How Much Time Do Your Greys...

[Guest Lunula]

15-30 minutes every morning and the same every night.

[Guest Greylovers]

My guys get 2 walks of 20-40 min each. My concern is that they haven't been able to run in over a month. When we had one, he used to race up and down the length of the house for about 30 seconds every other day. since we got his brother, refuses to run. We don't have a fenced in yard, and the dog park has had too many little fuzzy dogs lately so that we don't feel comfortable letting our guys loose. We're hoping to find another place where they can run at least once a week, but meanwhile, is it possible they could get a little mopey and depressed from not running??

Thanks for any thoughts

[Guest ntrede2go]

I have RA and use a mobility scooter to get around any kind of distance. I take my boys for a three mile "run" every day as long as the weather cooperates. My IGlet likes to ride in the basket when he get about halfway through the distance. Makes for good excercise, the scooter goes about 5.5 MPH.

[Neighsayer]

Not every day. He has a doggie door for his needs. He runs in the yard and wrestles with my golden while I'm feeding the horses and goats in the morning. When I get home we toss a toy outdoors and he does zoomies. We do a one mile walk around 3 times a week and will do more as the weather improves. Mickey had stitches in his foot and was laid up for about 6 weeks. Then the deep freeze set in. I'm jealous of the folks who have the time and stamina for those long walks and hope to be one of them soon.

[Fastgals]

I walk Maggie and Lulu early every morning for around 45 mins, and this includes a run in a fenced sportsfield (while Girlie - 13yo - sleeps in). They are happy to relax after this (and breakfast!) while I go off to work. My OH works on a casual basis, so they sometimes have company during the working day - and when he does work, he gets home a couple of hours earlier than me so it pans out really well. When I get home in the early evening, I walk Maggie and Lulu again for up to an hour - occasionally more, and then if Girlie wants a ride in the car, I take her out for a little potter about in a park. On weekends walks can be longer and more leisurely (when Lulu and I aren't zooming around in the sidecar, that is ). We love our walks and love to walk fast - great exercise for all of us. Nothing much in the way of extreme weather here so we can walk on a virtually daily basis, all year round. I do seem to spend virtually my entire time outside work doing doggie stuff....but that's what I wanted and why I adopted .

 

Regards,

Jane.

[Guest shanab]

THE BEST PART OF MY DAY/GREYTS DAY ARE OUR WALKS. I HAVE TO TELL YOU, IT'S GREYT FOR ME AND FOR THEM. MY NEIGHBORS ACTUALLY COMMENT WHEN I'M NOT OUT THERE WALKING BECAUSE THEY LOVE TO SEE THE GIRLS WALK.

[Guest KennelMom]

They don't all get walked daily, but we have a fenced acre that they run around on for a couple hours a day (over several turnouts). They run in a group and we take them out individually for playtime. Our seniors aren't much for a lot of walking/activity anymore, but our youngsters get lots of running time.

[Guest RollieGirl]

We walk 45 min- 1 hour about early in the morning, 15 minutes before work, 30- 45 minutes when hubby gets home from work and 30 minutes before bed.

[Guest astenner]

My grey gets walked 45-60 min in the morning before work, 30 min with a dog walker in the early afternoon and another hour in the evening (usually broken up into two 30 min walks) and he still doesn't want to come in! He just turned three and has an amazing amount of energy. If I try to skip one of the evening walks, he wakes me up in the middle of the night all full of energy, as occurred this morning at 3 am. We do the dog parks on the weekends since I have no yard.

[Guest shirley]

I voted other because it depends on how busy my day is to how long our walks our. Some days we don't walk at all because of the heat etc.

[turbotaina]

I voted 1 -2 hours, which is what it would normally be. Since Turbo's limping, the walks have been cut to about 10 minutes, though we did our first hour walk in 3 months yesterday. I discovered I'd gained 5 pounds since he'd been laid up! Fingers crossed the orthopedic vet gives us a thumbs up for regular exercise on Tuesday!

[Guest Shermanator]

We usually do a 3 mile walk every day in the winter time. (@45 min- we really move it along!) That usually exhausts them, and the rest of the evening, they are passed out.

In the summer we'll do 2 shorter 10-15 min walks. In the dead of summer, it will be 110 during the day, and it can still be 100 degrees at night! They boys turn into slugs. So does the rest of AZ.

However, on the weekends, we'll try to travel north (@ 2 hours drive), where it is about 20 degrees cooler, and take hikes.

[Guest DutchGrey]

marion, I have a question for you and I hope that you don't think that it is rude--I'm just truly curious. My observation is that European GTers seem to walk their dogs longer each day (on average, I'm sure there are exceptions) than US GTers. I am wondering if this is due to a difference in the the "average" length of a workday between countries. So I am wondering what your work schedule is like that it allows you time to walk for 2 hours daily? I leave for work at 7:30am and get home at 5:30pm. Between making meals, daily housekeeping, and trying to fit in exercise for myself, I'm certain that I would never be able to fit in that much walking on a daily basis.

 

Workdays are the same, but commute is less since most people work not far from home. That can save a lot of time! And I guess a lot of women work part-time (so do I).

Vasco and Delfina get 4 walks of about 20-30 mins each, on workdays they skip one of these since I'm not allowed to come home during my lunchbreak anymore.

[Guest IrskasMom]

When I had my Irska , we lived in a Townhouse without a Yard . I had to

walk him at 5 in the Morning half hour . At 4 PM we went to the Park for

an hour Walk and at six PM again and then before Bedtime at 8:30

the same again. There was NO Housework done . NOW I have a New Pup

and a big Yard and he runs constantly . Though do you think , he needs

Walking too ?? Legit Question ?

