Walks - how long and how often?

[walkingthewalk]

How long and how often should a large sized dog have?

We are thinking about getting a huskie, lab or german shepherd but I'm not sure we will be able to offer the walks they would need.

What would happen if they didn't get walked a couple of times per week? Would that be a no no?

Big breed is clearly not the one for me.

Good to know the realistic expectations for walking dogs of this size though and how it can affect them all if they don't have their walking needs met.

Big dog would be a no no.

however my small Pomeranian cross is more than happy with one or two short walks a day. He is however at home with someone most of the day and stimulated in other ways.
if you are going to be home & have a garden most the time then I personally think with other things to stimulate them then that is absolutely fine for some dogs. However if you are going to be at work all day then any breed would need more than those two short walks a day.
another alternative if you can’t commit to longer walks is to look into dog walkers/day cares or adopt an older dog that would want/need as much exercise xx

Although in reality replacing walks with enrichment at home is far more time consuming than a quick sprint around the block.

We have a medium size mixed breed and do an hour / 90 mins every day in the woods then sometimes another short walk in the evening or loads of ball games / sniffing / time in the garden etc. She much prefers being able to do bursts of running than a plodding walk so for her, walking around the streets for 30 mins isn’t very fulfilling at all. She sleeps a lot otherwise.

a husky in the circumstances you describe would be a disaster

I’ve got a smaller but still energetic breed. We do around two and a half hours walking each day. He would go absolutely stir crazy with just 2x 30 minute walks. And some dogs thrive on routine, I know mine does and I’m sure he can tell the time!

I would have thought most dogs need more than 2 xs 30 mins tbh.

Our medium size dog gets a couple of hours once a day plus a 20 mins walk at night.

Maybe some small and some giant breeds would be happy with that? I know a lot of people with a lot of different dogs and I can't think of any which would be happy with 2 xs 30 mins. Or potentially they would be with extra stimulation?

I don't know much about retired greyhounds so maybe they fit the bill.

Our cockapoo gets at least 2 x 30 minute off lead, a day and a sniffy walk too. More at weekends. Her and dh have a complicated brain game involving squirrels that I can’t get my bed round. If he’s out she’ll sometimes bring me a squirrel with a forlorn air.

I see huskies being walked for hours and the owners look shattered..

Most dogs don’t need long walks , but they need stimulation and walks are a great way of doing that. If you can find and afford a dog walkers great..

Are huskies and GSD suitable for novice owners?

The ones I've known who haven't had enough exercise have been unsocialised and reactive.

A husky needs at least 2 hours of walking a day and at least 4 hours of hoovering a day to pick up their coat!

A lab will need at least 2 hours walking a day and a hose down after each walk as they have come back muddy or rolled in the poo which will take about 20 mins to clean the dog and half and hour to clea the kitchen that the wet dog ran into

A GSD will need 2 hours walking a day plus 121 training as they are anxious and react to the neighbours cats and try to lunge at the other neighbours dogs. The dog walks will need to take place in a quiet location that takes 20 mins to drive to as it is too stressful to walk them in the local dog walking areas.

I am aware that I am sterotyping the dogs but wanted to draw attention that dogs will need a lot of time apart from the walking. The walking is often the easy bit .

If time is an issue than maybe look at getting a different dog. Greyhounds big dogs but need very little walking but do need their own sofa to lie on with their feet in the air for the remaining 23 hours of the day.

We have a retriever/poodle cross and he needs I would say minimum 1.5 hrs walking per day - so 3 short 30 min walks or 2 longer ones.
In reality he gets at least 2 hrs, sometimes more if the weather is good and that's a double edged sword as then he expects more walks every day.
We don't do brain training games - I'd much rather take him for a walk so we both get some exercise.

I'd say a dog needs taking out every day, but how much depends on the dog and on the walk. An older dog might be happy with half an hour's potter once a day, but a younger dog will need more.

For reference, I have a middling sized high-drive gundog breed. They get at least 50 mins off-lead a day (over two walks, and often for much longer). Then most evenings they get 20+ minutes each of focused training; otherwise, at minimum a 20 min walk. If I slack off on the training too much, the older dog starts to be a bit of a pita - she really needs the mental stimulation.

If all their exercise was on-lead, they'd be very unhappy and unfulfilled.

It depends what you’re doing on the walk. Half an hour training, playing, stimulation, sniffing games, then yeah, maybe two of those a day would suffice during the week, and then a few big hikes at the weekend. My vizsla can easily do a 10km walk three times a week plus daily smaller trips to a local field for a good run. She’s extremely obedient and content as a result.

To answer your previous question, if a dog doesn’t get enough stimulation and exercise, it may become depressed, aggressive, form bad habits and lacking in recall/training due to a lack of practice.

You’ve mentioned some large breeds there which need VERY careful training and continuous stimulation throughout their entire lives or they could be extremely dangerous.

Huskies are naturally active dogs bred for endurance and long-distance running. The average Husky can run 10 to 20 miles in a session (compared to 2 to 5 miles by the average breed). And with training, a Husky can run 40 miles at a time...

Copied from a husky website. So unless you are running your dog stay away from that breed. Plus labs and GSD also need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation. A couple of 60 minutes a day don't cut it I'm afraid.

To be honest the amount you suggest points very much towards a lap dog..

Lots of dogs come under this type or a greyhound would suit. They are content with two 30-60 minute walks a day.

We have a dachshund. She has 40 mins in the morning and half hour (or more) play in the evening. Once a week she goes to daycare and has 3x1 hour walks which she does no problem. On the weekend we do at least one longer walk (60-90 mins)
This is sufficient for her. We only miss walks if it's very hot or absolutely lashing it down

Maybe a pug or shih tzu or something would be ok with small walks and occasionally missing them?

