# How much exercise does your poodle get?



## fjm

Can't match that! Mine get about 45 - 60 minutes off lead walking twice a day, and another 20 - 30 minutes playing around in the grounds. We probably average 15 minutes a day training, and another 30 minutes of games with me.


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## ziggylu

Cosmo is almost 6 months old. Getting him enough productive exercise was a challenge because our other dog won't play with him and the dog parks are the only places in Phoenix to let him play off lead with other dogs and I dont' like the dog parks. We started him in doggie daycare last week. it's expensive but it's made a world of difference and he's getting to play hard a few times a week now.

He typically gets a 45-60 minute morning walk and a 20-30 min evening walk. he goes to day care all day on mondays and half day on wed and thurs. we get him in our pool once or twice a week as well to swim. He also plays in the house during the late afternoon - i'm teaching him to fetch using our long hallway. 

Once he's further along in training we're going to start him in agility and it's just about hiking season here now as well. we'll keep with the daycare but might cut back as we can get him other exercise. the socialization there has been as good for him as the exercise.


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## cavon

Finnegan has a half hour walk in the morning before I go to work. Then 2 -3 days a week he goes to daycare, where there are between 7-10 big dogs and plays all day. On those days I will walk him for another 1/2 hour in the evening and on non-daycare days, he gets a 1 hour walk in the evening.

usually once a week we also we have Rall-O/obedience training.


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## CharismaticMillie

JE-UK - that is impressive!

Over the summer when I wasn't teaching or in grad. school, Millie got an hour walk every day. 

Now that my schedule is jam packed, she gets an hour walk on Saturday and Sunday and I try to squeeze in one or two 30 minute walks during the week. It is hard though. 

Millie also spends the day at doggie day care once or twice a week. This provides lots of running around and playtime! We also have a fenced in yard so they can get run around a bit.

Luckily Henry and Millie do not become restless in the house ever. They are very calm and relaxed at home. But as soon as you take them outside for a walk or to the dog park, they are full of energy! 

I am really hoping once I get the hang of this horrific schedule I will be able to take Millie for daily walks!


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## Rockporters

Jasper and I walk 4 miles (1hr 15min or so) 5-6 times per week. We also do obedience and handling classes. The best place here for off leash running and playing is the beach. Over the summer he hasn't gotten to run much because dogs aren't allowed on the beach during tourist season.


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## Beach girl

Wow, you guys are impressive. 

My two get about a 40 minute walk in the a.m. and again in the p.m. They also get another walk around mid-day if it's not too hot. We have a fenced-in back yard with a little agility set-up. Casey plays and trains there quite a bit; Pippin will run around a little bit but mostly he is not interested in doing hard running.

We take them to the beach a couple times a week in the late afternoon. This time of year we can let them run off-leash. Casey adores it; Pippin is fine with it but he sticks close to us. He's not interested in dashing back and forth across the beach like Casey does.


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## schnauzerpoodle

Nickel gets a 15-minute walk in the morning before I go to work. And then a 45 to 60-minute off leash time in the park in the evening, playing/chasing with other dogs. He gets an extra 30-minute midday dog park visit on Saturday and Sunday.


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## neVar

i feel like a bad mom now *L* 

my guys go out in the am and romp for a good 30 minutes.... and same at night- we play flyball 1x week although that's practice so for the pup just 5 minutse of stuff on average. 

summer normally we do an hour hike or swim weekly


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## Spencer

I feel like such a bad mom!

TheGrey doesn't need so much exercise... he zooms around in the yard for a bit, and he is done for the entire day. The glory of greyhounds and their high metabolisms!

TQ is a terrier, she bounces off the walls. We play fetch non-stop all day, unless she finds something to chew on. She loves walks, but we don't go on many (insert guilt here). She is wonderful on the leash normally, like going to pet stores, going in the car, going anywhere. But put her on a leash and go on a walk? She is a crazy zigzag of a dog.

Tate... well... the tot is so tiny everything is exercise for him. He, however gets to go places more than the other dogs. He is constantly in the car because A loves to take him places due to him not being a sheddy dog, and that he is small enough to easily take places. (We splurged and got pizza yesterday and he got to ride along.) 

All three zoom around our giant yard several times a day, so that alleviates some of my guilt, but man, I wish I could walk my dogs as much as some of you do! I need to train MYSELF into taking them out more, as it is my fault and not theirs!


