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Walking Soon After Feeding


Mike516

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I originally posted this in someone else's thread, but I realized it's different enough that I'd kind of be sidetracking the other person's question.

 

So I have heard so many different opinions of when to walk the dog before or after feeding time.

 

I'm not talking excersize, I'm talking walking/trotting, no running at all.

 

Some people say it only matters if they run themselves to panting/gulping air.

 

Some say, no "strenuous" excersize, however you measure that if it's different than the first one.

 

Others say not to even walk them before or after they eat for an hour.

 

In the morning Ginger will not pee or poop until after she eats, and when I say will not, I mean she will not do it no matter how long I walk her.

 

So she eats first then we go for a walk 5 to 10 minutes later.

 

At night she likes to go for a walk FIRST, go figure, then comes in and eats about 10 minutes or so later.

 

She seems to be doing fine, but I do wonder if she's eating too close to walk times (the walks are not strenuous excersize, just a few blocks walking/trotting).

 

The kennel said walks are fine before and after eating, but there's so many different opinions, is there anyone who can say definitively?

 

Having to wait an hour in the morning is going to be a problem because if she eats first, I can't imagine she'd be happy, or be able to wait an hour to pee or poop.

 

Did I mention she refuses to do anything, including walk, before she eats in the morning :)?

 

Thanks for any input/advice.

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Our morning routine is to have breakfast first, then I shower and get ready for the day, then we walk. It's usually about a 20-30 minute gap. If my dog Betty is uncomfortable or eager to go out, she will start walking and pacing while I'm in my final stages (ie, getting shoes and socks on). I make sure that she goes pee right before bed so that we do have some time in the morning. I try not to make the gap between breakfast and morning-walks too long, and have found that the shower provides a nice space. I try to put at least a 15-20 minute gap between walk and meals.

 

Our evenings are like yours: walk first, then dinner. Betty is pretty insistent on getting dinner (even when her appetite is a bit messed up, like it is currently), but I like to give her time to (a) cool down from the walk (especially if she did any running or playing right before we get back home), and (B) keep some control (reminding her that dinner is on MY schedule, kindof!). Dinner for her is usually a half hour or so after we get back from the walk, but some nights (like when I have class) I'll feed her within about 10 minutes, but still give her some cooling down time.

 

I initially had the gaps between meals and walks out of fear of bloat or similar issues, but I've learned that's not so common (but still scary!). Since then, it's become a nice part of our morning and evening routine. Plus it seems to keep her from getting or carrying over too much excitement from one activity to the other (ie, not going "ok, I ate, now lets go lets go lets go lets go!").

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I'm not an expert, but there are so many opinions is anybody an expert?

 

Common sense tells me that taking a walk so Ginger can find her place to P&P is not exercise to an extreme. If she's gotta go, she's gotta go. If you took her to a dog park and let her run zoomies for 15 minutes, that, IMO, would be extreme exercise if indeed extreme exercise is a negative thing soon after eating.

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I'm not an expert, but there are so many opinions is anybody an expert?

 

Common sense tells me that taking a walk so Ginger can find her place to P&P is not exercise to an extreme. If she's gotta go, she's gotta go. If you took her to a dog park and let her run zoomies for 15 minutes, that, IMO, would be extreme exercise if indeed extreme exercise is a negative thing soon after eating.

 

I totally agree. I actually specifically point out that it's just walking, not strenuous excersize, but I have read some people claim walks should wait an hour as well as excersize. That's basically my question.

Edited by Mike516

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I'm not an expert, but there are so many opinions is anybody an expert?

 

Common sense tells me that taking a walk so Ginger can find her place to P&P is not exercise to an extreme. If she's gotta go, she's gotta go. If you took her to a dog park and let her run zoomies for 15 minutes, that, IMO, would be extreme exercise if indeed extreme exercise is a negative thing soon after eating.

 

I totally agree. I actually specifically point out that it's just walking, not strenuous excersize, but I have read some people claim walks should wait an hour as well as excersize. That's basically my question.

 

 

I did read that you said it's just walking and IMO, just walking is OK immediately after eating. Yes, some people claim walking should wait an hour and just as many will say walking can occur immediately. Not everything in life is black and white, including Greyhounds. Just go with your common sense and gut feeling, and consider your own personal schedule and preference.

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I always exercise first and feed later. Mainly because that is what works for us. My dogs have a dog door. I get up, feed them and go to work. No idea what they do when I leave but I would guess they just go back to sleep.

Edit to add in the afternoon when we have time to go for a run, we run first and eat later.

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Walking a dog on a leash is not strenuous exercise. You should be fine.

 

My dog needs to go out within 30 minutes of eating to poop (2x daily poops!), so I take him out then regardless of the day, but Monday - Friday, we walk about 2 miles every morning after his breakfast.


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Guest PiagetsMom

Just go with your common sense and gut feeling, and consider your own personal schedule and preference.

