So Titan was 6 months old on the 25th. At this age, how much exercise should he be getting? I have a dog walker come in 3 days a week to take him out while I am at work. I leave for work at 8:00am and she comes to pick him up between 10 and 1030am. She has a puppy as well, so he gets some playtime and a walk, along with some free run/off leash time. She has him until 12:00 when I come home from lunch. I am home until 1:00pm and then don't get home until 4:30pm. Once I'm home it's family time, so dinner, homework, cleaning up the house, usually until about 7:00pm. During this time, Titan is in and out of the house. He likes to go out into the yard and play around with his toys in the snow. Most nights OH will go out there and toss a ball around with him. And then once my girls go to bed (between 7:30 and 8:00) Titey gets out for his last walk of the day. This one usually lasts anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the weather (this winter there was a few days it got down to -40, so we were unable to be out for long, if at all!). Does this sound like enough? He does get training time though out the evening also, and we try to mentally stimulate him as much as we can. Once he is older, we will have the dog walker in 5 days a week. I don't work weekends, so she'd come in Monday-Friday.
It's 5 mins per month of age, until fully grown. So at 6 months that would be a maximum of 30 mins of sustained walking, and they can go out for this length twice a day.
It sounds like he is getting plenty of exercise and mental stimulation. I do try and do quite a bit of mental stimulation in the evenings.
That's about the exact same amount of exercise mine gets every day at 7 months old and we've been doing the same routine for about a month. I've had 2 labs before Corona and have never strictly followed the 5 minute rule and never had any problems with their joints. In all honesty, if I only walked my dogs for 30 minutes at 6 months old, they would have driven us batty. Having said that, our walks are not strictly on paved pathways either, and she has off leash time, about 15 minutes per walk. Sounds like you are right on track. A tired dog is a happy dog.
At 6 months Xena was getting 35 mins off lead in the morning, a shorter 20-25 min leash walk in the evening, a couple of fetch/tug/chase games during the avo, and the odd burst of training here and there. At 10 months it's much the same, except the walks are now longer. I'm still mindful not to overdo it.
Silver Falcon has hit the nail on the head with the word 'Sustained' The 5 minute rule has to be taken with a dose of common sense ...marching your puppy/young dog along on lead with you at your pace is to be avoided ....but ensuring your bundle of energy gets enough stimulation mentally and physically IS recommended.Titan sounds like he is getting a good balance ,he gets down time and a lot of his excercise sounds to be play and at a pace of his choice . Blimey,to march my dog (when he was under 12 months ) along at my pace for any length of time would never have happened ,he couldn't walk with a loose lease for more than 20 paces all our stopping and starting and changing direction made sure he was never overexcersised!
This is exactly what George is getting at 6 months and it seems to be perfect. He's very calm but not exhausted by the evening. ANY less, though, and he goes bonkers.
So maybe the days he's going out with the dog walker, should we cut down his evening walk? He's out with her for about 1.5 hours usually. That way we could just play around in the evening as his exercise instead of another walk. Then on the days that she doesn't come, we can take him for his full evening walk. His joints are my main concern. He's already a big boy so I want to do whatever I can to minimize unnecessary strain!
That does seem like more than enough for 6 months, especially if the dog walker is really WALKING the whole time. BUT, ... then again, our vet has taken a more relaxed approach and tells us just to go with what he seems up for on a given day, ie., don't drag him out for extra walks if he seems tired, but also don't restrict his exercise if he seems to have excess energy.
Hmmm. Maybe I should ask his vet. I'm currently on the hunt for a new one, as I wasn't too impressed with our last vey unfortunately. When our dog walker has him, they usually walk for about an hour or so. She has a puppy too, so the boys are off lead for a portion of that time, just running around with each other. And then for the last half hour they will head to the dog park here. Thank you everyone for the advice! If he seems tired after his run with his walker, maybe we will skip the last walk of the day If not, out we go!