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## JE-UK

I've never in my lifetime lived anywhere with a big enough yard to do a dog any good .... condos in the US and now a house with a tiny garden just big enough for an evening pee, so have always HAD to walk my dogs.

I WISH there was a doggy daycare near us; I'm envious of those of you who have them. Or better still, one near my office. V would love to come into London every day on the train; he's loves train rides!


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## Locket

Matrix has hip dysplasia, so his exercise is limited to 4 daily walks that add up to about an hour and an occasional short fetch session once a week. 
Mitch gets four walks a day and we go to the dog park/ravine 4-5 times a week for an hour and a half.


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## redcricket

Oh boy, I feel like a bad mom now too! hwell: The girls get as much time outside running around in the fenced in yard as they want during the day, since I am home. They go out about 4-5 times for about 30 minutes each. Structured daily walks have fallen by the wayside since school has started for 2 of my kids, so I need to try to find time to get back into that. Sometimes they just trot around the yard sniffing, and sometimes they run like the wind and romp and play like crazy. Clover always gets the zoomies, and runs around, but Cricket is a bit more mellow.


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## neVar

JE- most of my dogs are intact so they don't get to go to doggy day care  which SUCKS> 

however now we have a 'indoor dog park' opening that does accept intact (YEAH!) just obviously not when girls are in heat. . . tossing around getting a membership for it- we're talking with the owners cuz they have a 1 dog 2nd dog discount. but ummm yah we have 7 and 4 dogs. ... and it's not like we'd show up with all the dogs at once *L*


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## Cdnjennga

Darcy gets 30 to 40 minutes in the morning on our walk into work (20 minutes park/ play time if we run into another dog, 20 minutes walk.) Then he gets a few 15 minute walks throughout the day as he needs to go out. Our walk home in the evening goes anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour depending on how many dogs show up to the unofficial dog park next to our house. He then gets another anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes later in the evening, again depending on who we run into!

I'm always hopeful that we will run into another dog on one of our walks as that is really the only thing that gets his energy out, because I can't let him off leash for fetch or anything bc I don't trust him and my local parks are all surrounded by roads. The days we don't run into any dogs, he is noticeably more active in the house. Recently I've been able to wear him out at my parents' by chucking him into the puppy pen (they're now 8 weeks) but of course that ends next week as the pups go to their new homes.

Once the cold weather comes I will be taking him to a local indoor small dog play session that takes place a couple of times a week. We're also starting the next level of obedience. If that's not enough to wear him out then I might try out a local dog daycare, although I'm not sure if he'll like it or not. Oh and I'll be taking him over to my parents' a lot so he can play with their pup as well.


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## jazzi480

Our girls get varied exercise, some days it's just playing fetch and running around the back yard, they swim almost daily and weekends we either take them with us when ride our bikes or go to the dog park. We also take them with us to Home Depot or Lowes for a little socialization and leash work. No real schedule. One (Jazzi) is really high energy and the other ( Ella) is just as happy on the couch!


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## taxtell

It's impossible to measure how much exercise Flip gets.
We have training twice a week (one night trick training, the other agility), we go to the park at least once a week and walk on our lunch breaks when the weather permits. He also wrestles with our clinic cat for at least an hour every work day morning.

I try to give him as much mental stimulation as physical, to keep balanced.

He is a little spoiled.


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## Lilith

Wow. Yeah.

My poor pup doesn't get an iota of that exercise.

Although to be honest, the vet is still telling me not to take her out. Mozambique=crazy parvovirus risk + crazy, absurd levels of rabies (probably why ever last human being here is terrified beyond reason of all dogs, even cute little poodle puppies like mine!) She's 15 weeks, though, and we couldn't take it anymore. We waited until she had parvo #3 and rabies #1 and now we just started walks this week (we're supposed to wait until the end of October, after a rabies booster and another parasite prophylaxis treatment - serious business to protect a dog here!)

We go onto my rooftop deck, though (don't have a yard, just a 10'x15' concrete block) and play fetch. She LOVES fetch. When she walks to get the toy instead of running I know she's losing steam, and we move back indoors for a little more chew-toy playing.

While life in developing country means no doggy daycare and crazy disease risks, it also means really really affordable daytime help. So I'm in the process of negotiating with 2 friends with dogs to hire a 6-day-a-week dog walker for our dogs. I've also been trying to find a friend with a dog young enough to wear my pup out - so far her doggy playdates have been with somewhat older dogs who don't want to play quick as long or as intensely as she would like. I think I might have found her match in a crazy maltese, though, so I'll be asking the owners if I can borrow their dog now and then to give mine some good playtime. :roll:


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## Lilith

*When to jog?*

Also relevant to this thread - do any of you spoo owners know much about when it's ok to start jogging with a spoo? 

