How much exercise does your dog require each day?

[katdog5911]

I am truly impressed by how active everyone seems to be! I must be a real lazy butt....

[WendyDsMom]

In my house - it's not THEM that need the exercise.... It's ME! If it wasn't for THEM - I would be overweight and lazy.

God bless THEM that demand the walkies....

But - 4:30 AM - Rain or Shine - 2 miles of brisk walk
5:ish PM - Short poopie run
Tuesdays at 7 - TRAINING for 1 1/2 hours at training center
Wednesdays at 6 - Puppy play hour
9:00 PM - Rain or Shine - 2 miles of brisk walk

[wyoung2153]

I realize this is an old thread, but for what's it's worth...

Work days: 2 mile run in the morning, 2 mile run in the afternoon after work.. and then probably a mile or so of walking after that. before dinner or about an hour after, he gets to play fetch for a little while. That boy is a fetch addict.. it's his crack I swear! Haha..

the weekends are a little slower oddly enough. On Saturdays we do SAR training so i don't work him out in the mornings, I need him to be rearing to go when I say so. Later in the day I will play fetch with him on, and off. I will do at 2 mile run on Sunday mornings and play with him through out the day. If I go hiking or to the beach on the weekends, he comes as well.

[christinemarie.erickson]

My husband and I adopted a beautiful East German pup from a breeder last August. He is just about five months old and I just started to jog lightly with him twice a day, for about twenty minutes in the morning before work and then another half hour or so when I get home. Within the jog I incoropate some play time when I chase him around/and or play fetch (make sure to teach your dog fetch). My husband plays with him more after I leave for work. Along with training (5-20 minutes everyday, tricks, obedience, hide and seek, etc..), I would say we plan for a solid 2 hours of dog time everyday. And I mean solid time with dog....that does include your own exercise time, though, if that is a plus.

This is my first GSD, and I don't know how his exercise needs will change but I assume I will have to adjust more as he grows and needs more intense exercise. We have introduced him to the bike just a little bit and plan to incorporate biking riding into his exercise routine, along with fetch.

His breeder said that walks along with 15-20 minutes of intense fetch everyday should do it, but so far it is a little more intensive than that. I imagine it might get less as the dog grows older. We'll see! It is a working dog, so we were prepared to care for him.

I was sick with a cold last week and he did get a little nuts when I couldn't exercise him as well as I usually did.

[Narny]

I dont know how Lulu will change over time, but she is really laid back for a puppy (11 weeks). She needs MAYBE an hour of outside play... back yard kind of play. Other wise shes ok with just laying about in the house chewing things lol.

[julie87]

Walks 2 times a day for 30 min each, sometimes longer to let her smell things, GSD love to sniff. Training in the house, playing tug in the house after her walk she will usually either settle down and sleep or will play with a chew toy, afterwards she will wake up and play on her own, then she is back to chewing, then its sleep and then itsa another walk usually before bed time,she settles for the night until we wake up in the morning. however, if you for some reason miss a walk she will become very desruptive, for example when I have my breakfast she will cllmb on the table and will try to get my attention, and she becomes very disruptive in the house, she will bite walls, she will pulls items off the tables/shelves, to sum up if you don't keep your GSD busy they will find what to do and you will not be happy with results.

[Kyleigh]

Might be an old thread, but I read through the whole thing and it was great to see how many people do so much with their dogs.

I've always liked / wanted active dogs otherwise I'd stay in all day / night and quilt or something ... so Kyleigh is EXACTLY what I needed, even if she does drive me bonkers some times.

During the week:
Up at 5 - over to the kid's park and we play there for about 1/2 an hour - she's a whizz at going down the slide, up the ladders, etc. Her own agility course!

Noon - she gets an hour outside with my dad - he kicks the soccer ball around for her ... he's always amazed at her focus / intensity ... it's very cute to listen to him brag to me about how "awesome" a goalie she'd make LOL

I leave for work / home by 3:45 and we're gone til about 6 or 7 depending on where we are going. It's always off leash no matter where we go

Supper time / chew bone time ... then back out to the park to play soccer / and do her agility course again. Bed time is at 11:30

Saturdays and Sundays
Up at 6, a lazy breakfast for me (1/2 an hour LOL) and then we hit a trail (with my friend and her dog) by 7 am and aren't back til about noon or so.

6 pm or so, we are back out for another two hours ... either at the dog park / a friend's house or someone comes over

Unless it's -40 we are out pretty much all day, with a break in the afternoon for a snooze, warming up and I need to clean the house sometime!!

Some of the things we do on the weekends:

Hikes in the mountains, Cottages in the summer, Farmers fields in the fall (she so loves to jump on the huge round bales of hay!) and lots of walks in the woods so she can chase all those squirrels away.

I'll be getting her dog sled soon so we'll be training with that soon, and I bring her downtown at least twice a week to do "urban agility" and she loves that!

I've "encouraged" Ky to be active so I am paying for it now LOL ... she can relax in the house now with no problems, but she's definitely a dog that is ready to go at the drop of a hat ... she doesn't need ANY coaxing to leave the house!

[Crimes]

Apollo is VERY active! lol
I don't complain though (: As I am a very active person myself.
e's still a baby though, so that might be a big reason why.
He wakes me up around 6 to 8 in the morning with lots of kisses and slobbers, then I let him out the the bathroom, bring him back inside for breakfast, then we like to spend at least an hour at the park with his favorite toys (:
If it's too cold, we just go for a long walk, weaving up and down through the blocks in my neighborhood. He also usually gets a walk at night, as well as spending most of the day playing and chasing his 'brother' (my sister's dog) Siri.
By the end of the day, he's usually so exhausted, he just conks right out!

[triangulum]

Originally Posted by Sir Bear

This explains perfectly what I feel every day for Bear...don't get me wrong...it can be SUPER annoying....but in the moments when I feel the way you perfectly verbalized it, it's amazing. GSDs are special and really do give what they get. As long as you can get used to peeing with a cute pair of "personal body guard" eyes staring at you...you're good.

Hahaha that sounds like my pup. I haven't been able to use the bathroom or shower without him staring at me since we got him.

Vecna is about 17 weeks old and is insanely energetic. When I first got him I tried to limit his physical activity becase I'd seen so many people saying that puppies shouldn't have walks or exercise that exceeds 5 min/month of age and he drove me insane. And this was with doing a couple hours of training and games throughout the day.

This is Vecna's current schedule:
We work on heeling, sitting at intersections, and navigating city streets without breaking focus for ~15 minutes while he goes out for his morning bathroom breaks and while we head to the park or river. We either play ball and play with other dogs for 1 hour at the park or walk around the river for 1.5 hrs before lunch. If we go to the river, I have him follow 3 trails I've laid for him and have him find a retrieving dummy hidden in the bushes a couple times. He'll usually sleep for 2 to 3 hours and then we head to the park for another hour or so of playing ball, chasing other dogs, and 15 minutes of tracking or hide and seek. Then he usually sleeps for another hour or two and we take short walks around the neighborhood to work on heeling, sit, and down during the evening rush. We play hide & seek, tug, and do training exercises until my husband gets home at 11:30 pm. Then my husband takes over and does a bit of training with him and takes him on a couple more short training and pee walks until about 3 am. Weekends are "puppy days", so we go on longer walks, work on riding public transportation nicely, go to the pet store to get new toys and treats, and take him out to the woods. he really loves the weekends :3

We don't have a yard and live in an apartment so keeping him entertained and tired is a full time job for me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.