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?

9(ish) year old rescued whippety lurcher.
Highly anxious, fearful of people, dog-reactive (the whippety, not me)
We do one 30(ish) minute walk a day. We pick a quiet location, away from traffic, people and where the chance of meeting other dogs is minimal.
The 30 minutes are mostly spent by her sniffing every leaf, puddle, bush, bench, fencepost and lamppost. Any longer than 30 ish minutes and she plants and pulls for home. Her tail will tuck between her legs and she will tremble.
To make up for the lack of walking we do lots of hide and seek games at home and in the garden, have taught her tricks, play fetch in the garden and take her out for drives in the car.
She is a high needs, anxious dog with a sad history of abuse. So we go by what she wants.
So I think, take your cues from your dog. They will tell you what they need.
(We used to have a hyperactive Cocker Spaniel - we did a lot of walking and a lot of socialising with other dogs, as this was what he needed)

Yep, I agree you need to be vigilant - but I do get a bit annoyed at the comments on here that seem to suggest you need to be fully interacting with your dogs for every single second of every single walk.

Dog is an overweight mixed breed. He is 20 kg, but should be 16 kg.

We walk him for 2 - 3 hours a day at a brisk pace. Quick morning walk, an hour at lunch, an hour after work and a quick walk before bed. Quick walks are usually 10 - 20 minutes depending on who takes him.

He has recently been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, which explains why all the walkies and diet food portions weren't helping.

No one said that.

But ignoring your dog, and wandering along at 3kph is very poor dog ownership. There is no way you're walking far enough for (A) your dog to get sufficient exercise and (B) your dog to get sufficient mental stimulation. Dogs need a varitey of sniffs and smells and stimulation and there is just no conceivable way walking 3kph satisfies anything. Which was my point😊

That being said, I'm yet to meet someone ignoring their dog and/or walking slowly who called their dog back when it was clearly about to either get into trouble or start a fight. Fast walkers and those who interact with their dogs seem to be far more on the ball than those who amble along, or are with groups of friends or are on their phone.

@LandSharksAnonymous I don’t think you can speak for every individual and every breed of dog. My beagle could quite happily sniff along at 3kph.

For clarification, not all of his walks are that slow - he gets plenty of time off the lead and DH also takes him running occasionally, but sometimes I go out and let him choose our route - and 99% of the time that means a very slow pace, lots of sniffing and the odd reward for ignoring other dogs. Otherwise he’s very happy pootling along in his own world and doesn’t give a toss who’s holding his lead or about whether they’re on the phone or not - he just wants to sniff.

This is mumsnet and all dogs are out at least 3x a day for 3 hours at a time. Back in the real world my little dog 4.5kg gets one x 2 hour walk with the dog walker and only manages half that before refusing to move and 1 x half an hour with me or one of the kids a day so about 1.5miles by the time he has finished sniffing and weeing on every post he can find

You'd love me then. I barely speak to mine. 😂
I have a friend who is a behaviourist. She advocates for giving dogs choices in life, and one of the things they can choose is what to do on a walk. I choose location and duration and they choose the rest. If they want to stop and sniff for five minutes, then we stop. If we come to a fork in the path, they choose which one to take. Sometimes they run in circles at a distance. Other times they are pottering close by.
They recall to the whistle and do voluntary check ins throughout. They keep an eye on where I am and wait for me at junctions, before running off ahead.
I know this isn't for everyone, but it works for us. I had a fear reactive dog for 14 years and walks with him were very different.
And before anyone says anything - I was joking. I talk to my dogs all day long. I'm sure my neighbours think I'm barmy.

Love this topic - really helpful to understand whether what we’re all doing is working for our beloved furry canines.

I have a mixed breed, herding type dog, weighs in at 46kg, 17 months. We walk
approximately 3/4 hours a day , part lead, mostly off in the woods, covering approximately 10/14 miles depending on how much he wants to sniff or run.

he’s very well adjusted at home, the least destructive out of a few dogs I’ve had over time. He’s seen as a gentle giant, who just likes a good head rub and will happily sleep in between walks during the day.

he’s also on raw food, treats are limited to training.

3 year old Black Lab crossed with lurcher/collie, 26.5kg. During the week she gets an off lead walk of about 45 minutes in fields on my way to work. Lunchtime it 1/2 hr lead walk down to the park, run round the park, lead walk back, each about 10 minutes. She sniffs a lot! After work its an hour off lead walk around different fields then a final lead walk of about 10 minutes for before bed wee around 9pm.

Weekends it depends on what we are doing - there is an hour long walk from home with is about 75% off lead, 25% pavements on lead. Another is nearly 2 hours probably half of which is lead walking. If she comes to my parents with me to sort out their horses she's out mooching/running around for a couple of hours but only short distances ie round the yard, up to the muck heap. Sometimes i chuck the ball for her.

