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Walking is NOT exercise!!

129K views 148 replies 102 participants last post by  germanshepherdlife20 
#1 ·
For a very young puppy, a walk may be enough exercise to tire them out for a few hours.

But for an adolescent dog a walk just won't cut it. Unless you are speed-walking. And then you better go several miles in order to tire out your dog.

If you want a dog that will SLEEP (or at least be calm) while you are at work all day you need to TIRE THEM OUT.

Spend 15 - 20 minutes throwing the ball and having them RUN to get it and bring it back. I'm not talking about throwing it 20 or 30 feet. Get a Chuck it and throw that ball a good 50 - 100 FEET!!

Take the dog for a bike ride (with the proper equipment) and set the pace so they are trotting. Put in a good 20 - 30 minute round trip.

THOSE are ways to tire out your adolescent dog. Walks just aren't enough.
 
#38 ·
Lulu loves to play catch for like 10 min and then go and play in the water for a bit. She will then decide it is time to lay down (in the sprinkler) lol and let the water cool her. After that its dry time and back in the house (maybe 30 min). She will play nicely with her ball (which she always has to know where it is) and maybe mouth a nice stuffed shark or pig. I will lay on the floor with her and we will play roll the ball back and forth. Then we have conversations about why she just rolled the ball under the table and whose going to get it. Normally she will look at me like "Well, I'm not going to do it.. will you do it? PLEASE MOMMY!"

After that its back in the crate and my kids are allowed to play in the living room once again. Sometimes it feels like a full time job to juggle her in and out time and inside play. We do this like 3 or 4 times a day with outside time normally longer but the mosquitoes are getting really bad right now.

I am really glad that shes not high energy. I am actually grateful for it everyday. I dont do a lot but its good bonding time for her and I.

Oh and shes 9 months old. Always been very chilled. It also helps that I am able to read her body language to know if shes bored or could use a good run.
 
#39 ·
YES!!! another one with a laid back dog...Roxy is 5 months old and this gives me hope that she will remain the best behaved dog "I've" ever seen. Here was our day today...which sounds a lot like your's minus the kids...mine are still home with us but they are 22 and 25 and have full time jobs....

7:00 up and out for "business" and a "stroll" around the yard...just to check it out and stuff and see what kind of wildlife visited during the night.

come in around 7:15 and had breakfast

chew toy time while mom has a minimum of half a pot of coffee , and computer time.

out again for bigger business..another stroll around the yard until around 11 when we went with best friend and her labradoodle went for our long walk. (into a trail in town) ...Not speed walking but a nice pace ..with some sniffing and tracking stuff. ..maybe 45 minutes of this. Back home...rest and lunch. ( while Roxy naps mom catches up on household chores)...and more coffee and more computer.

then get with best friend and Sophie again for pool time ( kiddie pool) and some tag. ( another 45 minutes of romping)...back in ..chill till supper time.

have supper..more quiet time while supper settles and then back out for some fetch and obedience.

now it's bedtime. ..I will take her out for one more pee break before she actually goes to her crate for the night.

you will see here NO destruction -- no misbehaving. Just one relaxed and ok with what we choose to do during the day pup!

I am hoping this might be just about the right exercise for a 5 month old..which I am thinking it must be because I have NO issues with her other than the still not wanting to walk here in the housing addition without Sophie. ..so it's a darn good thing my best friend of forever lives right behind me on the next street.
 
#40 ·
ps and this is not everyday..we too are experiencing crazy weather where one day it's nice and the next 2 days it rains all freakin' day. In fact last night we took our "walk" at the park in the rain...dodging big downpours hiding under trees...the dogs loved it..we not so much..and they got to shake off while we went home drenched . :) it was ok..but when it's storming we are stuck in the house and those days there isn't much exercise to be had. I have not allowed full run of the house yet. I have 5 cats ..and 2 of them are seniors who can't hop fences to get to litter boxes gated off. I don't want to deal with Roxy trying to uncover and devour what goodies are in there...even just eating the litter cuz I'm OCD about the boxes having anything in them. Still am sure she'd find the empty litter boxes fun to dig in.
 
#41 ·
Oh also, the other day I took her to the dog park and there was only one dog there, a great dane puppy... She was SOOOO cute, but incredibly mellow. Maybe to normal lol ie non german shepherd/husky/ mals etc people look at Lulu like shes super active. Maybe I was just really ready for her and knew to expect it. Now I dont completely think so, but when it comes to play, lulu can book it.
 