Even German Shepherds and Labradors need a good two hours or so a day in order to be happy and well-stimulated

I can't speak for German Shepherds but labs don't need to be walked for hours every day. Yes, they do need to be well stimulated but a mix of off lead walks, training and games is generally a much better way to achieve this.

My high drive working lab gets at least 2 hours of focused attention daily (mix of walks, training, scentwork etc.) but doesn't generally get 2 hours of walking in the weekdays. And a lot of our training is actually in the art of sitting still!

I’ll go against the grain
i have ‘crazy’ spaniel, he gets 30-45 off lead in the morning with training throughout the walk.

then we do advanced training (scent work/ retrieve etc) for 15mins and sometimes another 30min walk not always

Might do longer walks at the weekend, he sleeps all day and perfectly happy

Some people use exercise to tire there dogs out but that doesn’t work for mine, needs the brain games and focus

Just to add he isn’t crazy at all but usually people
Tell you they need hours of offlead walking each day

It isn’t necessarily the size of the dog- but the type- a GSD or lab or husky will be higher energy than a Great Dane.
the kennel club have exercise guides for breeds that are worth looking at.
basically a tired dog is a good dog. A dog that is physically and mentally stimulated and tired will settle nicely at home. A dog who only goes out a couple of times a week is going to get into mischief and start making their own fun- and that’s where you get problem behaviours like chewing inappropriate things.
I take mine out three times a day- 20 mins first thing and the 45 mins in the middle of the day and 45 mins in the evening. Sometimes training sessions, sometimes they are sniffy walks and sometimes for proper runs depending on what they need. they don’t need to be the same times every day, but I like to keep the rough structure of the day the same so they know when they have toilet opportunities, and they know what is coming in the day.
if you think you can only commit to taking them out a couple of times a week then I don’t think a dog is right for you right now. You won’t have time to invest in training or socialising them properly. Many people on these boards will tell you they waited years until their family was in the right place to bring a dog into the mix

My GSD needs a lot of exercise, she’s a very chilled out dog but can still run for hours and she’s very busy.

The giants don’t tend to need much at all, they would be very happy with 30mins twice daily. It’s not so much the size but the general temperament, working breeds wouldn’t suit but some large breeds are very low energy!

I wouldn't equate 2x hour long walks as "being walked for hours", though. Two decent walks a day is just basic dog ownership to me.

I also think the key with labs (and most breeds to an extent) is that there's a huge difference between the needs of a show-bred one and a working one.

As an example, I have a beagle but he's not from a working background. As long as he gas company he's happy on an hour a day, though he can easily go for 5-6 hours too.

Ultimately each dog is an individual but I wouldn't commit to any kind of working breed if I could only fit in 2x30 minute walks a day. It's not fair on them. Obviously if they can cope on less that's fine, but I wouldn't get one and expect it to, if that makes sense.

45 minutes into a walk our staffy starts making eyes at us to take her home. She doesn’t go off lead but we do a mix of slow sniffy walks, and quick marches around the block. If we book a secure field she’ll run around for about 20 minutes and then she’s ready to go home. She is a total couch potato whose idea of a best day ever would be a long lie in, followed by breakfast, followed by a cuddle on the sofa, followed by lunch, followed by a lie down in the sun, followed by dinner and more cuddles. We play tug, chase a ball around the garden, sniff out food in the grass, try to launch ourselves up fences at cats, etc so she’s kept busy. She’s a healthy weight (having arrived with us very overweight with overgrown nails from lack of walking) and relaxed around the house, especially as she has company about 90% of the time. She struggles in temps above about 22 degrees and despises the rain (but loves wearing a coat) so there are odd days when she has no walk at all if the weather doesn’t suit her. It’s definitely worth looking at other breeds OP, and older rescues.

My medium sized rescue has at least an hour’s walk in the morning and between 45 minutes and 3 hours in the evening. She also has access to the garden during the day. The minimum for her would be in really bad weather 45 minutes twice a day.
During the heatwave we were out at 5am. Walking a dog isn’t optional.

GSD - semi coat/showlines.
5Y.O

• would probably be happy if he was never walked again as he is a lazy big boy! We do however live on a small holding so he has a huge area of ground to use, but would rather frequent on the patio!

We walk him twice a day - 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins at night, normally he will come out in the car with us, once or twice a week we go for a big walk down the the river, roughly 2 hours. In this heat sometimes he hadn’t had his morning walk as it’s been too warm so just an hour in the evening.

If you get a working line GSD they will require a lot of stimulation, walking as they have far higher energy however we purposely bought a show line as they tend to have a lesser energy requirement.

As an example, I have a beagle but he's not from a working background. As long as he gas company he's happy on an hour a day, though he can easily go for 5-6 hours too.

A beagle is a working dog though. I don’t know what you mean by ‘working background’. We used to have a beagle and an hour definitely wouldn’t have been enough - they can as you say easily go for several hours and as well as the exercise they need the brain work of smelling lots of different scents.

Big breed is clearly not the one for me

It’s nothing to do with the size of the dog - some large breeds don’t need much exercise and some small breeds need a lot - it’s the breed and the individual.

One of my Labradors, young, fit and from working line, was very adaptable and on days that his walk was late or shorter than usual he was chilled about it and happy to sniff around our (admittedly massive) garden until we were ready. Conversely, our very elderly, ex racer, greyhound demanded at least two walks everyday, one of which would be at least an hour til she decided she was done. Very vocal about it too until you relented and only then would she stop the (extremely loud) barking - not adaptable at all.

If you really want a dog then work out what it is you can offer and then, instead of purchasing a puppy, find a rescue dog (whose temperament and requirements are known) whose needs you can meet.