I stopped playing fetch too much as she just goes and goes and goes and her breathing takes ages to get back to normal.

@LandSharksAnonymous I agree ignoring your dog on a walk is poor ownership, but I really can't see how the speed I walk affects my dogs.
All of our walks are off lead in woods or fields, full of interesting scents and wildlife. I may pootle along, but my dogs are going at whatever speed they choose.
The friend I walk with has health problems and walks extremely slowly, but his dog gets a good long walk every day in the woods and my pair never complain I'm going slower.
I always think it would be interesting to put a tracker on my dogs to see how much ground they cover on a walk. Must be at least five times more than me.

I agree in principle, but our current girl chooses to walk at this speed. She's a total lazy arse, and it's starting to drive me mad. I'm used to doing long walks at a brisk pace, all our other dogs could take it, but this one can't seem to. It's short ploddy walks and it's not good for her. I'm really hoping it's the time of year - she is exceptionally woolly, even for her breed, so hopefully by autumn/winter she'll have more energy. We've been trying to build up her stamina with 3 short walks, but it's not happening. She does enjoy her sniffy walks, we vary our routes to keep her interested, we interact a lot and she's always happy to be out, but she just seems to be low energy.
She's 14 months, she was a huge, lazy pup, but we've got the puppy fat off now and she's still lazy. She's from a reputable breeder, parents/grandparents hip and elbow scores are fine. She's been to our vet twice and he thinks she's structurally okay and fairly lean for her breed (!). We're getting her checked out again by my relative, who's also a vet, but if we're not reassured by her after a couple of walks together, I don't know what we do.

Are some dogs just slow, lazy and lacking in stamina like some people seem to be? And what do you do if you want to do long walks but your dog doesn't? I feel like a second dog might help...😉

@CoubousAndTourmalet My friend has a 4 year old spaniel. They walk for an hour and a half a day, through woods and fields and cover 5 miles. The dog always walks along the path. Never deviates and never runs. He's perfectly fit, happy and healthy. It's just the way he is.

8 year old labrador. She gets walked for 1 to 1.5 hours a day, and maybe 2 hours a day at the weekend. If I do a road walk with her (about twice a week) I let her sniff everything. She's always ready to flop when she gets home. Her park walks are 1 hour off the lead. At home she tends to go to bed early, but she spends a lot of the day with my son while he plays piano.

I think there’s a big difference between ignoring a dog who is craving interaction and/or making a nuisance of itself, and letting a dog calmly potter along sniffing at its’ own pace while keeping an eye on it. The former is obviously pretty lazy, the latter - meh - I really can’t get worked up about it.

I walk quite a few dogs who are just happy to be out and sniffing - they’re not remotely interested in the person walking them and are quite happy to just sniff and wander along slowly. If I forced interaction on them I’d probably just piss them off 🤣

But there are others who benefit hugely from lots of human interaction and who want (and need) to be spoken to etc. a lot.

I think maybe if you’ve never owned the former it’s easy to criticise.

Thanks @SpanielsGalore I'm hoping that there's nothing to worry about and she's just a laid back character. When we looked at the litter, the breeder described her as being "calm, like her mum" and she has been a very easy pup to rear. She's not barky or excitable at all - I know it's the puppy some people dream of, so it's probably silly to worry.

I'm constantly astounded by how much time people spend walking dogs on MN.

I always read about people walking their dogs for 2 or 3 hours every day on here which just blows my mind - I mean, how do you fit anything else in if you're out pounding pavements for 3 hours a day!

We have a 3 year old working-type Springer Spaniel - so obviously incredibly active and fit etc. She gets one main walk a day of one hour. Then two other toilet walks around our block of 10 mins each, max (those two are on lead). It's plenty. She's in peak condition and calm and well-behaved at home.

There's no set distance covered in our walks but the main one is always offlead. We're very lucky that we can choose from a number of woods, fields, hills and beaches all within a couple of minutes. Sometimes I might powerwalk along the beach so, I don't know, 4 miles covered maybe? Other times ddog will be in the woods with one of the teens ambling along with airpods in and Phone in hand so the human distance covered is probably less than a mile 🙄

It doesn't really matter when she's off lead anyway. Even if it's an amble and 1 mile covered in woods, she'll probably do the equivalent of 5 times that at least 🤷‍♀️

I wouldn't worry about pushing him on the distance unless you actively want him to walk further with you. I understand the worry behind it - our dog's needs changed quite noticeably after being neutered in January and I still worry sometimes that we don't give him "enough"!

