How do you know if you're walking your dog enough?

[diggerdigsdogs]

We have a 7 month old GSP who will just go and go with no signs that he is tired. I'm really conscious of walking him enough AND not over walking him.

At the moment he gets a short walk on lead (15 mins?) most mornings and about an hour in the afternoon off lead in the dog park in the afternoon. Lots of space to run around and lots of dogs to play with and he goes and goes and goes the whole time.

Apart from that he is in the house with us or in the garden. He does eat plants in the garden and still has to be strictly watched in the house or he will wee.

So how do I know if he's walked enough? Thanks

I would dramatically cut down on the hour off lead charging around with other dogs.

He does need interaction and he does need some exercise but way more importantly he needs training sessions and time with you.

I would be teaching tricks and using the time in the dog park to teach him to play with you and ignore the other dogs, it would be an opportunity to teach him a good recall and to work with you around distractions.

If he is left to play and charge for an hour he could have training issues and could be too much twisting and turning for a young dog

He can be out with you for the hour but not just left to play and chase the other dogs.

Sorry I haven't given a very accurate description of the afternoon time. It's sometimes closer to 20 minutes but it's usually about 40. I really should have said up to an hour!

We walk aroud the oval and throw a ball. With my dawdling 3 year old it takes aaaages. Diggerdog definitely isn't playing with other dogs the whole time - it's maybe 10 mins at most.

His recall is excellent and we do play lots together. I suppose I was trying to show that he is active the whole time.

I understand I have to watch him for not getting walked too much. Yet with GSPs everyone talks about how much exercise they need - Would it be obvious if diggerdog wasn't getting enough?