What distance are you all walking your dogs

[Crispsanddips25]

If I google, it just comes up with the standard one hour per day exercise. What distance per day are you all doing with your medium sized dogs?

I think time & what they do matters more than distance.
Sniffy dogs need to loiter, other dogs need to rush.

Some need to ferret some need to actively play.

Cinanmon trust (I walk for them) has guidelines for how much dogs should be walked based on the breed/age factors. I don't know if they are published rules, but they definitely vary a lot between dogs.

Our golden is such a lump - if we walk more than 3 miles or so he will literally just sit down and refuse to go further. So we split into 3 walks over the day, each about 45 mins, and they're usually sniffy walks rooting around in the underbrush or long grass, giving me heart attacks about ticks or grass seeds, or wallowing in any body of water he can find like a blonde hippo.

He gets far more exercise playing with other dogs or playing garden football than walking!

3KPH would be snail pace! That’s about 1.5mph…

The average person walks 3MPH. Most people of reasonable fitness (which I would expect most dog owners to be given all dogs need a decent amount of exercise) should do about 3.5mph.

I’d hope most dog owners do that closer to 3.5mph, as 3kph would be woefully inadequate for basically anything except a pug. Distance does matter.

A Golden that only works 3miles a day, for example, is woefully under exercised. And because of that you’re far more likely to see undesirable behaviour. We see it time and time again on mumsnet - ‘oh I walk my dog for 90 mins a day’…turns out they go about 3miles which is nothing. It’s barely 6K steps for an adult.

Thanks all, appreciate the replies.

I really do know that it’s about more than walking, and walks are only part of fulfilment/it’s dependent on the dog etc etc, I’m just trying to gauge average distances partly out of interest, also as I’m reevaluating what he needs as he’s getting to ‘adult’. He’s a happy boy who’s chilled out a lot recently so seems to ‘need’ less some days, but I also suspect he’s quite tolerant so wondering if I need to push him more on distance. We also live somewhere very hilly, and I did a flat walk elsewhere recently and realised we covered a lot more ground which got me thinking!

6 month cardi corgi gets half hour total a day over two walks a 10 minute sniff in the morning and a risk walk to the park in the evening
He isn't ready for more just yet, we do slightly longer walks sometimes at the weekend but he's not ready for lots of those just yet

2 1/2yo cardi corgi x working collie
She gets the same in the morning plus a game of tug
Evening he gets put on the lead for 10-15 minutes sat still while I play fetch with her and she gets taken out for another walk without him as she likes to walk

They both play together during the day

I had a malinois before these two and he got 20minutes a morning sniff walk and a good hour and a half to two hours brisk walk off lead with fetch.

I'd say it takes me and my (albeit now elderly) big dog about an hour to cover maybe 1.5-2 miles - we probably walk at close to 3.5 mph but my dog spends a lot of time stopping and looking at things, sniffing and investigating. He prefers that kind of walk and it tires him out mentally as well as physically.

But that’s why measuring distance when walking dogs is a bit pointless. I’ve just given my working lab (around 32kg and very skinny) his lunchtime walk. My watch says we walked for around 100 minutes and covered 4.5 miles. Which is very slow for me. But during that time we did loads of scent work (so I was mainly stood still while he sniffed out his food), he fetched about a bazillion sticks from the river, so was up and down the banks and swimming against the current, and he walked/ran approximately double the distance I did. He’s just had a Kong and has settled himself down in his bed to snooze the afternoon away. He’s had a good run and done lots of breed-specific enrichment so now is a tired, content, sleepy dog. We did a big walk yesterday so he’ll have around half an hour later and that’s him done.

18 month old working cocker spaniel here. 60-90 mins off lead through the woods or along the beach- she runs, circles, sniffs, finds balls/sticks, plays with same, plays with other dogs. She usually also has a 20 min on lead mooch at the end of the day unless the weather doesn't permit. We have a garden which she mooches about in, lays and sunbathes or watches visiting birds. She is not allowed to play rough or chase about in the garden. We have a much smaller much older dog too; they enjoy some playing and smooch together.

When my lab boy was a young adult we generally spent 3 hours + per day walking, running, playing with other similar dogs. He was very fit, I was very thin. I definitely trained him to canine athlete level, which was a hard standard to maintain.

As he got older and calmed down it reduced, and when we got 2nd lab, they spent so much time playing , that our walks, although same time-length, covered less distance ( for me- the nut cases probably did x 5 the distance) . I was not as thin..

I think the thing is to be guided by the dog - is he restless? How’s his behaviour? Does he have enrichment at home? Is he happy?

Also remember that , like humans 80% of weight is governed by food rather than exercise, so behaviour is a better guide .

@WutheringTights unfortunately though, most people who are walking that slowly aren't like you. They wander along, glued to their phone, and claim it's a walk. I'd say about 90% of dog walkers I meet are either on their phone, drinking coffee or generally putting in no effort and ignoring their dog. I note you also say lunchtime walk. Which implies at least one if not two other walks a day. That probably gives your dog 8(ish) miles a day altogether, which is very different from the argument I made above...