After scouring the internet (source of all truth, naturally) I've come down firmly on the side of "he has a wonderful time on his walks, he is sometimes keen to play if you offer him a game at lunchtime but sometimes can't be arsed, and he makes extremely contended groans regularly whilst settled during the day. He's fine".

He does make it quite obvious(!) when he would like something from you - varies from scratching at the back door, pawing at you, or (a favourite) shoving his paws in my book so I stop reading and pay him more attention. Obviously we're working on him being slightly more polite, but it does mean if I'm reading and he's snoozing on my feet I no longer worry that he's bored and not letting me know.

He gets a minimum of 45 mins off lead in the morning and 35 mins with some on lead, some long lead, some off lead in the afternoon. It's usually more like 50-55 mins and then 45mins though. Sometimes a run with me or a longer walk at a weekend, sometimes not.

He needed more before neutering (unsure if that was age/still settling in here after a traumatic previous home/the actual neutering itself) and he would be disruptive and/or find his own entertainment if it wasn't provided by us.

He's a 2yo adopted border collie, and I think he's the laziest collie we've come across but he's a very happy boy!

Sorry, you asked distance! Roughly 4km in the morning walk, maybe 3km afternoon. Don't really track the distance like we used to when he was younger and we needed to make sure he got enough!

But if I walk with friends in the morning we walk slower, so it could be 3km in the same time. And sometimes I'll fancy a long walk and we'll do 6km!

But I'd say usually 6-7km per day, across two walks, on a "normal" day.

Not very far at all. We take him to out local country park and back which is 0.2 of a mile but we literally get to the car park/cafe now before going home. He is 14 years old with a heart condition so that is all he can manage.

i don't know the distance but it's 4000 steps in the morning offlead in the fields and approx 3000 in the evening street walk. She's 7kg and 8 months old

13 year old arthritic collie gets a mile a day through the woods behind where we live. Any more and she gets stiff and starts limping. She used to get about an hour a day off lead. She's always been pretty lazy physically for a collie but loved training games and puzzles. She cant be arsed with those any more though and just looks at you until you give her the treats.

My 15 year old pom doesn't really go for walks any more. If we get his lead out, he hides. He used to keep up with the collie when he was younger.

We do have a dog flap (with a ramp for the little one) so they can both go out and potter but they generally just sleep now. Its a definite doggy retirement home here.

Sometimes we’re out for an hour and only make it less than 2k! That doesn’t mean that pupsy hasn’t had an ace walk, getting everything she needs – she absolutely has, but it’s been in the woods, weaving in and out of trees in circles and figures of eight, climbing through bracken and the Jurassic Park ferns, and doing hunting, during which I’m mostly standing still or walking short distances, and she’s running around. On those walks I walk 2k, say, but she does double that – and I can see that as both her and I have activity apps. Think you're being a bit unfair, @LandSharksAnonymous.

By contrast this morning I walked through open fields for 5k and she did about 4 miles – she didn’t need much help from me except when she flushed a random cat (?!) out of nowhere and I pipped my whistle to stop her. On that walk I listened to a podcast and talked to my partner for 20 minutes. It was very efficient. She’s almost always ahead of me so I’m watching her all the time but not every single walk has to be interactive every step of the way now because I trust her not to mess around. When I’m on the phone she knows I’m not talking directly to her and if anything she pays more attention to where I am and what I’m doing because she’s got to listen for when my speech is directed at her.

The other day someone phoned me in the middle of a training session and I couldn't avoid the call, nor did I want to stop our training because she was doing some great stuff, so I just carried on doing both and instead of listening for my voice commands, she watched my hands. Dogs are amazing.

2.5 year old border terrier

In an average week:
5 morning walks ranging from 40 minute round town sniffy to countryside off lead up to an hour. Different location each day. We live in a rural town so it’s easy to mix it up.
1 or 2 agility classes
Obedience class
Weekends Saturday we tend to be out walking all day either rurally or coastal and Sunday I’ll often run with her up to 3 miles mix of on and off lead. She’s started to compete now on Saturdays in agility so in that case it would be a slow sniffy walk on a Sunday and only one training class that week.

That’s plenty! We don’t cover vast distances but make sure it’s mentally enriching plus variety. We also do trick training and skills for a few minutes a couple of times a day.

Distance is irrelevant as long as they’re keeping fit and they’re getting the enrichment they need. Mine only runs if she’s chasing or at agility. Her natural enrichment is hunting the hedges and watching for prey.

Your walks sound like mine @brushingboots .
Except substitute 'hare' for 'cat' and me standing still watching my puppy run like crazy, round and round the field until her brain came back into focus and she could respond to a whistle. 🙄😂