[marion]

Erika, I would say that yes...they need walking too...although you shorten them a bit but dogs love to 'read' pee-mail,

sniff, see different surroundings and interesting things. Furthermore they just walk more outside than in the yard where

they normally lay down after running for a while. They can participate in 'social life' in the dog park (if they are good

with other dogs!) and for you walking for a while every day is healthy!

[silverfish]

I agree with Marion - my personal belief is that dogs need to get out of their own house and yard purely for the mental stimulation and the different sights and smells on offer. If your dog is sociable, then that is yet another advantage for them, in meeting other dogs for social contact and/or play.

 

If you have an acre or so and your dog gets to run and play a good amount of time each day it's not so critical, but .. I bet if you asked any dog they'd STILL like to get out, just as people do.

 

And I know there are situations where a dog's 'bad' behaviour is directly attributable to boredom or lack of exercise. I used to see it on a daily basis when I worked for a vet, and I see it now in dogs that get out maybe once a week (or less) in and around my area. Many dogs cope just fine with nothing to do and nowhere to go - some even seem to prefer it! But many dogs do not.

[Guest GreyGhost]

A bit over an hour total...

 

She gets a short walk in the morning before I leave for school. (10-15 mins)

My BF comes home at lunch they do about a 20 minute walk.

 

After school, some days I jog with her, that's about 30 minutes out with 20 of it at a jog. If we don't jog, then we'll walk 45 mins to an hour instead at a slower pace.

 

The one more trip just around the block last thing before bed just to go pee.

[Guest mom2two]

I work full time so employ a dog walker (an absolute star with greyhound experience) to take them out for an hour at lunchtime, and aside from this being a personal requirement - it is also a requirement of my adoption group that the girls are left for no more than 4 hours unattended. They run in the garden in the morning (pretty good sized run) and then get another hour's walk with me in the evening - so I voted 2 hours or more as at weekends a single walk can easily be 2+ hrs. They do love running in the garden but they would kill me if I didn't take them out to check p-mail too

[Ragsysmum]

This not leaving them for more than about 4 hours without a pee break and some company, seems to be quite a common demand from the rescue groups over here. Sounds like your hounds have a super time, mom2two!

[BrGreyhndz]

When the dogs were young we walked a short am walk and a longer afterwork walk. I would walk them about 3 miles, meet a friend and they would run at the park and then we would walk another mile home. It made for very mellow dogs in the house!

 

These days we try to get out for an hour each afternoon, when it gets warmer we also do an am walk for 20 minutes.

 

On weekends we try to get them out for longer more interesting walks- beach, woods or other fun new spots. Chloe is almost 11, Benson and Paulie are 7- the younger ones would prefer more activity I'm sure.

[DocsDoctor]

I voted 1-2 hours. That's 3 a day, 30-40 mins a time - early morning, lunchtime and late afternoon. I'm working from home at the moment so that's easy and healthy for us both! Doc dearly loves his walks whatever the destination - window shopping seems just as popular as the local park, especially since he discovered the cat who sits in the window of the motor spares place down the road - but more than an hour and he is whacked!

[Guest JenZ]

I agree with Marion - my personal belief is that dogs need to get out of their own house and yard purely for the mental stimulation and the different sights and smells on offer. If your dog is sociable, then that is yet another advantage for them, in meeting other dogs for social contact and/or play.

 

If you have an acre or so and your dog gets to run and play a good amount of time each day it's not so critical, but .. I bet if you asked any dog they'd STILL like to get out, just as people do.

 

Yep, I agree with this too-- 110%!!

 

My dogs get a 20 minute pre-work walk (not during cold weather though, because the salt on the road gets their paws all funked up) and about an hour walk when I get home.

 

Jen

[Guest Catti]

Interestingly figures here show that over the last 15 years the number of pet dogs in the UK has fallen by about 1 million while the number of pet cats has increased. [...] Maybe this also has something to do with rising obesity rates in the UK!

 

That's a very interesting point. I'm sure the findings would be similar in many other developed countries as well.

 

One of the reasons I adopted my grey last year was that I was trying to lose weight and I wanted to get into a regular exercise program that I would enjoy and not give up on. I'd tried gyms and various other things but always ended up finding excuses not to work out or injuring myself, then I would stop going. Since I've had my grey I've lost about 130 lb. He's not the only reason for my weight loss of course, but I sure do enjoy our walks, and I never find it hard to get motivated to take him out, no matter how crappy the weather is or how I feel. And I feel much better now that all that weight is gone!

[Guest Leilani]

It is a culture thing... in the UK EVERYONE walks their dogs... Americans tend not to (I have lived both places). However, Americans often have spacious gardens- most in the UK have no garden or only a postage stamp sized one. However, although I am American, I prefer the UK/Europe's attitude about dogs. That they need a good daily offleash romp and to explore new sights and sounds every day.

 

My dogs get at least an hour of walking every day, much of it offleash, some of it. Usually they get two long sessions. I drive to a suitable location for offleash runs/walks daily. On foot, I am limited to leash walks where I live.

[Jiffer]

We don't have a very big back yard... about 10ft by 20ft so we walk about 2 hours daily (not all of the dogs go for 2 hours).

 

We have our 30 - 40 minute morning walk.

20 -30 minute potty walk after work (this is sometimes substituted with the evening walk)

45 - 90 minute walk in the evening

20 - 30 minute potty walk before bed

 

The warmer the weather the longer our walks.

 

As a note, Icarus can only be walked during the morning walk so he doesn't partake in the long evening walk. .. until we can get him better