#43 ·
One thing I did to make my cul de sac fenced backyard a better place with ball play is I have an inner fence to that if I stand in the yard and throw the ball to the far back right corner, the dog has to run to the left near corner to get around the fence and along a path from the left far corner to the right far corner. That way, with 6 or 7 good throws I get about 1/2 mile wide open run. .. I stop when he trots back with the ball instead of runs.

I took his paths and have a spongy layer of mulch on them. Yah, my dog looks like dogs live here :) but I am slowly landscaping the "non paths" because he stays during the day inside a fence area closer to the house.

Right now my knees are fussing at me but I am trying to get up to a 4 mile walk in the morning again. I think there is value in walking but it does nothing to the dog unless it is in the heat and that is not excercise.
 
#45 ·
We have a nice forest path near us that I go off leash. We also have two dogs. When the words, go play, leave my mouth. They are off and running. Very good for them. There's also a pond to swim in. They get a lot of exercise.
The younger one tires a little faster. So I walk by the house to drop her off. Then continue to a field for some fetch with Baron.
Good times.
 
#46 ·
Wow, I posted my motning walk post before I read any of the other responses. I didn't realize there was such controversy on this thread. I guess I am really lucky. Ranger is fine with a couple of walks a day (and he is 13 months). He has never destroyed anything in my house and he has not used his crate in months. I do have a nice sized backyard and I love to play fetch with him. Unfortunately my yard gets really muddy when it rains a lot so with the weather we have been having lately (continuous rain) poor Ranger has to depend on walks for exercise. I know he is itching to get out in his yard, but he has been really good. As I said, I guess I am lucky.
 
#47 ·
I guess I'm a bit confused. Walks are really all my dogs get and not always everyday. Our walks are usually an hour long and it's not a speed walk. Knuckles gets about 15 minutes of that off leash where he trots back and forth on the trail, but otherwise it's just walking. They get home and they are both passed out on the kitchen floor. And our destruction days are over with Knuckles since we stopped locking him in a crate.
I think it might be how your dog grows to be used to things. Now I suppose if we did an hour of speed walking/biking/running, a walk wouldn't satisfy them at all. But this is what we've always done.
 
#48 ·
THOSE are ways to tire out your adolescent dog. Walks just aren't enough.
This old lady would fall off of a bike...

That is when having two around the same age/activity level come in handy. They run around and play with each other wearing them both out better than when it is just me. I've got some downed trees from earlier in the year and it makes an excellent agility play yard... I toss a stick and the two idiots run around play chase and hop over the downed trees while I kick the basket ball for Tasha and do a leisurely stroll for 11 year old Buddy.
 
#49 ·
I have a couple of youngsters that would do better with more exercise, but the rest of them do not need to be tired out in order to be calm, and relaxed during the day, or to sleep at night. However none of the crated, and that might make a difference.

I think that when you exercise the dog regularly, you are building up exercise requirements in a dog. If you bike with your dog for 20 minutes each morning, and then take half an hour walk, and a session of chuck it in the evening for 20 minutes, plus a training session of 15 minutes, and do this for a month or two, and then break your leg, and put doggy exercise on hold, then your dog is going to go stir-crazy.

He is used to the routine, and he enjoys these things. He will lay by your bed, but his body says it is time to run, and it is time to play and it is time to sniff the trees and watch the butterflies.
 
#50 ·
Since all my dogs are different, they all have different requirements, and I do not get them all walked every day, that would be insane. Joy for instance, is perfectly content to take a spin in far field while I am taking care of Hepsi and Milla, Sometimes I let Jenna and the pups out there too.

But when I have an adolescent dog that needs a bit more exercise than a regular walk, I take them up town, and as I walk along the fronts of the buildings, I have them run up and down the steps and touch the doors -- after business hours, of course. I take them to the skate park and let them climb on the equipment.

There is a small brick ledge that I have the dog jump up on and I walk along the outside. It is like a dog walk and uses more energy to stay on the curving ledge than it takes to walk on the ground.

There are many ways to make an ordinary walk more work for your four footed companion while not wasting the walker.

I also incorporate training in the walks. I will do come fronts, and 270s, and 360s, and finishes, and downs, and the whole nine yards. But I do not require a perfect heel. In fact, I let them walk in front or behind or sniff the telephone pole except for streets, then I call to heel, we sit first and wait for the light, and then we walk briskly across in a heel.