Mine plays fetch now, and will start long daily walks, but eventually I want to start taking her out for morning jogs with me. Nothing crazy, I don't do more than about 5km at a time, but obviously don't want to take her along before she's old enough to be ready for it (or, more precisely, her bones and growth plates are advanced enough to be ready for it).


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## fjm

I was very interested to hear about how you cope Lilith - I had a feeling there would be more risks in a tropical country with lower vaccination risks, and the hot climate must also complicate things. Nice to know there are benefits, as well as drawbacks.


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## fjm

On jogging - with a standard, I would wait until her growth plates have closed - other people here will be able to advise you more exactly, but certainly not before 12 months. The usual advice in the UK is 5 minutes off leash/walking exercise for each month of age, twice a day. At four months, that is two 20 minute sessions each day.


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## Lilith

FJM - Yeah - to be honest it's frightening still. We just disobeyed the vet today by walking a bit on the beach here in town. Won't be doing that again. There were tiny children playing in the area, so I figured if small humans can cope so can a dog. But that beach is FILTHY. HOW parents allow their kids to play there is utterly beyond me. Plastic shards, bits of glass, weird jellyfish looking things all over, decaying fish corpses and other refuse from the restaurants along the beach, UCK. We will _definitely_ be driving out of town to the clean beaches.

We also have a problem with mango flies, that lay larvae in wet grass that can crawl into a pup's paws or face. They 'hatch' after a while, from a painful ugly blister. I have 2 friends that have had multiple larvae in their dogs (one in the face, other in the paws). The number of strays and mean dogs, not to mention the rabies thing, is also nuts. I actually bought and carry a seriously strong stun gun with me when I walk Lilith, in case of dog attack (should probably be carrying it with me for my sake, too, but I don't). And to top it all off, there's a high rate of doggy-theft here. Folks steal good-looking dogs and sell them for profit.

So yeah, I cope by over-using the one good vet in town, using friends with vaccinated dogs as doggy playdate locations, and having a housekeeper, dog-sitter, (soon to be hired) dog-walker, and the 24/7 guard staff at my house ALL instructed to look out for my pup. She's a bit spoiled. But she's also as safe as I can make her!  

Thanks for the tip on exercise. I had heard 12 months elsewhere, as well. May wait until 18 months just to be sure (no reason not to, really). Glad to know the 2x20 minutes a day guidance - she likely would have gotten more than than with the dog walker. Very helpful as I will soon need to teach the guy what to do with her (he's not a dog trainer, just a nice guy who needs a job and likes dogs. So I'll be trying to learn as much as I can about how to train pups on leash walking, how far/long to walk, etc so that I can then teach him,...)


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## fjm

There is an excellent new book by Jean Donaldson - "Train your dog like a pro", that includes a very detailed dvd. May be just what you need to teach your dog walker - and the start of a lucrative career for him, perhaps?!


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## Lilith

Thanks again!

Too bad it doesn't seem to be available in portuguese. Will be good practice for me, though, to figure out how to translate the material for him.


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## fjm

Ah - definitely a learning opportunity all round! The dvd may not require so much translation, though!


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## FozziesMom

Fozzie is required by our trainer to have a minimum of two hours exercise daily, to help with the resource guarding and training issues.

So, I vary it around but in general:
90 mins am, 30+ PM, am exercise is in the dog park running around getting zoomies out, socializing and chasing balls, and pm is a structured walk. Sometimes I skip the morning and head for the beach for a full two hours, Fozzie adores it there and the time passes quicly. 

On the weekends, we just go to the niceer dog parks which are a bit of a drive away, or we hike with him. 

On the plus side, I've lost weight and also maintained it while being unemployed and tempted by all the food in the house. 

I'm starting to think about what I'll do when I start working again soon. Fozzie's Dad is home two days a week so as long as I walk him for an hour in the morning before then he'll be fine. 

Monday: home with Fozzie's Pa, be sure to tire out on Sunday
Tuesday: Doggie day care
Wed: 6 hours in crate, with 1 hour walk before and 1 hour walk after. 
Thurs: Doggie Day care
Friday: Home with Fozzie's Pa

If I can take him to work it will be even better, I'll probably do doggie day care two days a week just to help him stay tired, but will take him with me the other days.


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