Golden Retrievers and exercise

[FredWilson]

How much exercise does a 13 month old Golden Rretriever need ?
At the moment I take her out twice a day. Each walk lasts a minimum of an hour, sometimes an hour and 15 minutes. I try to take her places where she can have exercise off the lead for part of the walk.
However , now that the nights are drawing in, her second walk of the day often takes place in darkness, in which case all of her walk will be on the lead in well lit areas.
A friend of mine has remarked recently that this amount of exercise is inadequate for the dog's needs and should be increased. She has suggested 3 hours of exercise per day as a minimum. Is this correct ? Any experts out there ?

I'd argue that 3 hours off lead exercise a day is too much on growing joints and will increase her likelihood of arthritis in later life.

I don't know any dogs who have 3 hours a day every day.

How does your dog seem in him/herself on the current arrangement?

She is a big, bouncing ball of energy and and is always up for walk of any length at any time. She never seems to get tired. The longest walk I have ever take her on is just under 2 hours, but that was a one off, and she didn't want to go home at the end of that. Just wanted to stay out for fun.

My friend reckons that because she is a gun dog breed, she was bred to be out all day going over hill and dale, and therefore needs a lot more exercise than I am giving her.

However, I do know about the joint problems that they can experience. I'm confused. How much is too much ? How little is not enough ?

The guidelines for structured walks is 5 mins per month of age.
You can tire pups out with play and mind games as well

So that would be a walk of about 65 minutes. Would that be once a day or twice a day ? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just a bit anxious about doing the right thing for her,

Sixty five mins is per day, yes, but nothing stopping you doing it in two stints so she goes out twice. It is only a guideline for the breed though and some individual dogs may need more. Three hours is too much though, maybe you should check with your vet re the impact on her growing bones/joints? I totally agree with Wyld, retrievers need as much brain exercise as they do physical exercise. I've got two Labs, one 'show' girl who can sleep all day and only walk about fifty yards before she's had enough, and one 'working' boy who could walk for as long as I could physically manage to keep going! However, due to a health issue at the moment (his, not mine!) we can't really do too much walking so my DCs have been doing about an hour of brain training with him every day, he absolutely loves it and actually shows signs of being tired out afterwards.

We've always had labs, and they got two, hour long walks a day. Occasionally longer ones, as a one off. But even in mid winter (living in the arse end of nowhere!) they got at least a 30 minute walk in the dark by torch light in the evening.

Yes they are gun dogs, but even then they only spend 3/4 days a week out all day, and a lot of that is spent sat/lying around.

Thanks for all the info. It has put my mind at rest. From what you all say, the amount of exercise she is currently getting is OK.

Ours is 10 months and he gets about 40 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes after lunch and 30 minutes in the evening. At weekends his afternoon walk will be around 1-11/2 hours though but his evening one might be shorter