Walking

[Guest kar]

My dog Snow is 10 years old. I try to walk her twice daily. Sometimes she just refuses to walk, and just freezes until I turn to go for home. Does anyone else encounter this. How often and for how long do people walk their 10 year olds?

[GreytTerp]

I'm dealing with this recently, but with our guy who turns 8 in a few days. Some days, I can't get him to slow down or turn for home, and we end up walking over 2 miles. Other days, he wants to just go out the door, do what he needs to do, and then wants only to go back home. His schedule and routine do not vary by more than 30 minutes day to day. He has gone through phases previously where he'll freeze and only want to go in his preferred direction, so I'm not surprised or assuming anything is out of sorts. We don't have a yard, so I walk Marvin 3-4 times a day (more if he seems like he's having 'cabin fever'). Some mornings are 5-10 minutes, other mornings he wants to do a mile or more. He eats when we get home from work and then goes right outside, where we'll walk anywhere from around the back of the building to all the way around the fort (0.2 mi to 2+miles). The 3rd and 4th outings are similar, with anywhere from a quick pee across the street to us running through the orchard field at 11pm I think Marvin is slowing down a bit as he has gotten older, and he does have a little bit of stiffness after a big walk the next day sometimes. Otherwise, we have not noticed much of a pattern. We are moving to Colorado in two weeks, and I do think doing steps and not-perfectly-flat walking will be good for him.

 

I have noticed that since we started taking longer walks and climbing the walking ramps at the fort, Marvin's occasional mild hind end weakness has greatly improved (i.e. gone away completely). "The fort" = Fort Monroe, the national monument in Virginia. I like seeing the full star pattern on Walk for a Dog after we do the whole wall.

[rsieg]

Max is 12 years 8 months and still walks 2-3 miles per day, usually 1-1.3 miles in the morning and 1-1.8 miles at night. (I use the Walk for a Dog app so track this). He loves his walks, but I'm not sure how much longer we will be going these distances, he is beginning to show some weakness in his back legs :-(

[XTRAWLD]

I would just walk at her pace and not force too much. It's important to still get them out for a walk as it helps with mobility though. At 10, Kasey could still walk a while if he wanted to, he just loved being a social butterfly and to be outside. As he began to walk slower, I cut our walks down and usually didn't get much further than 10 mins in total. 1 good 10 min walk and a couple pottie breaks kept him limber. Have you checked her for corns?

[Jerilyn]

Lila is 10.5. Due to residual fears after being attacked by a loose dog, she won’t walk in the neighborhood further than our block. I do drive her to a safe place to walk 3-4 times a week. We go 30 minutes to an hour based on weather or location but her stamina is not the limiting factor. She trots at a quick pace, I have to walk as fast as I can to keep up. When we walk with a group of greyhounds she always wants to be in the lead. If she stops to sniff she pushes her way back to the front. She’s never liked warm weather, but I do see her intolerance of the heat increasing as she ages.

[Guest kar]

snow is just strange I guess. sometimes she wants to walk, and other times she just freezes until I turn around for home. I only get down the street. I guess I will have to let her go at her own pace and time.

[BatterseaBrindl]

Nixon will be 12 in June and he is slowing down. We do have a fenced yard to he is not limited to leash walks for potty breaks.

 

Many, many days last summer he didn't want to go walking at all. He just lay on his comfy bed and watched as Ruby and Nigel got leashed up. He did perk up again in the fall and enjoyed lots of walk time this winter. Now the weather is changing again, we've all been going about 5 minutes, turning around an dropping him back at home, then I carry on with the other two.

 

Ruby just turned 10 and she's a little pistol! Keen keen keen for her walkies. She walks out in front and does not slow down for at least 20 minutes.

 

Nigel will be 9 in June and he is also super keen to walk long distances

[cleptogrey]

has he been checked over by your vet looking for anything that might result in discomfort? the weather changes daily, can it be arthritis, warmer/humid weather conditions?