I'm not as active in the winter time because I leave the house for work in the dark and return home from work in the dark.

 

Me too. Unfortunately, Jax is not a hot weather fiend so she thrives in the cold, especially in the snow.

 

It's the worst! I loved the daylight! LOL there's so much more time to do things.. at least it seems that way! I know your feelings

 

i try to keep up with his exercise
in the winter. we hike, walk the neighborhood,
drive to an area where i throw his ball for
him (winter or summer). he goes with me
to take care of the "honey do" list. my GF
doesn't like me running him in the snow
or on the grass after it rains. she's afraid he
might slip and hurt himself. my GF walks our dog
and plays tug with him in our yard. she aslo throws
his ball for him in our yard.

 

We are more active in the winter because Abby can play, run, exercise longer in the cold weather... and so can I. Obviously, the Spring and Fall are the best all around for both of us. But summer can be a bummer.

 

We are more active in the winter because Abby can play, run, exercise longer in the cold weather... and so can I. Obviously, the Spring and Fall are the best all around for both of us. But summer can be a bummer.

Totally agree. I just wish that I could work/play/exercise him during the day. I love working out in the winter time personally for that reason. Just moved to Florida at the tail end of summer so I'm sure it will be blazing hot.. which will be SO knew to Titan havin glived in cold Germany for the last 2 years. Time to start him on wearing a pack so we can take more water with us

 

That's awesome. I'm lucky enough to have AMAZING neighbors who are in love with my dog.. even told me once they were plotting to steal him one day but they come over during the day and play with him. Started because I got a new puppy and she needed ot be let out... now it's that and they LOVE playing with Titan while I am at work. I would be so sad with out them to do that for him especially since my work just up'd my hours to 12s for the next month! I would hate my babies being deprived of attention for that long.

 

no we are different! smr we are hardly out! too horrid in smr= 10mnths of the year!. Winter= WE LOVE IT!, nobody out, only me & Mia, and sm other idiots like me, she can run off leash, omg she loves it!. she loves the cold as i do, but we r stuck hre in tx, so gotto deal with it! in our'winter' i have 2 feed her twice a day + treats cause she has so much excercize!

 

I do like that part of winter.. less idiots out..

 

Here Summer is way too hot and it is also our wet season (training often cancelled due to the rain). So apart from swimming at the beach, we have to limit exercise due to the heat. So winter much more active here.

 

I expect that he will get about the same amount of exercise summer or winter.
He will not go on very many car rides in the summer due to the heat.

 

I am much more active in the summer time with the dogs, we go for long walks, we go to the beach and they run in the fields and swim in the water, we have play dates with other dogs and I throw a stick or ball for them alot longer.

 

I am a wimp when it comes to the cold, so we are much more active in the summer.

 

Hazy, hot and humid, no thanks! Neither the dogs nor I can take the heat so the only thing we do all summer is wait for it to cool off, then we are extremely active. I see they particularly love it when the temps hit around 32F.

 

What's funny is I notice multiple behaviors.. now that I'm remembering what summers are like... living in germany, for the last 3 years, in the summer is like living in Florida in the Fall (a little after we got there). In the real summer I am remembering that Titan really only likes Hikes (as long as a swim in the lake is involved) and beach time.. otherwise he gets tired more quickly. but he loves snow and freezing temperatures.. loves to play in them.. maybe he's only less active in the winter because I am and he picks up on my energy...

 

We are as active as we are in the summer. We have a training room in the basement that is used at least daily, if not twice a day. We frequently will go to parks for general exercise. We also run with three of the four so they get exercise that way as well

 

That is so great! One of my long term goals is to make sure when I finally own my own house, hope to design it, that there is a basement/area for a dog room for play and training. How is yours set up and what exactly do you do in there?

 

We have a full basement (this is a rental house), half is finished, the other half is unfinished. The dog kennels/crates/food etc is all in the unfinished portion. The finished portion has a wall of storage containers holding all of our various dog "stuff" and then the space is open. We have a flyball box, some small jumps, numerous perches and wall space to train heeling. Everything my dogs have learned so far has been taught or worked on in that basement before we go outside There are a 100 million videos (slight exaggeration) on each of my dogs' blogs if you click their names in my signature (I'm about two weeks behind right now ). If you watch enough of them, you'll see the basement pretty thoroughly.

 

I have got to where the cold makes me hurt. I don't know why but I get so sore. So we are very much less active unless it happens to be a warmer day. I would rather my dogs run around in the house than go outside in the cold/rain/snow.

I actually like the hot humid days.

 

We got our puppy in the summer and I thought I would dread the cold. It hasn't been bad though. I bundle up and we spend lots of time outdoors.

 

Definitely less active, which results in a 20 pound weight gain for Chrono almost every winter. There's barely any daylight, and it's pretty dangerous to just walk normally on the sidewalks because so many people don't shovel the walks. I could probably skate to university if I wanted to, and definitely cross country ski. Unfortunately that means that even the slightest pull from Chrono has me flat on my ass.

Winters means: no jogging(too icy), no biking(too icy), and no swimming in the river. Plus I can't walk for as long because even all bundled up, -30C is just too darn cold for me. And there's less opportunities to walk unless you are okay with walking in the dark, all alone, while barely being able to walk let alone run. Scary.

I love summer. It never gets too hot out for Chrono.

 

Liking that I'm not the only one less active in the winter due to weather and daylight times.

 

You're not alone, I'm the same way. I often work outside in winter and it wears me out to my core. I know how to dress and all that, but sometimes it is just..too..dang..cold. Especially if I've been out in it all day. Here, the temps are often nasty, but it is the wind. The wind blows here like nowhere on earth I think!

