dogs on this forum seem to need to settle in the house.

Am I just super lucky??? Or is every one else super unlucky???

So be honest, how much actual excersise do your dogs get daily?


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#28 · (Edited)
On a busy day, no physical exercise and 5 minutes of training inside. Plus play with each other for an hour or so.

On a not busy day, up to a few hours when we're out in classes, etc. They can function just fine for days without physical exercise, though.

Finding lines with an off switch and teaching a dog to settle go a LONG way.

eta; Frag is a medium drive/medium energy dog. Recon is a high drive/high energy dog. Patton is what I would call medium energy/high drive at this point.
 
#29 ·
My female needs a minimum of 4 hours a day to be content, 2 hours if I just want her tolerable out of a crate. She is far more extreme in energy than other GSD's I have met, probably closer to a working Mals energy. Also, very HIGH drive all around.

My male has that genetic "off switch", so he can have 2 hours a day (Exercise/Training) and be somewhat content. With 4 hours he is much happier all around. I would consider him medium energy, but again VERY high drive all around.

I have only seen my female tired a handful of times over the last 4 years, one of which was after 10 days of training, competing and a seminar, then she was tired enough to sleep while we drove home. Other than that, even doing multiple hours of training, physical exercise and hard drills (agility) she will lay down for 20 minutes, then get up and be ready to go again. Definitely not what I was expecting for my first Shepherd, but I would never trade her for the world.
 
#30 ·
I've been thinking about this question a lot myself, ever since Molly injured her knee and had a TPLO surgery last year, and now it seems she may be having another issue once we get to a certain level of exercise. Prior to her injury she sure loved going on agility equipment, high energy dog play, and hike 3-6 miles.

My neighbor has a pitbull who also just had the TPLO knee surgery and I am meeting more and more people who have dogs that are getting injuries similar to a humans that over work themselves when playing sports. Right now we are doing about an hour a day, broken into 2 or 3 walks, no crazy dog play or jumping. Our dog seems fine, is not destructive or anything, my daughter and I would prefer to walk more for our own exercise benefit but we do not want to re-injure our dog.l
 
#31 ·
I thought I had to exercise Lola for 4 hours for her to settle. Then someone mentioned about me just building her endurance which could backfire on me when she's older.

So right now (since it's freezing most days) she gets a 1 hour off leash walk through the trails. We bring a ball and we play while we go. As well as a little obedience training mixed in.
When I'm working on the computer we'll play some ball. Luckily my house layout provides a good amount of space for us to.
We do a few short obedience lessons and go outside a few times for short periods to play fetch or tug.

And of course I have a 9 year old dog that she loves to play with.
 
#32 ·
I thought I had to exercise Lola for 4 hours for her to settle. Then someone mentioned about me just building her endurance which could backfire on me when she's older.
I honestly hadn't thought about that until recently. I wish I would have known that when Titan was a puppy. I can't help but wonder if my active lifestyle, plus thinking I NEEDED to exercise him so much contributed to his nearly non-existent stop button..
 
#33 ·
About an 1 to 1 1/2 hours every day (sometime days are morning and evening walks, some days are morning walks and evenings doggy park or early dog beach and evening walks.) plus training and playing ball or doing nosework. He also does a few days doggy day camp where he's playing all day with a lunch and midday rest periods. We also have 3 classes a week.
With working I just don't have the time for 4 hour exercises or 2 hour hikes etc every day. I commend those that can, but I just can't. I'm so glad I have a pretty calm 14 month old. He also has HD so we try not to overwork him, but we still let him be a dog and play, just no jumping.
 
#35 ·
During the week, my boys are out in the yard all day, which I don't count as 'exercise'. Every night I take them out in the pastures and let them free run. Some times we play fetch. Then we go to the pond and most nights they'll swim.

My GSD will come to me when he's tired. My Lacy....rarely tires. We bought a remote control speed boat to use in the pond. The Lacy will chase it. THAT will get him tired. I get to sit on my butt and he does all the work.

If the dogs start getting snippy with eachother, I know I need to exercise them more. I do a lot of mind games like laying tracks and playing find it with them.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Sinister could go forever without a walk, his energy is whatever I want it to be.

Draco really needs to be walked but it has been really cold around here and Draco does not do well in the cold because he is a sissy so we have not been going for walks for several months but he does need them and he has been getting very restless lately.

Sinister is low/medium energy and Draco is medium/high energy but both settle well in the house until Draco gets the zoomies and runs around the house like a mad man with his Kong Wubba. :wild:

So their exercise for right now is chasing each other in the yard for a couple of hours a day, wrestling with each other pretty much all day and chewing on bones, playing tug-o-war and their Everlasting Treatball, Everlasting Treat Wheeler and their Everlasting Fun Ball. We also work on basic obedience for 10-15 minutes a day. :)

Wanted to add, when we go for a walk it's usually between 2-5 miles and I do consider that as exercise for the dogs, we are not slow walkers. They almost always end up off leash at some point and get to run around like fools.
 
