How often do you really walk your dog?

[RedRobyn2021]

We have a small Labrador, a working lab type, she is 5yo and we live rurally. She's walked twice a day off lead about 35-40 minutes in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon (it would be less but I go with my 3yo daughter and it takes longer with her). Lots of ball, sniffing, chasing the occasional hare/deer/pheasant.

Mornings are a rush from the moment the alarm goes off at 6am as my DP has to be out to work for 7:50am. I do find it takes over our afternoons, I feel like I can't take DD to meet friends on afternoons because the dog has to be walked.

When I talk to friends or other people I know the general impression I get is that their dogs are only walked once a day (if they are lucky). Am I just making things harder for myself? I've taken DD out in all weathers (boiling sun, snow, rain, hail), even as a baby, to walk our dog.

Working gundogs. Only go out once a day and that is late afternoon, I live near a few large commons so they go for a good off lead run, within reason, but I train on each walk.

If taking one out around town or somewhere it's about 20 mins but they walk at heel at all times with spots to stop and sniff etc

11 month old whippet. 3x 30-40m on busy workdays (on lead which he hates). Quieter days and weekends, he'll get a 2h+off lead walk/zoom then will get a quick 20-30m on lead before bed. Puppy play/training on top of all this. It's exhausting.
If it's raining, no walks and he's forced into the garden.

Don't feel bad, bare minimum my arse

I think it depends what your dog is doing between the walks is relevant too.

if she’s locked up alone in between, then she’s getting absolute minimum.

If she’s pottering round with you all day, having free access to the garden, or having brain games through the day, then she could certainly manage one of those walks to be a short one on days you want to do something with DD. Leave dog with a snuffle mat or lickimat or similar & she’ll be happy.

If your dog is healthy fit & happy & not showing any anxiety, unwanted or naughty behaviour, then you are doing a great job.
I currently have a lab (9yro) & 2 cockers (6yro& 18month) all from working lines. I’ve had dogs for 30+ years,
they get minimum of one decent walk a day, either forest, river, beach or lake. 2 or 3 mini walks, where they are free to run/sniff/play for 10/15 mins. My back garden is secure, so they have free access to that on fine days when I’m home too, but the labrador prefers to be with me whilst the spaniels like to go check the birds aren’t getting too comfortable in the bushes out there 🙄
Occasionally they don’t get the big walk & are perfectly happy on those days too.

They are fit, healthy and the vet compliments their condition at annual visits.

I’m very impressed with how regular posters are. Mine tend to have one 30 minute lead walk lunchtime with DH, then anything between 30 minutes and four hours off lead cross country or woodland with myself. They also hang out in the garden a couple of times a day.

2 springer spaniels. 2 X walks a day, off lead for just over an hour a time. Morning walk 9am, afternoon walk 2.30pm, in the summer we usually go again after tea for 30 mins to an hour. Whatever the weather they have to go or they are restless and hard work! Weekend walks can often be longer in the afternoon. They'd go all day if they could!

Obviously walk times are adjusted in hot weather.

Bare minimum…🙄 some of the dogs I see at work get no walks all. Many of them are left all day. A few live outside with no stimulation. It must be an awful existence for a dog but it’s much more common than you think.

A dog who is loved, living within the family home, able to potter around during the day and who gets walked and the opportunity to exhibit natural behaviour on a daily basis is very lucky. My dogs are happy being with me regardless of how much running about they have done.

No need to put eachother down!

I have a sbt. He gets walked as and when. There's no routine. Sometimes he nips up to the shops/round to my mums with me, other days he goes to the woods. I'm in all day and he has free access to the garden, where I will stand outside with a cup of tea and throw his ball, but he's generally quite chilled, (he has joint issues so can over exert himself then regret it)
Some days he likes a very slow walk up the road so he can sniff absolutely everything. Sunny days he would rather just lie outside sunbathing. And he can't stand the rain.
I could drag him along for an hour at a fast pace 3 times a day but he wouldn't get anything from that at all.

This.

We've had Labradors (working breed) for 16 years and only ever routinely walked once a day for about an hour (mostly off lead). Mental stimulation is as important as walking. Ours also love a swim - 10 mins of swimming seems to knacker them out as much as a 30 minute run.

They have been well socialised, great weight and no non-age related hip problems.

A nice long 3 hour walk is great for a bright weekend but totally incompatible with family life.