This is my youngest's first winter. (He's almost 9 months now.) I've braved it and still gotten out, but not like I do in summer. I do cut back in winter. I'm glad the days are getting just a little bit longer. I don't mind being out in the dark, but that means it is also prime deer time and that makes me a little nervous. I've been really ramping up the indoor mental training work to try to compensate some. I also think maybe I was overdoing the exercise if that can actually be done. These longer winter days are showing me how to balance things a bit more. Before, when it was warmer, I was working the pure physical exercise A LOT, and skimping on the mental. Now we're really working on the mental, but the physical is quite a bit less. It's showing me I need to find just the right mix of mental vs physical.!

 

We don't change a thing, winter or summer, with one exception. In the spring/summer/fall I run a slightly longer loop with Niko that takes us up into the woods instead of sticking to the road. It adds a huge hill to our workout and an extra mile. Aside from that, we just get out a bit later in the morning, I wait until 7:30 or so until the sun is up enough that I can see.

 

Definitely prefer winter over summer, I hate not being able to do off leash bush walks because of the risk of snakes, even on leashed bush walking is risky because its also paralysis tick season, then if you accidentally let your dog in the yard at night the chances are she'll run into a deadly cane toad and munch on that.. besides the humidity of summer it also rains constantly, so training is usually cancelled and I don't even feel comfortable throwing a ball for her because the grass can be so slippery she's had some pretty awful slips in the past so no ball play either! All we do is go for long walks around the suburb.. and wait for winter to role around..:-(

 

I am less active outdoors (or more like, not outdoors for as long) whenever it is very hot or very cold. Normally I don't care about the dark because I go out at all times, except that in the winter it is colder after it gets dark.
Unfortunately we get very cold winters and summers can be in the 90s at times, but I find other ways for exercising the dogs when it's too hot/cold.

 

I work from home and I have a young dog who is still in a crate when I am busy or go out, plus on-leash when she's outside, so I've been walking in the soppy, spongy cold grass for hours a day. I spent an hour this morning walking in the rain and an hour and a half this evening walking in the rain. Oh yay. At night, I take a spotlight because it runs off the coyotes if you scan the horizon with it. My old dog gets jealous and pouty so I have to take him to the store with me or to friends' houses so he can socialize and feel special. The good thing about winter is I can do this; summer is too hot to leave him in the car to go into the store. When it was just Buddy, we did more in summer. He likes to walk along as I till and tend gardens (Rey will probably dig holes and uproot my plants), and I have two baby pools for Buddy that he plays in while I am in my big pool (and I'm also wondering how I'm going to keep Rey out of the big pool now, too, since she leaps and stands on the sides and looks at the cover now). So, no, not really less in the winter here, just more miserable outside time and a lot of wet socks that need washing.

 

We love winter here, last summer was SO oppressively hot we had to walk in the am before 10 or pm after 9. So far this winter we've had a grand total of 2 or 3 days in the 30's, most nights have been in the 40s and days in the 60's... just glorious!
We even had one day in the 70's, I was out raking leaves. Josh was so cute, this big 80lb dog chasing and pouncing on blowing leaves.

 

It has been much nicer here in Florida during the winter that's for sure. I have spent the last 3 years in Germany and let me tell you.. It's was AWFUL. I mean I love the snow but it was just too dang cold and no matter how many layers I put on I would somehow always come back inside wet and frozen. Haha. LOVED Summers there though.. between 60's-low 80's and never TOO hot. Since I just moved to Florida I haven't quite figured out the seasons yet. Since I live up north winters a bit more chilly than I anticipated in Florida.. got here at the tail end of summer.. and Titan was already dying.. We shall see about the full summer come April. Ha.. and my new pup LOVES leaf piles.. I raked last week and she was in heaven! just pouncing around in every pile. Good thing it was so dang cute.. those piles took me forever!

You're not alone, I'm the same way. I often work outside in winter and it wears me out to my core. I know how to dress and all that, but sometimes it is just..too..dang..cold. Especially if I've been out in it all day. Here, the temps are often nasty, but it is the wind. The wind blows here like nowhere on earth I think!

This is my youngest's first winter. (He's almost 9 months now.) I've braved it and still gotten out, but not like I do in summer. I do cut back in winter. I'm glad the days are getting just a little bit longer. I don't mind being out in the dark, but that means it is also prime deer time and that makes me a little nervous. I've been really ramping up the indoor mental training work to try to compensate some. I also think maybe I was overdoing the exercise if that can actually be done. These longer winter days are showing me how to balance things a bit more. Before, when it was warmer, I was working the pure physical exercise A LOT, and skimping on the mental. Now we're really working on the mental, but the physical is quite a bit less. It's showing me I need to find just the right mix of mental vs physical.!

Yeah I'm starting to realize that since I have moved here, to florida, about 4 months ago, I have lacked in the mental stimulation at home. He has SO much energy that I tend to run him and play with him to wear him down and forget about the mental part. This winter has reminded me to do that.. as soon as I'm off these dang 12 hour shifts, 5 days a week, I will be able to do much more. Crossing fingers for only 2 more weeks!! I have a lot of new things I want to do with him to try and drain him mentally Yay for have a super intelligent dog with over the top energy, 150% play/ball drive, and about 90% cheese drive, hehe.

 

In the winter we have very short days over here. The sun isn't up until 8:00 and it sets at 4:30. That's eight hours of sunlight. Most people are at work during that time. During the winter I usually hike less because I hike in the afternoons/evenings. It's also the rain season here during the winter so it rains a lot. It's hard to be active even when I want to be.