To wonder how unfit dog owners manage?

[Bamboozleme]

I love walking and run 4x a week. Children sport-mad.
we have a lab
2 long (and fast!) walks a day plus and 20 min evening stroll

scrolling through my steps history and realised… on the days I run and do all the dog walks (I mainly do all the dog walks despite promises otherwise!) my step count is never below 25k. On days I won’t run, never below 18k.

Some days - substantially more!

how do you fare if you don’t enjoy walking and / or unfit and have a dog that needs and enjoys max walks?!

Fit and lean you all are ! I have a knee problem currently.DH walks our dog and i can manage about 1 /2 hour to an hour depending .Many dogs enjoy walks ,but it is essential not to overdo exercise with a young dog.Dogs also enjoy games and sniffing . Hiding treats so they can search,ball games and those kong things where they work out how to release the food are all good

Took the words out of my mouth 😂

And at 36 weeks pregnant, his walk time has been cut in half to 45 mins a day and he will survive for a couple of months without his 1.5 hours.

Drone on? Goodness, hardly a long
OP!

You come across as very smug and patronising op.

I think a lot of dogs just aren't walked enough.

😂😂 yes sums it up perfectly!

Goodness, the majority got a certain impression from the OP didn't they!

I'm a fat cow but still do a lot of walking.
Not running. I'm only running if something is chasing me! Plus, even if I sprinted my ass off, my dog would outrun me. It is better to let him run or walk at his own pace.
My dog gets a minimum of 1 and a 1/2 hours exercise a day. Usually more.
Normally a shorter sniffy walk and then a longer off lead one later.

I have a lab ideally they need 2 hours a day. I do two walks a day between 40-90 min . My steps is on phone. I usually average around 8k but assume it's closer to 12k as I don't always carry my phone.

How much exercise they need depends on the breed and age of the dog. The weather also plays a part. No one in their right mind should be exercising their dogs much when it is red hot. Some dogs don’t like inclement weather and will happily refuse walks.

A short sniffy walk can be just as stimulating for dogs as walking their legs off.

As others have said, dogs will also adjust to the limitations of their owners.

Professional dog walkers, throwing a ball and sharing walking duties with family members are common ways which a lot of owners can get around not having the ability or time to walk for miles.

For some breeds, over exercising does them no favours whatsoever.

I can throw balls for 20 plus mins for ours and hardly walk 500 steps.

Employ dog walkers? That’s what a few neighbours here do.

This was a significant issue when dm got her cancer diagnosis (in her late 70s) last year. She has a 9 year old springer/lab cross who can walk for miles. We've muddled through with a combo of dog walkers, me and dh walking her. DM is now very frail and can't really do much more than drive her to the common and let her run around.

Top tip - don't get a puppy when you're 70!

😂

I’m not fit because of serious health problems but our dog gets an hour’s walk in the morning, a much longer walk with DH, 30 minutes last thing and the dog walker twice a weekend for 90 minutes. She’s perfectly happy and healthy.

I'm fat. Very fat. A size 20-22. My very healthy and slim 27kg mutt gets umpteen trips out every day, including "the short walk" of 25mins which is pure sniffing time for her and about 1500 steps for this tall human. And "the long walk" which will be 4500-10000 steps depending on how long we have time for, but is usually an hour including sniffing. The other trips are a few hundred steps each time for a pee.

DH hits much higher step counts than me every day as he's short and takes more steps to do the same distance as me! 😂

Tbh the OP has nothing to be smug or proud about. That amount of exercise daily is detrimental to her dogs health. It will be having a negative impact on their joints and will be putting them at a dramatically higher risk of arthritis. Over 80% of dogs over the age of 8 have arthritic changes. Not all are symptomatic but talk to any veterinary physiotherapist and they will tell you!
Ball throwing is the absolute worst thing you can do for your dog too. Please don't do it however much fun it might seem. It's high impact and puts huge stresses on the joints. If you don't believe me video your dog playing fetch and then slow it down. Watch how their legs are twisting and the forces on their bodies.

Or you nasty disabled people!

My service dog is a border collie. I can barely walk. There are these strange inventions called mobility scooters. His daily exercise is a minimum of 12 - 15 kilometres daily. His vet says he's the healthiest, happiest, most chilled dog he ever sees. Plus that a border collie is happiest at a walking speed of 7mph - which few humans can do, but I can! On the rare snow days when I can't get out he is trained on a treadmill - he loves his treadmill!

In other words, you can adapt, and so can dogs.

I just wondered how people coped if they hated walking, of which, esp post covid! back pedalling now are we OP? No you didn't just wonder how people coped if they hated walking, your thread title is To wonder how unfit dog owners manage? Talk about smug.

I walk between 10 and 12k per day with my dog. I'm not unfit and neither is my dog. I don't know a single person who isn't a professional dog walker who walks their dog as much as you, and I know a lot of dog owners, and on the whole they and their dogs are perfectly fit and healthy.

Our neighbours have a beautiful French bulldog who is probably about 3 now. I think they have walked her twice.

Poor little thing.

Err, I’m probably what you define as unfit. I’m 150kg 24st. I can easily walk for a few hours. But I only walk my dog for an hour. During the week he has a dog walker just because we thought he’d like it lol. He doesn’t particularly give a shit how much he gets. He sleeps all day regardless.

Well done you, big claps for managing to run and walk so much and for sharing your step count. Delightful. 👌👏

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz are you in 24 hours a day watching your neighbours? How do you know they don't walk him/her at midnight? 5am? etc.

Let dog off lead in the park and sit on the bench reading Mumsnet 🤷‍♀️

Is this thread just to show off?

Indeed. Enjoy your dog.

Imagine the @Bamboozleme lacking so little awareness that he/she doesn't realise that people also have dogs for company and dog walkers exist. Imagine not realising that some disabled people might quite like a dog and cannot do almost a handful of runs a week (less than 5 runs then) and walk 25,000 steps.

My neighbour has three dogs and is waiting for a knee operation. She walks them several times a day, but has to walk very slowly with a stick. She also lets them out in the garden to run around, for most of the day. She lives in an upstairs flat and sits outside for hours in the worst of the weather in the communal garden to make sure they get plenty of running around time.

Another more distant neighbour can only walk with a rollator and is bent double. I see her out regularly with her three legged dog.

I am not a dog person but a lot of dog owners are truly dedicated.