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.
I'd have to agree with what alot of what people are saying here, every dog is different. Shadow my 7 month old male GSD (currently lying on the floor whinging behind me ) and Elbow a 9 month old Sprollie, just in from tearing around the back yard. We have a big yard between 1/3 and 1/2 an acre and they get plenty of runs through that. My wife has recently started taking Shadow for a 3km walk in the morning before she goes to work and I bring Elbow in the evening for whatever I can manage. When they are playing together outside 15 - 20 minutes and Shadow is ready to call it quits. Elbow on the other hand is just warming up, if I could connect him up to the electricity grid I'd never work a day in my life again!!!
If the dog is willing you can get a really intense workout playing fetch. Some dogs I've interacted with just won't keep the game up long enough. My last dog was down to chase a ball long, far and full speed for a 30 min window at max pace and he'd come in and just collapse for a nap lol.
If your dog is a working line dog, cardiovascular exercise designed to tire him out will likely only turn him into a super athlete over time. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as he is properly conditioned. If you are looking to help your dog get great rest, you need to give him a job. Training in obedience as someone earlier suggested is an excellent way to do that. Adding new behaviors to the training regimen is the best way to keep that fresh. I took it to the extreme and started doing igp with my dog because the more I gave her a job to do the better her behavior was everyday, sleep, manners, everything.
Workingg line dogs, if I could be so bold as to generalize, love to please. They love being presented with a challenge trying to figure out what it is that you want from them and then giving that back to you. Anthropomorphizing a bit here I know but when it comes to tiring out a working line German shepherd, this is literally the stuff dreams are made of. 😎
I agree! I have a working line/ show line gsd and she would go crazy if she only got walks. She is off leashed trained so she gets to run a lot, on top of that she jogs with me and gets to play with the neighbors dog at least once a week. If she never got all that exercise, my house would be in shreds. Lol!
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