I presume this will be different for people with gardens as opposed to people like me without; I can’t really think of poll options that would be broad enough for living conditions and dog types.
My Jack Russell gets half an hour in the early morning, 20 minutes to an hour at lunchtime depending on work, 20 minutes to an hour in the early evening (this is my daughter’s turn; 20 mins is the minimum, so it depends on how long she’s happy to stay in the park or walking while chatting with her friends), and at least 20 minutes at around midnight, depending on, frankly, how much I’m enjoying my audiobook.
At weekends and special occasions it’s sometimes a 10-minute walk morning and night and going outside for half the rest of the day.
All the rescue homes I looked at specified an hour a day minimum for a dog that they’d rehome, so I’ve always had that as my minimum too. At least half that is off-lead running around. It has gone down to an hour occasionally; having two people helps keep that as a minimum even if work’s crazy busy. Fortunately the weather here is never really so cold or hot that it makes much of a difference.
If I had a garden I suspect I’d walk her a lot less, or if she were an elderly/arthritic dog, but she’s a lively little thing and this is pretty good for my health.
Many of the regular dogwalkers I see seem to have a similar schedule, except their late-night walk is earlier, so I’m just curious really.
Two dogs - a Bull Arab (a specialised pit cross bred to hunt pigs) and a Staffie cross something very tall, maybe even a greyhound. They are both rescue dogs.
Lately? Staffie cross is waiting on knee surgery on his cruciate. So we walk to the park which takes about five mintues, and he does his business and has a lie down, while we throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball for the other dog to wear her out. So about half an hour at 5:30am and half an hour in the afternoon.
When both dogs are well, it’s more like 45 min to an hour morning and night, plus an hour or two on Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Big Park With Good Sniffs and TONS of Other Dogs, plus an hour or so on weekend nights.
Little more in summer and a little less in winter. Princess Jasmine the scary pibble puppy dislikes getting her dainty feet wet, so even less in the rain because she puts her wombat bum down on the ground and won’t Go. So that’s a sprint the the very close across the street park, as long as it takes to do business, and back to the house. 10 minutes, tops. Excess energy is taken care of by wrestling with Brother Dog the staffie cross. Yoshi (the staffie) when his knee is well is happy to walk as long as you want to walk, and to play chase with his Sister Dog endlessly. It’s too bad he’s unwell.
My corgi gets three walks daily, each generally twenty minutes. He also likes to tear around our apartment playing chase or fetch, so he gets some indoor exercise.
There is unfortunately nowhere close by we can go “off lead,” so that’s limited to occasional weekend dogpark trips or visits to friends with yards.
My wife and I’s schedules are shifting to make three full walks a little harder to time, so that might change to a normal morning walk, short afternoon potty break, and a longer before-bed walk.
My Dolly gets one 20-min walk a day unless it’s raining, above 80 degrees or super duper cold.
She’s 9 and has a heart murmur so she can’t go too long. You can tell when she’s done and 20 mins is all she wants.
Of course there is the 5 mins of losing-her-mind “dancing” she does before every walk and down the entire driveway…it’s quite intense and wipes her out. It wipes ME out!
I have a large fenced in yard so she doesn’t need to walk for elimination.
When she was younger we did a lot of hiking, swimming an dog park.
My two dogs get half an hour in the morning and the same or slightly longer in the evening, either at the park which is 5 minutes walk away or around the streets if the park is too wet. At the park they can be off their leads for 20 minutes or so, chasing the ball and each other, but the street is just walk and sniff. At weekends, we generally go for an hour in the morning and 3/4 to an hour in the afternoon. Depends how tired I feel after doing the gardening and lawn mowing.
We have a large garden at home so they get to run around as much as they like in the warmer months, but prefer to spend time inside during the winter. Of course, they still go nuts inside sometimes. We have to stop them treating the living room as a racetrack, bouncing off the walls at the turns at each end. Man, that gets tiring fast!
Nina is 6 years old, a lab-pointer cross (we think) and Portia is 5 months old, an English pointer-Staffie cross.
My dogs are old as dirt (the 20-lb one is almost 15 and the 75-lb one is at least 10-11, so accounting for sizes they are closer to the same age) and have arthritis and other joint issues (one has an artificial elbow) from old injuries, so they both don’t need a great deal of exercise, and will have pain the next day if they get too much exercise. But they love going outside, and it’s good for them to be as active as possible. I try for a minimum half hour of brisk walking per day, and some time off leash to frolic (but not too hard) a couple times per week.
I am really amazed that you seem to have nearly the same dogs as I do (a pit mix and a cairn, FTR). They’re such an odd couple that it’s hilarious for me to think that there’s another set out there.
Anyway, to the OP, since I work from home, the dogs get shorter, but more frequent walks. On days when work is tres stressful, taking one or both out for a jaunt is a guaranteed mood lifter. Generally, they both get a run out to the yard (unfenced) as often as they want, plus 10-15 minute walks 3-4 times a day. On the weekends, we like to go exploring a gallumphing through the nearby trail, but it’s been closed off for a few weeks, so that’s not been an option. We don’t have a nearby dog park that I’m aware of and, even if we did, I don’t know how I’d feel about taking our bigger girl there. She’s friendly and playful but is guilty of not knowing her own strength or respecting other dogs’ personal space.