#37 ·
When she was a crazy one year old, three mile hike or half hour playing fetch at a tennis court then a half hour walk every day, off leash fetch in the yard or at a park at least three times a day, plus working on long downs in the morning while my husband had his coffee. Now they get a few marathon play sessions in the yard in the morning, then half hour walks at night because it is very cold. We work on obedience/ handling in exchange for breakfast and dinner, and Skadi gets a half hour German obedience lesson every day while I work on teaching Grim to fetch.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Hunter went two weeks straight without exercise and he was fine, but I wasn't. I like to get out and DH and I are super active, outdoorsy people. If Hunter doesn't get any walks, on a rainy or super cold day, he is chill around the house and you can't really tell.

Living in the apartment we had to go out for exercise, often drive somewhere. They couldn't even really play in the apartment because it was so small. Now that we are in a house, my two get playtime inside (they have play time in my carpeted basement), playtime in the fenced yard. They get IPO training once a week until the weather improves, obedience/tracking/scent detection through out the week and whenever we go on hikes or excursions (which is often) they come with us.

Mine do get a lot of exercise, not because they need it, but because that is just our lifestyle. I've never trained so much in my life, either... seems like we are training during all our free time during the day.

I love it, though. Not complaining, neither are the dogs. When we are relaxing inside, they are sleeping.
 
#39 ·
My pup is restless and doesn't really settle unless he has some intense exercise. We don't have a place to walk, but have an acre of land so I use a chuck-it for his exercise as well as a flirt pole. He's been on crate rest (again) and just got to play with his beloved chuck-it again in the past couple of days. He's been fairly good in the house, he's not hyper, but doesn't lie around and snooze at all either. I'm looking forward to wearing him out so I can have some peace in the house again, since he's too much into the cat's business all the time otherwise.

To answer your question, he actually doesn't require that much exercise, he just needs something that really pushes him for a fairly short period of time. 30 minutes of hard running and he's decent in the house. I usually do it 2 or 3 times a day in addition to his training.
 
#40 ·
I ..don't ..have a structured exercise routine for him ? We are an active family..but the weather has been awful lately. The kind of crusty hard snow that breaks through all over the place and is a danger for twisted everything on dogs and people.

He is real attached to my kids , one of which has autism and is never sitting still. So he is kind of always moving . I was concerned about " running " him before one year of age , so it has pretty much been multiple walks and games of tug here and there throughout the day. Now that he is 1 , and the nice weather is coming I will do my daily 3 mile run with him in addition. And hikes.

I just realized come June 2nd all 3 of the kids will be and school all day so we'll probably hike a lot too. Because I need to be more active too lol
 
#41 ·
Thanks all for the honest answers. My pups can certainly go for a lot longer than I usually do. I could hike for hours and they would still be ready for more. But I don't find it "necessary" for them to settle.

I guess that was my "point". It has been a very yucky winter. And we are now expecting another 9 inches of snow. And yes, my pups get a bit wound up, it's never been intolerable. All of them have great "off switches".

My pup does need to build more endurance, so I plan on upping his cardio now that the weather is better and the days are longer.

If I count the play time with my pack and outside yard time, it probably works out to more than I stated. Just was curious, if I was an anomaly.


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#42 · (Edited)
For general health I try and do about an hour a day. Sometimes its more or less pending on my schedule or her mood. Sometimes she more energetic then others. My buddy has a Mal with a relentless engery level its play play train play train walk run ALLL DAY, or else it wont sleep at night. (pretty funny actually) However, hes a Marine and does cross-fit so hes just as off the wall and the dogs perfect for him.

My typical day is 2 20-30 minute walks and about 20- 30 minutes of obediance or ball play
 
#43 ·
My girl is somewhere between 4 and 6 years old (no one can pin her age down since her previous owner cut down all her teeth and clearly didn't go to a dentist to do it) and our exercise schedule varies between:

4-6 short walks (15-20 min each) a day + 3 sessions of fetch lasting 20-30 minutes each

or

4-6 short walks a day + 2 sessions of fetch at 20-30 minutes + 1 hour vigorous hiking/exploring

This depends on my work schedule, season, etc. I work on commands/training with her at least every other day. She does well with this and is conked out the day following any day that involves hiking :)

My last dog was a beagle, who wouldn't even walk a mile :rolleyes:

Really though, she is my first shepherd and I am surprised by how "little" exercise she needs/wants. This amount of exercise keeps her at a healthy weight & keeps her boredom at bay. She starts to go a little stir crazy though if I'm laid out (super sick) for a couple of days and we drop to just the walks.
 
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