I have trained about four of my dogs to do the bicycle thing. I don't do it regularly, but I got a couple of dogs that maybe would do well with that, maybe I should go blow the tires up. Hmmmmm.

Eh, the pitter patter of little feet are above. I think my sister's 3-year-old is awake up there.
 
#51 ·
I think most people don't realize how much exercise this breed of dog requires when they decide to get one. I realize the amount will vary depending on the individual dog, but they are an active breed. Whenever I got Bunny at 6 months, my GSD/Husky cross, the shelter told me that she was a moderate energy level and would require 1 hour of exercise a day. Whenever I was looking for my second dog, many websites indicated that a minimum of a 1 hour walk would be required for a Shepherd. I think many people get their dog thinking that as long as they fulfill the minimum requirement of a 1 hour walk, they will be fine. Both my dogs require way more than the minimum of 1 hour of exercise and I do the best I can but sometimes I feel a little overextended between working full-time and trying to satisfy their requirements.
 
#52 ·
I think it's all about the delivery of the message that may have turned off some agreeing members. I'm assuming this thread was a public service announcement from a previous thread where maybe a rambunctious puppy was not being exercised enough and the owner thought their bored puppy was aggressive. I don't know...

I love walking & am known as the women always with her GSD which makes me smile:) Rusty happily comes along with me. I know this is not really exercise for him unless we are doing a off leash hike which we do often on less traveled trails/parks.

We do all kinds of activities. I will say that sometimes a 30 minute group training class like obedience will tire him out more than running after a ball because he has to use his noggin. lol

There are some days where we do nothing. It's important that I have a dog that can settle down in the house...downtime.

But I do get the point of the post. These are not couch potato dogs.
 
#53 ·
Going along with the theme of this thread rather than starting a new one, I need some exercise tips.

My puppy is at 10 weeks old and is due for his next vaccination in 2 weeks... so he can't go out of the house yet.

What can I do to tire him out? I play with him for hours in the yard and do obedience training which is going well... but he just doesn't want to settle when he is in the house.

I am reluctant to put him in his crate when I am hanging around at home, but that seems to be the only way he will settle or nap...
 
#54 ·
When Zak was young I found out I had a serious and incurable heart condition which means he will never get to go cycling, jogging, running or agility as all of my other dogs did. However we can walk off leash for 6 hours a day, he can play with other dogs, I can throw balls for him and he can swim daily. Does that make it cruel of me to keep him, I don't think so. He can tell if my heart is racing and will lay in front of me to make me stop and take a break. The only thing I worry about is if he got into trouble whilst swimming, as I couldn't go in after him, but so far so good .
 
#55 ·
Yes, walking is not an exercise. That is us, humans, our natural bodily state is walking (not sitting at the computer!), and dogs are the runners, the trotters - better to say, by nature.
You should be a little bit careful here exercising such a young puppy in the hot summer. GSD is a breed of working dogs, they take ball chasing for a job and will run for it until they drop completely exhausted. It's alright for 6 months old, but not for your puppy yet. What makes puppies exhausted - it is the emotional aspect of provided exercise when their intellect is involved. Teach him more of new commands, GSD in average is capable of learning more than 300 different commands before they are one year old, puppies with experienced handlers pass obedience test at 6 months old. Don't worry if he doesn't perform well or not really obedient, newly trained commands would require the knowledge of previously learned, really stuff him with new commands. The ball itself could be a great tool. You can teach him better "Heel" simply walking and holding the ball in your right hand, making turns, changing the speed of your pace, etc. You can exercise him for patience by asking him to sit and wait (you might need to teether him to the tree at the beginning), hide the ball in the distance and ask to find it. You can teach him to crawl (good exercise for spine muscles) by gently pressing on his shoulder blades and calling "Crawl!", holding the ball in your stretched hand. Ideally, by command, he must be able not to run but to crawl to the ball, fetch it and crawl back, you can start teaching it now. Teach him to roll over on the grass, to make circles around you running, and, I call it "naughty command" to run away from you with a ball. You take his lead, and, like in horse training, you sweep with the lead in front of you like with a whip, saying to him in excited whisper "I catch you!" He will make big circles around you with the ball in his mouth, puppies like this exercise very much. He must know two different commands by now "Drop it" and "Give it", so, this command, opposite in its meaning works as some sort of reinforcement. Probably, it is too early to teach him jumping, still, you can find short barriers for him to jump onto and over. Bicycle is a good thing, just, please, don't forget, you should never ride on the pavement, on the soft ground only, your puppy's soft paws are not protected and they will bleed soon if he runs grinding them on the asphalt.
If I were you, I would find a doggy park for puppies. You would never be capable of exhausting him like they exhaust each other in chase and this puppy bustle-scuffle!
 