We have two 4-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and they get a 45-minute run with my husband most mornings. They also have a reasonably large yard that they go in and out of all day long. I work from home most days and we have household staff, so there is someone around to open doors for them virtually all the time.
They enjoy the run a lot - if we skip it for any reason, they are nearly delirious with happiness the next day when the leashes are put on. But I’m pretty sure they could use a lot less exercise and still be fine. They are not an active breed and they spend most of their time sleeping on my feet except for the morning run, which tuckers them out.
We have a doggie door and our ‘yard’ is national forest so they get out a lot that way. Though they don’t stray far.
Usually, though, I’ll walk them after work for just a little bit. They like to be out with their human. Then weekends they get real workouts, often with my Wife, but I’ll take them for long walks too.
My 10 y.o. chow/lab mix gets about 20 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening plus a long walk just about every weekend. When we were both younger, she would get longer walks including overnight hikes about once a month.
My 2 year old mutt gets an hour in the morning, unless I have to be at work super early - then he gets a half-hour. In the evenings, he runs around the fenced yard or he goes to the dog park. He’s not a super active dog so it suits him OK.
I have a husky mix, and he gets an hour off leash a day, longer on the weekend. If both of us are away all day, we have a dog walker come to take him on a pack walk.
He spends all day outside in our big yard, and we sometimes have foster dogs that he plays with. He’s inside in the morning while we’re getting ready, in the evening when we get home, and overnight if it’s really cold (and he hasn’t grown his winter coat yet) or raining.
30 minutes a day minimum, usually an hour, off leash (3-5 km). He runs circles around me herding gophers and squirrels, so he probably runs at least 15 km in that time. In the summer at our cabin he’s outside more and does some wandering on his own or playing with the neighbour dogs and kids as well. He’s a very active 2 year old border collie.
We have a big fenced yard, so sometimes they don’t get walks at all, but most days I walk my three mutts 4 miles, however long that takes. Sometimes we do trails where they can run off-leash, and occasionally go to the beach. One of the reasons I have dogs: sad eyes if I don’t exercise.
I have a fenced in yard, but they get a walk everyday. Summer , Winter, it does not matter. Winston will not go if it is in the 90s. He will sniff in the bushes, walk around the house and then go to the door for the air conditioning.
Nordberg is over 10 years old. She walks every day, hot or cold. We walk through snow that is 6 inches deep or we walk in hot weather. We are across the street from a 16 mile long park. We walk over 3 miles a day for about 2 hours. We walk up and down hills, through weeds and sometimes in fields. they are Beagles and want to bite something. They are not there for the exercise. They are hunting.
During the week, I load the dogs into my van and drive them to an off leash park every morning for a run and to play ball. I’m there, at minimum for 20 minutes (mornings that I sleep in) but more usually for 40 minutes to an hour of off leash running and ball throwing with the chuckit.
This is absolutely necessary for my sanity, their sanity and the non-destruction of my house. I have high energy dogs - Belgian and Dutch shepherds - and I leave them loose in my house during the day while I work keeping burglars away.
I also take them for a 20 minute on leash walk around the neighbourhood in the evenings because my girl dog has decided she can’t poop in the yard, but needs to go to the park to poop. If I want any peace in the evening, I have to do this.
Jack the malamute is 7 and would walk/run for miles and miles and miles if we let him. Or if we could keep up with him Ember the Little Brown Dog Of Unknown Parentage (she’s actually part Aussie Cattle Dog – we discovered that not too long ago) is 12, thinks she’s still a puppy, but her arthritic hips are beginning to bother her. Not that she cares, mind you. Anything The Big Dog does, she wants to do :sigh:
Hubby and I have wacky work schedules. When he’s home in the morning, he’ll take both of them around the block (about a 10-minute walk). They can go out back if the weather’s good if they want; otherwise, they wait for me to come home. The afternoon walks can range anywhere from 30 minutes to an 1-1/2 hours. Sometimes it’s a hike around our neighborhood and/or park. Other times we’ll drive to another park or the beach in the off-season.
They get another 15-20-minute walk after dinner.
Unfortunately we can’t let either of them off-leash, so no dog parks for us
Three dogs - JRT x cattle dog, black Lab, Rottweiler. Plus a current foster pit bull cross.
I do have a very large fenced yard for them to run in, so walks aren’t mandatory. I aim for daily walks, two at a time but work gets in the way. There are also several places I can take them for on-or-off-leash runs and hikes, close enough to drive to for a quick run at daybreak before work, or for longer hikes on days I’m not working.
The lab and the JRTx will run with a bicycle, so they get bike rides too. The Rottweiler is still young so I haven’t done any biking with him yet.
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Dereknocue67**, what kind of treadmill? I’ve thought about getting one for days when the weather is simply too hot or too cold for exercise, or for when my work schedule gets crazy.