It depends entirely on the breed, age and personality of the dog. I have some bigger, younger dogs that absolutely need a good two hours off lead, every day, rain or shine. Without it they are obviously restless and can be destructive. I have other “big” dogs that are older and are perfectly happy with 2 x 20 minute walks per day. I also have little dogs but they also vary! I have some that could quite happily have a litter tray and never be forced to go outside again, never mind a walk. I have others who enjoy a walk, when it suits them, so maybe a 5k twice a week? The rest of the time they enjoy a mooch round our big garden and are happy with that.
You know your dog better than anyone. If he is happy and relaxed? Whatever you are doing with him is working.

My little schnauzer has 3 30 minute walks a day. I certainly couldn't manage walking miles everyday. We change our route regularly for mental stimulation which I personally think is just as important for her.
She spends a lot of time playing and patrolling the perimeter of our garden and lolling on the sofa.

I'm pretty sure that one MNer wrote that she had worked out that her dog had walked to the moon and back from its pedometer and that he walked 4 miles for each of her miles when he was off lead

I put on weight with my dog - she was a Pomeranian who did not like walking at all

We have two adult HPRs. Most days they get 45 mins in the morning and anything between 20 minutes and over an hour in the afternoon, virtually all off the lead. The other day DH ran them 7 miles for one of their walks. Some days I'll take them somewhere with a training plan in mind. Most days there will be an element of training slotted into the walk - hunting under control, off-lead heel, whatever: they need that outlet to keep them happy.

Our beagle is seven and he gets about an hour of exercise a day.

Our dog goes on 2 walks week days, so one definitely off lead where she goes crazy, running, does mousing jumps in the grass, she's a herding dog so loves racing around like a nutter! She's usually out for 46-60 mins. Then she'll have another similar walk later in the evening or a trip around the local streets if DH has has a glass of wine.
She's also goes running 2-3 times a week on a run harness and weekends she'll have 3-4 walks, come out and about with us to various places - rarely does she get left at home

@LandSharksAnonymous Surely it depends on your dog's activity levels rather than your own? It doesn't matter how fast or slow I walk, my dogs will be running through the woods in circles around me. If they find an interesting patch of ferns they want to investigate, I'll stand still for five minutes while they explore.
Sometimes I walk with an elderly gentleman and the walk I do in 45 minutes can take over 2 hours. So although I have walked the same distance, my dogs have covered twice as much ground.
I appreciate it is different if you have a plodder and not a spaniel though. 😁

Depends on breed... My staffy gets an hour walk... Tbh he could and wants more but I'm not physically able... He has a big back yard though so he can run about there too... On days I can't get out I usually play ball or something with him... Or hide treats around the house to get him sniffing about.. Keeps him from getting bored

Can’t answer on distance, but have show type labs and they have always done on average 2 hours a day (unless v young or v old). One hour on lead, and one hour yomping about through fields/ countryside. That’s not set in stone though, as they are generally not arsed. They’d be happy with 10 mins or 3 hours - as long as breakfast and dinner are served in a timely manner, what happens in the mean time is inconsequential 🤣🤣🤣

Fair. But I’d argue that the distance isn’t the only, or the biggest, problem there. The distance is less important that what you do on the walk. Six miles on lead plodding by your side isn’t as good for them as three miles off lead with lots of sniffing, running, and breed-specific enrichment.

Back when my dogs were younger it was about 40 minutes in the morning, half an hour later and all day access to the garden, occasionally another walk around the block before bed.
Now just my 13 year old left who likes a walk but can’t cope with any heat and her limit is probably a half hour, though it’s usually 20 minutes a couple times a day.

A lot less since she’s got older and started with joint problems. We do a lot more scent work now.

My 2 year old, 11 kg supermutt gets between 1.5 and 2.5 hrs off-lead walk a day during the week, changing routes every day (although she knows them all by heart now). I typically do between 7 and 9 km, but she does much more, running around and sniffing. At weekends, we don’t generally go much further, distance-wise, but we do drive out to new places in the higher mountains. She loves exploring new places!

Yes, I agree with this.

I’m prepared to be shot down for this part, but I also don’t see an issue with owners on their phones or chatting with friends, as long as the dogs are under control and still allowed to do their own thing.

Our beagle adores a sniffy walk but he doesn’t want any interaction with me and honestly, it gets boring as hell without music or someone to chat to. He’s safe, he’s on his lead, I’m still watching to make sure I pick up poo etc. but I don’t need to be in full-on interactive mode the whole time.

I think it's more the owners on their phones who don't pay any attention to their dogs.
Like the woman with a 12 week old lab that we met in the woods. She'd gone a good distance away, before she realised her puppy had stayed with me and my dogs.
But there's absolutely nothing wrong in talking to other people, whether in person or on the phone, if you are still being vigilant.