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.

Twice a day.

So nice that you let your dog chase deer... 😡

Possibly because it’s easier walking the dog with a baby in a sling/pram than with a small child who doesn’t want to walk far but is too big for other means of transport?

Not sure who you're referring to but I don't think anyone actively lets their dogs chase deer!
It's what some dogs are bred to do.
Yesterday our dog chased a stag that crossed his path in the forest.
Obviously he is going to try and chase it down, it's what his breed is designed for.
Obviously we called him back and he returned two minutes later.
Do you suggest he's kept on a lead?

I'd rather take rookiedog on walks than spend time setting up brain training toys or hiding his dinner round the house. So it's merely me wanting exercise as well that means he gets a lot of walking, not virtual signaling.

Surely many people get a dog partly to increase their exercise levels?

I was referring to the OP. It's part of their walk 🙄
Lots of ball, sniffing, chasing the occasional hare/deer/pheasant

They need proper mental stimulation as well as exercise - everything in moderation. If you’re not prepared to spend 5 minutes on a basic enrichment activity then why get a dog?

Yep. Not virtue signalling at all. If you have time and the lifestyle which means your dog is pottering about at stables or on a farm (which my dog would LOVE by the way) then of course you don't need to take it on lots of walks.
For a lot of us, three walks a day is because we need the dog to settle in between and don't want to be spending time setting up brain training activities. Dogs sleep for 12-16 hours a day. That's 8 hours he wants to be doing things. I think I can cope with taking him out for four of these.

Not wanting to set up a basic enrichment activity for your dog’s mental stimulation is the height of laziness. You’re neglecting a basic need.

Surely dogs who get constant off lead time in rural areas with endless smells, stimulation and wildlife etc don’t end human engineered enrichment activity?

Exactly that. If you walk includes all the things you would normally do in engineered brain activity then you don’t need to do additional brain activities in the house on top of those walks. Different if your walks are on lead and go in straight lines, of course.

I walk my dog three times a day, the length differs depending on the weather (he doesn't like long walks in the rain, which I'm totally on board with), but usually we have a one hour walk in the morning with lots of sniffing, a quick half an hour mid-day and then another hour in the afternoon where we train. He also gets walked on the evening before we go to bed, but that's only about 15 minutes.
Our dog never does "number two" in the garden, so has to walked regularly. Also, you always notice when he's had too little exercise, he evolves back into the "evil goblin modus".

You let your dog chase the wildlife?

my ddog's favourite activity is mooching around the charity shops!
or any shop on the off chance there is a treat in it for her.
lots of smells <<of food>> on the ground

but she is a terrier so smaller than your dog i imagine

depends what she means, I walk places with pheasants, rabbits and deer, my dogs chase them... they don’t know they’re being chased tbh 😂

My dogs don’t notice them till they’re running or flying, by the time they go OMG! a thing! and run after them, they’re never actually going to catch them up and the dogs recall fine if they’re actually still a bit closer.

So technically they chase them, but what they’re chasing isn’t anymore scared than when they originally spotted them and went away.

If you walk in land where there are hare/deer/pheasants, your dog - just like you yourself - will startle them into a run or into flight. The dog will sprint after them for a bit while they outrun/outfly him massively. The dog gets a huge kick from this, the wildlife is slightly more disturbed by it than it would be if you were walking your dog on lead.
Anyone who is concerned about this probably shouldn't have a dog at all, certainly not an active breed with any of its hunting instincts still intact.
I know this post will make some people angry and I accept that dogs are a source of stress for wildlife. But the damage done in this sort of scenario is soooo much less significant than many of the other ways in which we make life hard for nature.

GoodOldEmmaNess well said!
No different to every time I let my cats out.
In fact my cats do greater harm to wildlife than my Weimaraner could ever do

Whoops, @tabulahrasa said it before me and much more entertainingly

And one day your dog might chase deer and it'll run somewhere dangerous or out of reach.

Please train your dog to a stop whistle and stop to flush (gundog training) if you have a gundog breed for their own safety.

Mine get an hour "training walk" off lead where we hunt for dummies, do retrieves, whistle work, heel work etc as we go. That's the mental enrichment to satisfy breed instinct. Round the village "sniffy walks" of about 20 minutes satisfy a social need and no rushing: allowed to sniff as long as required to digest their peemails.

Longer walks and group walks happen weekly in new places or with company.

Monthly gundog training classes or one to ones. In the shooting season weekly shoots where dogs go with me beating.

Happy dogs who sleep 16-18 hours a day.

@Keeprejoining Well yes, the birds don’t really tend to notice being “chased” by a dog as they simply fly away while the hares and bunnies etc are similarly miles away in an instant and the squirrels climb the nearest tree!!

Couldn't agree more re the whistle.
It was our dogs first real bolting experience yesterday.
I don't think I could have got him back just by voice commands.
It's why we've been working so hard with the whistle training.
Mightily relieved and proud that it worked when it really mattered!

Dogs need both - exercise is great but they also need mental stimulation too.

And one day your dog might chase deer and it'll run somewhere dangerous or out of reach.

Sure, but that's about recall training. I don't think that what the OP said implied that she let her dog run around indefinitely after a deer. It's just that little thrill of being shocked into a sprint by the initial sight of the animal.

For a lot of us, three walks a day is because we need the dog to settle in between and don't want to be spending time setting up brain training activities. Dogs sleep for 12-16 hours a day. That's 8 hours he wants to be doing things. I think I can cope with taking him out for four of these.

If you "can't be bothered" to set up brain training or mental enrichment then IMO you shouldn't have a dog - or at least, not one that requires a lot of those things.

My dog gets an hour of exercise a day plus maybe an hour of mental enrichment across the day and he settles absolutely fine. He doesn't need (or want) four hours of exercise a day.

A dog who routinely gets hours upon hours of exercise is just going to be a really fit dog that then can't settle without it, which imo isn't actually particularly good for them.

If your dog has ever chased deer etc you'll know all the shouting in the world won't work. Fenton anyone?

Stop whistle and sitting to flush training. My dogs park their arses if something flies or runs because I have trained them to. They hunt and flush ready for game to be shot, it's their job NOT to chase.

If you willingly et your dog chase wildlife, you've not trained your dog properly and if it confuses sheep with other animals be prepared that farmers will shoot your dog if it worries livestock. Unless you train it to leave other animals alone, you run the risk of it chasing anything including other dogs, livestock etc.

“And one day your dog might chase deer and it'll run somewhere dangerous or out of reach.”

Mine recall fine from wildlife, there’s things one particularly wouldn’t recall from, but then he’s not off lead those places.

They’re just running because something else is, they’ve met deer who didn’t run away, they just got scared of it 😂