Medium small (11 kilos) mutt with possibly terrier and podenco ancestry. She has a 2 hour minimum off-leash walk every morning, lots of running, sniffing & swimming (or splashing in puddles). More at weekends (full day if I can). We never do the same walk two days in a row. Without this, she cries quietly to herself and gets a bit bonkers by late afternoon, despite free access to large garden (seen it, done it: it holds little interest for her). However, a shorter on-leash walk in town, a visit to the vets or something equally unusual/stressful will tire her out almost as much.
I would definitely be making life harder for myself (and for her) if she didn’t get this amount of exercise as she would instead need constant (and I mean constant) stimulation in the home. Perhaps your friends don’t have working-type labs?

Golden retriever.

An hour twice a day. But with longer walks twice or three times a week.,

I live at the end of a relatively short road and some owners spend barely twenty minutes once a day, if that.

2 yr old collie, 3yr old god knows what, something shepherdy most probably.

They get one walk, varies between 45 minutes and 3 hrs, depending on the day, who is doing it, weather. Mostly off lead in woods or fields average is probably about an hour and a half.

The collie goes to work with my DP sometimes, depending on where he’s going and time or year (can’t when it’s hot) then he gets extra and he sometimes goes with him to watch football matches.

The other doesn’t because he doesn’t like people.

They have pretty much free access to the garden, they get kongs, lickimats, toys, training and games.

They're fine, nice weight, fit and healthy and no behavioural problems that can be fixed by exercise (the older one is reactive, but that’s an issue of its own)

I could do a second walk, but it’d be for the sake of doing it, I have no block to walk them round, I’d be walking them on lead up a busy 60mph road with only partial pavements. So if I think they’re bored I just do something with them in the house or garden.

I have a small dog. He gets 20 minutes at 6.30am he then sleeps until his main walk any time in between 11 and 2 (1-2 hours ish) then he gets 20 minutes before bed.

One walk a day for between 30-60 mins on my lunch break (I work from home). This is the recommended daily walk time for my dog's breed. She is a toy breed dog (havanese) and I read it's not good to walk them for more than 60 mins at a time. If it's raining, she won't go out the door and would prefer to curl up in her blanket and snooze the bad weather away.

She is a goofy dog though who requires her daily games and playing. She loves a treat treasure hunt or her Nina Ottoson puzzles in the evenings.

Um. Never actually walk any of them. Three come poo picking, hay spreading with me twice a day (approx 40 mins each time), two take themselves for walks - or not, as they please - during the day and the last gallops his arthritic legs after any car than happens to venture onto the farm track and then relaxes for several hours, happy in the knowledge that he sent them packing!

30 minutes or so in the morning while I walk around the fields feeding horses etc and then at least an hour in the afternoon. Our neighbour has two chihuahuas which are literally never walked. They spend up to 8 hours a day in a tiny cage and are only let out briefly into a very small enclosed garden for toileting. I find it extremely distressing.

We do exactly the same as this.

My dog gets a 30 min walk before work and about 45-60 mins in the evening.

I think op I get your dh to take the dog out in the evening so you get your afternoons back, at least some of the time.

3 year old cocker spaniel, working type. He doesn't have a set routine, it varies everyday. Like today he went out for about 2 hours at lunchtime and that's it (he has been asleep since then!), then tmrw he will probably get an hour in the morning and then a 30 min walk in the evening. Most of his walks are offlead in a country park and involve a lot of scentwork and training. If he wasn't dog reactive it would be a lot more, but I hate walking him, so my dh does it when he can. If for whatever reason the dog doesn't get walked I do a lot of scentwork in the house, that really tires him out!

Boxer, once a day . 30-90 minutes depending on our time. If she has excess energy she gets a training session of about 5 minutes which wipes her out and has her snoozing . Why don't you see how your dog copes on one walk? I'm sure it wouldn't hurt every now and then.

I have a retriever type dog (despite the name) and they only ever get an hour on weekdays slightly longer at weekends maybe. Definitely only once a day. Then there is some brain stuff and games inside with the kids. I def would not have the time or inclination to walk ours for longer than that. Plus I'm not sure it is necessary.

Small mixed breed, used to be twice a day now once for 40 -50 mins. She's elderly but we do go in the car, play or garden in the afternoon.

5 month old spaniel. He gets about an hour and half once a day.

Dog is so much happier when the kids are around. Sometimes disagreements about which toys are dog toys vs children toys, but they seem to really enjoy each other which is lovely, and I think dog gets so much more stimulation when children are around. They play a sort of hide and seek game where the children put the dog in a wait and then go hide somewhere with treats before calling out the release word and he hunts them down.

dogs are probably a bit like people in that if your day to day is active, you don’t really need to hit the gym in the same way as someone who has a sedentary desk job

Agree, you get the super competitive dog walkers on these threads. I live in a pretty doggy village and I'll be blowed if anyone is walking their dogs 3 x a day for hours on end.