#59 ·
my pup is 9 weeks and i walk him around a couple of blocks fine. whats the big deal? i just keep walking, i dont let him stop to sniff anything. his legs are so tiny that me walking is like a brisk jog for him. after twice around the block hes ready to nap. people worry too much about parvo
 
#60 ·
Chushka is 6 months now and I have been thinking of as many ways to get her to expend her abundant energy as possible. Here are some activities we do in addition to on-leash walking, which I agree is not the most active, but light exercise none the less:

- Off leash hikes, if you live close enough to hills or trails (I know this isn't pratical for everyone but they love to investigate and walk at their own pace and they feel like wolves )

- Fishing (flirt pole, although I didn't know what a flirt pole was until this thread, so we call it fishing) - we have a long piece of dried bamboo with a shoe lace tied to a dog-rope that has a ball fixed to it. She is getting faster and faster so it's really fun - she gets to jump sprint and you can really manipulate the movement.

- Keep away - great for medium size yards. She gets a tennis ball, stuffed animal, anything - and I chase her around like we are playing football. The point is not for her to give it to me (she knows a separate command to let go.) I make T-Rex exaggerated movements like I am going to get her and she runs away, back and forth pausing around tables. One of her favorites - stimulating the way a sport is, try it!

I got a 72" rope with knots online, that is a variation of the flirt pole game, just be careful when they are losing teeth and don't pull much but its a variation on the two above games.

Lastly, I ordered her a 62" stuffed alligator which is on the way! She is mostly an outside dog, so we put down a large tarp (because its easy to clean) and I wrassle the stuffed animals we have with her. She loves this ! Can't wait for the giant alligator :)
 
#65 ·
Me and my boyfriend decided it was time to take it to the next step and get us a dog. We fell in love with our GSD. We are moving in December into a house that is perfect for a big dog but right now we live in a tiny apartment. I was not expecting this! She cant go outside because she is 3months and doesn't have all her shots yet and cooped up in this tiny apartment all day! She is fairly calm but I can tell she gets stir crazy every once in a while any ideas to help until we get her shots and can finally take her out to play?!
 
#66 ·
How many sets of shots has she had at this point?

Play games with her that make her think. Follow that with a session of tug, or a session for chasing a plush ball. In my place, if I throw the one way, it goes into the kitchen, and if I throw the other way, it goes down the hall into the bedroom. The dogs do love to run both ways.
 
#67 ·
How many sets of shots has she had at this point?

Play games with her that make her think. Follow that with a session of tug, or a session for chasing a plush ball. In my place, if I throw the one way, it goes into the kitchen, and if I throw the other way, it goes down the hall into the bedroom. The dogs do love to run both ways.


She has only one set of shots bordetella and 1 round of boosters at the beginning of April she is due for her next round and Rabies I am hoping to be able to get her out more after that! I will try to teach her tricks and play ball I also just bought her lots of chew toys because teething seems to be a real issue as well!
 
#69 ·
I disagree that walking is not exercise.

I take my dogs for 3-5 mile walks and we don't walk like zombies but we aren't exactly speed walking either. They do get some off leash running or swimming during our walks too but they mainly walk on leash.

My GSD is tired afterwards and usually naps for a while. My Dalmatian still has energy afterwards because the Dalmatian breed was bred for running so he has a lot of energy and stamina but he is much more relaxed after our walks.
 
#70 ·
My dog is outside most of the time. We live in the country. I take her on walks everyday, but she is off leash and runs around the woods and fields like a person on crack looking for their next hit. She is non-stop energy all day and she sleeps fine at night.
I think alot depends on thier lifestyle. If you take a dog into your home and the dog sits around inside the house all day and you take them on a 3 mile walk on leash, then that is going to be the dog's perception of their energy for the day. They will adjust and think that is normal.
I can't keep my dog inside all day becasue she is used to be outside and running around and playing. If I took her for a 3 mile walk on leash and kept her inside all day, she would go bonkers with cooped up energy.
 
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