How often do you walk your dog ?

[californiakiss]

I have 2 I walk them 4 times a day but am thinking about cutting it down to 3 as they are older (11&12) one has arthritis and Also because it's getting colder is that enough do you think

Twice 7am and 6pm

Once but long on a weekend / days off

As a general rule, dogs can't be left all day, so lots of people either work around each other in shifts, take the dog to work with them or pay for daycare and/or a dog walker.

I'm a dog walker - I'd say most of my clients walk their dogs before work, then I come in about mid-way through their working day and do an hour, and then they get another walk in the afternoons.

I find that, as a general rule, if a dog has lots of company through the day, they don't necessarily need multiple walks. Of course this is breed/age dependent but it definitely fits with my experience.

3yr old and 14th old sausage dogs

Between 1 and 1.5 hours in the morning…off lead once we’ve walked to the park/reserve/fields/woods

20-30min walk in the evening on lead on the streets. Lots of sniffing, a poo, scent marking, more sniffing, more peeing

Access to garden whenever they want (never when it’s raining/cold/drizzling/cloudy)

2 cats to play with indoors

Both super lazy and would rather stay in bed all day especially with the current weather.

Once a day for 30-40 minutes, and longer at weekends (up to a couple of hours).

She can also go outside as often as she wants for a wander, but she's not particularly interested in exercise. Would rather follow me around the house all day long.

I’m always amazed by these threads. I KNOW dogs need a lot of exercise and attention but threads like this make you realise that to be a good dog owner you really need to not have much else going on in your life! And I don’t mean that cheekily.

3 times a day, anything between 15 minutes to an hour depending on weather!

She is 9 and will not toilet in the garden or even near the house!

12 year old mutt gets "walked" twice a day, and by that I mean he goes out to do his business and then drags us home so he can eat.

He's a double coated dog though, and we live in the Caribbean so it's fair play really.

I used to take him running with me at 5am but he flat out refused one day so I've not worried about it since!

My 10 year old Westie X typically gets 3 walks on a working day that add up to 2-3 hours per day on a normal day:

Morning- 40 minutes; 30 minutes if it is raining heavily.
Afternoon- Normally 1-2 hours. Less if it is raining heavily, more if it's a nice summer evening. Absolute minimum of 30 minutes though.
Evening- 20-30 minutes. Exchanged with enrichment in heavy rain.

Days off could be similar to working days or it could be x2 30 minute walks with some other activity (hydrotherapy or just extra indoor games/enrichment) or, more typically, a good 2 hour + walk in the morning and a shorter 20-40 minute walk in the evening.

I do different types of exercise with him too. He has agility one evening a week and goes to hydrotherapy once a fortnight. Morning and evening walks are always slow, sniffy walks. His afternoon walk is sometimes an offlead walk with distance as the focus (3-5 miles typically) or it might be a slower pavement walk of about 2-3 miles with lots of sniffing or perhaps a trip to the field to play fetch/scent games. Weekends we often do long offlead hikes of 5-10 miles.

He's in very good shape for his age and is very happy with his lot!

From talking with other dog owners out and about, however, I would say half an hour twice a day or so is the usual routine for most dogs.

My lurcher is 2, we do sniffy long walks (1-3 hours) each day, and do 6-15km runs 3 times a week. He is very fit, and very content. If he can’t have a walk for any reason he doesn’t care, just sleeps!

It varies really. Usually a brief 15 mins off lead around a field morning and night. Dog Walker comes for an hour each day. Sometimes she's so tired from the dog Walker that she doesn't want/need an evening walk.

My days off she's more likely to get one very long walk and a 15 minute zoomies.

4 or 5 x 10-15 mins, very small dog. Walks of an hour or two off lead at weekends, but then only one or two short walks.

Usually - Once a day for about 30-60 mins depending on time available. Twice a week she goes for a pack walk with a dog walker. Access to garden and she's a healthy weight.

2 or 3 times a day

We don't "walk" as have a field for them to run, they have a run first thing then we go out for half an hour in the evenings. They are free to take themselves for a wander during the day too.

nearly 10
twice

Well you need to enjoy walking a dog 😂

But, dogs don’t really understand time, so unless you have a very strict schedule (because they will get used to that) the walking is usually movable. So you fit it round other things.

When I had children of an age that they needed getting to school, I’d walk the dog up and come back a way that meant he got a decent length walk. Sometimes the time I spend with friends is us walking our dogs together. It’s very rare that me and my DP are the same level of busy on the same day, so if I’d be struggling to fit one in then he does it.

Also, you pick a breed that suits you, when the D.C. were small and I did have less time and energy then we had a dog that was a less active type and with decent walks all he needed outside of that was company and stroking, as they got older I’ve picked more active breeds/dogs because they’re basically my main hobby so I want to do more with them outside of walks. But if I worked normal daytime hours and had other stuff going on, I could have got another lower maintenance dog... and the walking is good for you anyway.

So yeah, if you’re by yourself and out a lot or there’s two adults but you’ve both got very full on lives then they’re probably not the pet for you, but I work, socialise, read, spend time on here 😂 I don’t watch a lot of tv right enough, I do the bare minimum housework... but I don’t do more when we’re between dogs so I can’t blame the dog for that one. I also wouldn’t do things like join a gym, because well, I’m already walking.

How do you fit in long walks? Is it incompatible having a job?

Depends, I guess.

I work from home so really, any time I would have spent communiting, I'm walking instead. But that required a move from the city to a rural village and also meant my salary dropped by a lot. It was a deifnately a sacrifice for a different lifestyle.

I get up at 6am and walk for an hour then. That means I'm often walking in the rain, wind and (this time of year) dark.

I start work at about 8am and work till noon. Then I go straight out again for an hour. Back at 1pm, or just after. That's two hours of walking done.

Occasionally, in the summer months I might go out for an evening walk as well but this is just a bonus, because I feel like it. In the height of summer, there is noon walk as it's too hot for the dog, so it's evenings full time for a bit.

And yes - it helps if you really LIKE walking in most weathers

What breeds are they? Do you have a garden? 4 walks a day for dogs with arthritis sounds cruel.

One longer walk (4 miles)- one shorter one 1-2 miles. We also have a big garden.

Weekends, probably one really long walk.

No, you want little and more often for dogs with arthritis or other joint issues, they need to keep active and keep muscle tone - so you do little walks but more of them.

A 5-10 mile run every morning depending on available time. Three quarters of an hour sniffing walk at lunchtime, a dog field or another hours walk at end of day. Plus running around chasing pheasant and squirrels in the garden for a couple of hours. Weekends often longer pottering walks and town walk.

Our golden retriever gets two walks a day, but mainly because he just won’t poo in our back garden, the idiot, he has to be taken out and presented with a suitable spot of his own choice which is discreet and leafy enough for him to excrete in.

once a day for about 3-40 minutes, he's a very very small dog. I don't know anyone who takes their dog out more than once a day. I am not sure that this is particularly reflective of all dogs.

My arthritic 12 year old dog would hate me if I tried to walk him 4 times a day 😂. He gets walked once. It was twice when he was more sprightly.