 

:nod

 

Our routine 20 - 30 minute walk, morning and evening, is after Mirage's meal. We usually walk 45 minutes to an hour after eating, and we've never had any issues. If we walked before a meal, which there have been times that we have, I try to give him that same 45 minutes to an hour before giving him his meal. I may have come to that from recommendations here on the board, but also, here in Houston, it's warm much of the year. Our walks our brisk, but not extremely strenuous, but the temperature is often a factor in not walking right before or after a meal. I don't think I'd be concerned about a leisurely walk for "business" purposes, though.

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I also try to put about 45 minutes between walking and meals. I don't really buy into the bloat hysteria too much...obviously it's not a good idea to do really strenuous exercise right after a big meal, and that would go for anyone–but as far as I know, the theories about what causes bloat are just that–theories! There's no scientific evidence showing that walks/exercise before or after a meal will cause bloat, and just like with the raised dishes vs. on the floor debate, different people will say different things. I think the truth of the matter is that some individual dogs are predisposed to the condition, while others are not.

 

I find that the 45 minute wait is usually enough time for the food to digest and then we can take care of the bathroom stuff on the walk, rather than needing to go out later.

Edited by mariah
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We walk after feeding, it's a part of our routine. I don't qualify walking as a strenuous exercise. Brisk walking and running, perhaps, but a simple out the door to go #1 and #2 is no biggie.

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We walk first and eat later in this household. Well, *I* eat my breakfast first... the dog has to wait for his. If he's particularly frisky on our walk I'll often let him tear around in the backyard when we get home, or I'll play fetch inside with him for a few minutes. As such I don't like him to have eaten before our walk in case I decide he needs some exercise. If I do let him tear around a bit then I let him stop panting and then I wait another 30 minutes to feed him.

 

I have on occasion fed him first before a walk. There's usually a pretty specific reason though. If it's 8 AM on Sunday when I get up and I know we're going meet up for an off leash run at 1 PM then I feed him first so that I get the maximum amount of time between him eating and his run. If I fed him after our walk I'd be losing 45 minutes or an hour of digestion time. And our walks aren't usually vigorous anyway. Brisk, but certainly not strenuous.

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I had two different vets tell me that an after meal walk, "A smell the flowers walk, not a power walk," was something good to try to help promote GI motility. This is a dog very, very, very prone to bloat. The suggestion was made to combat bloat. It did indeed seem to at best help some & at worst didn't make things worse.

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We walk first -- or go to the dog park for an early morning run first. (Well, in the morning Beth gets a heaping spoon of cottage cheese first, but that's just our little routine to get her up.) Even on leash she often gets crazy and on most walks leaps in the air a few times or sometimes tries to do on-leash zoomies. She's never had any problem "going" before she eats.

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We've always walked Timo after his meals. We were told by our adoption group that he would need to go poop approximately 10-20 minutes after eating. Hence, he got into the habit of walking after meals. Timo immediately bugs us to go out after he eats. We've had him since March 2010, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Our walks are slow and leisurely. If we don't take him, he tends to do zoomies around the house, which would be considered more strenuous in my eyes. He gets a spurt of energy from his food, so the slow walk helps to get that energy out of his system.

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With my first three, I always walked first, then feed an hour later. With my new girl, I feed first, then walk an hour later. Having a GSD that died from bloat, I am very strict about this, even a slow walk, or if they are panting. To each his own, but I always stick to my one hour rule.

 
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Guest zoolaine

I read somewhere that you should wait 45mins to 1 hour after eating before going for a walk. The article pointed out that the rythmic nature of walking makes the stomach vulnerable to flipping. No idea if this is actually true but scared me enough to not take them for a walk immediately after they eat.

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  • 7 years later...

Still trying to figure out my schedule with my newly adopted Greyhound Vesa! 

I would like to be out the door by 8:00AM 

Greyhounds can be mysterious when they want to eat and go out, Vesa will not go out first thing in the morning to do her number 2.  

Today I thought I should try something new so we went on a 40 min walk before feeding. It is hot here in SW Florida even at sunrise, and she is panting after a slow to moderate pace.  

Now, I feel I have to wait at least 1/2 hour or so until her heart rate and gut is settled to feed her...and she still hasn't pooed. She has been up for 3 1/2 hours.  She has hookworm and has to go often, and I think she is holding off until she eats.  I wish I knew what her Kennel schedule was like, perhaps I would understand more about her.  

 

Vesa is a Petite Red, 60 lb., DOB 06/01/2016, Adopted 08/2019. Vesa is allergic to all protiens , peanut butter, psyllium husk, egg, dairy and many other food allergies. She has been diagnosed with IBD and currently being treated with Chemo and Prednisone. 

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On 9/7/2019 at 1:05 PM, BlissfulSandy said:

Still trying to figure out my schedule with my newly adopted Greyhound Vesa! 

I would like to be out the door by 8:00AM 

Greyhounds can be mysterious when they want to eat and go out, Vesa will not go out first thing in the morning to do her number 2.  

Today I thought I should try something new so we went on a 40 min walk before feeding. It is hot here in SW Florida even at sunrise, and she is panting after a slow to moderate pace.  

Now, I feel I have to wait at least 1/2 hour or so until her heart rate and gut is settled to feed her...and she still hasn't pooed. She has been up for 3 1/2 hours.  She has hookworm and has to go often, and I think she is holding off until she eats.  I wish I knew what her Kennel schedule was like, perhaps I would understand more about her.  

 

I think you can see from the previous posts that opinions are mixed and there is plenty of variation based on human and dog schedules. Volvulus occurs in humans too - although usually in the sigmoid colon rather than the stomach - and is thought to be related to two main factors: a large quantity of food being eaten in a single sitting and/or affected individuals having a long sigmoid mesentery. The mesentery is the fat around the bowel which contains blood vessels and lymphatic amongst other things. If the mesentery is long, it is more prone to twisting, which causes blockage of the blood vessels, resulting ultimately in the death of the part of the organ supplied by those vessels. I cannot believe that bloat in dogs can be caused ‘rhythmic nature of walking’ causing the stomach to flip. The abdominal cavities of mammals are very tightly packed and generally speaking, there is no room for swaying during walking, certainly not to the extreme of causing the stomach to twist. It is in my opinion (opinion again) that this is more likely to be caused by excessive peristalsis required to move a large volume of food through the digestive tract.

Ive also read that allowing your dog to feed from bowls on the floor contributes to the development of bloat...whereas another article suggested allowing your dog to eat from raised bowls causes bloat. I gather from that (and the fact that I could only really find two scientific papers about it) that nobody really knows

So, have you considered giving your hound a small breakfast before your morning walk...maybe half her normal quantity if she needs to eat before she poops? Our practice is to give food after the walk, but we have varied that with no ill effects when I’ve had to walk our boy later than normal for example, when it’s been too hot to go out in the afternoon. In addition, Buddy frequently eats his tea and then decides to have a mad zoomie straight after...although I don’t encourage it there’s not much I can do to stop that, and he’s been fine.

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Hello MercyGrey,

Thank you for the helpful information and for taking the time to reply. We feed small portions 3x a day which is ideal for her. Bloat concerned me since was she has had loose stool and peristalsis for 3 weeks...and this has been going on since I have adopted her in August (possibly why she quit racing; she just stopped!), and worried that walking too soon would agraivate her tum tum.. I thought her constant loose stool was and indication of inflammation rather than just the hookworm since her stool didn't change, but her vet said no.  I was going to order Yucca for her, but I hesitated since I started her on Panacur.  After contacting the Vet again, she finally prescribed Metronidazole for her inflammation. After 3 days her stool looked a bit firmer.  She is happier, and I am too. 

I have also search the bloat issue about the height of food bowls causing bloat..... If feeding a Greyhound from a lower position such as a dog dish on the floor contributes to bloat, then why doesn't the kennel feed the Greyhounds on raised  bowls?  Racing Greyhounds don't get bloat ( and they don't get fed 3 x a day), some are fed from a trough and some are fed from the floor. Vesa eats from the floor, although  my husband did make a beautiful raise bowl dish for food and water. 

Thank you MercyGrey for clearing this up for me, I am on the right track now and love to Buddy Boy,

 

Vesa is a Petite Red, 60 lb., DOB 06/01/2016, Adopted 08/2019. Vesa is allergic to all protiens , peanut butter, psyllium husk, egg, dairy and many other food allergies. She has been diagnosed with IBD and currently being treated with Chemo and Prednisone. 

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Many greys (maybe other dogs too, I don't have experience there) will be less interested in breakfast in hot weather. Also her hooks may be affecting her appetite. I usually walk first and feed later in warm weather, to take advantage of the "cooler" temps :) A 40 minute walk may be too much for her until it gets cooler. 

Bloat is really not that common in retired racers, although it does happen. There has been no conclusive evidence on raised feeders vs feeding on the floor causing bloat. As you said, they usually get fed on the floor of their crates in the kennel. I have always fed mine in raised feeders just because it looked more comfortable with those long legs. That never stopped them from scarfing cookies off the floor though :lol.

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5 hours ago, Remolacha said:

. I have always fed mine in raised feeders just because it looked more comfortable with those long legs. That never stopped them from scarfing cookies off the floor though :lol.

True! Buddy has raised bowls, but he went through a phase this summer where he wasn’t really eating much. We tried mixing tasty stuff into his kibble but found we had a high success rate by throwing his kibble onto the lawn, and he would go foraging for it. Funny boy

Buddy Molly 🌈 5/11/10-10/10/23

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On 9/9/2019 at 2:25 PM, MerseyGrey said:

True! Buddy has raised bowls, but he went through a phase this summer where he wasn’t really eating much. We tried mixing tasty stuff into his kibble but found we had a high success rate by throwing his kibble onto the lawn, and he would go foraging for it. Funny boy

Greyhound's really are crazy funny and sure do keep us on our toes! My Vesa loves to hunt for kibble too, it must be an exciting adventure for her.  I do love raised feeders too, and I may consider making one that is about 12" off the floor...they don't have to bend so low, and either do we!:)

Vesa is a Petite Red, 60 lb., DOB 06/01/2016, Adopted 08/2019. Vesa is allergic to all protiens , peanut butter, psyllium husk, egg, dairy and many other food allergies. She has been diagnosed with IBD and currently being treated with Chemo and Prednisone. 

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