Some of you responders able to have several walks during the day and off leash time is nice. Retired, unemployed, work from home, or stay at home mom? Mine get some frisbee time in the morning then a 30-40 minute walk before his meal time. Wish I could do more off leash work but outside of our large yard our community like most in the U.S. have leash laws requiring dogs to be on lead. We have dog parks but I've decided that free-4-all with humping and more aggressive dogs itching to fight is no place for mine.
I`m luckily retired , so I have all day every day to walk my two dogs as often as I like , also lucky that we are surrounded by forests , rivers and beaches where they can be free, but like today , I do sometimes take them for an on lead walk , just to keep their lead training ongoing
I work - full time but with some flexibility to work at home (not always though). We stick to the walk schedule by my partner (or me) leaving late or coming home early and the other person doing the opposite, and we employ a dog walker. I'm in the city mostly, in London. But there are no leash laws, and I live close to a 1,150 acre Common, and within 3 miles of two massive deers parks - one 2,500 acres, the other 1,100 acres. So, we do very well for off lead space - so long as the dog is under control.
I'm lucky as I took early retirement from my employment which enabled me to have a dog and be able to be there to train her and spend time with her without having to make arrangements for alternative care. I waited over 2 years from stopping working before having Juno due to other commitments which would not have worked with a dog. Having dogs we all make our own choices as to how we will manage their daily care. Although in the UK, I do not have many options for off lead walking in my village - there is only one lane that Juno can safely be off lead. Other than that we have to jump in the car and go to some local woods, or a trail along the river (no swimming though).
If I am in charge I have half an hour in the morning at 6.30ish then around 40mins in the afternoon/evening. I work part time (ha ha ha) On my whole work days my daughter does the walk after school - probably a half hour. Weekends we might do a longer walk of an hour to an hour and a half then just a quick 15 mins later. If OH is in charge they probably make half an hour the whole day I am sadly not retired and work 8-4pm two days a week and 8am-8pm(or as late as 9.30pm) two days a week. I won't mention working at weekends. You just make it work. I'm afraid I don't do many training walks. I should, I really should......
It really depends on the light and the weather for mine. The minimum they get is 40 minutes in the morning and an hour in the evening. That's very rare, though. If I'm really busy and don't have time to do any separation with them, they get 40 minutes morning and 90 minutes in the evening, together. These will be free running walks, but involving bits of training as we go. My ideal is a 90 minute free running/training walk together at one end of the day and separate training sessions at the other, which is an hour each. I work from home, long hours, and just make the time for the dogs. I actually find myself being more productive now than when I used to never go outside from one day to the next, even though I now have breaks for dog walking.
Kind of a sad topic for me, I always thought retirement would give me more time to walk the dog. But Oban hurt his leg two years ago, put it through the crust on the snow, and now the ortho Vet would like me to walk him only 1/2 hour and on leash. Well, I don't quite follow his instructions. I let him off the leash but I do try to keep to the 1/2 hour. I am not seeing adverse effects from being off leash as long as I ice him up as soon as we get back. It's sad because I'm in a rural area with trails and large bush areas where we are allowed off leash. One area is +4,000 acres and a favourite winter outing on skiis used to have us spending several hours in a wet area we could only get to in winter when it was good and frozen. When I worked shift work or from home I could manage my time to take long walks. Once we got past the puppy stage we settled in to a regime of one hour walks a day, the one hour being nearly all off leash. Then we'd do a 2 hour twice a week, and once in a while something longer. This worked very well for Jet, who was being medicated for arthritis till I discovered ADDing a longer walk mid-week, and avoiding week end warrior syndrome, allowed her to go right off the meds and not limp.
Ah, that's sad, @Snowshoe. Having had a dog on and off rest for what seems like forever, I sympathise. I count myself lucky that Charlie now has returned to full exercise (although moderate in intensity, I am careful with him). I count every day we have no restrictions as a bonus.
@AlphaDog I do feel very lucky to have lots of lovely places for off-lead walking within easy reach. I'm also now semi-retired so plenty of time too. However when I worked full time ( previous dog) I simply got up at 5.30 every morning to walk before work and also again in the evenings. A lot of the year it was dark but I've never been frightened of being out in the dark. I also had someone else walk him during the day.
I work 25 hours a week but can take Harley to work sometimes. Harley gets at least 1 hour off lead each day either with me or my dog walker (2days per week). We also do agility once a week and do training everyday at home. On top of that we do lots of playing and training at home. I've taken her for a 15-20 min lead walk in the evening on the odd occasion, but she isn't really interested........she more interested in training!
It's surprising how things can change, compared to this time last year! Both the boys get around 30 - 40 mins early before breakfast in the paddock, this is off lead. Bramble is a little too young to join them properly on these bimbles. On a a work day, Benson gets either a group walk or a one-to- one late morning. I get home quite early anyway, although generally have a bit of work to do. Casper gets a 30 min quiet on lead walk with another dog walker, the group walks are a bit too much for him. Benson gets an additional 30 mins to an hour training walk later with me or agility with OH. Weekends the boys do get a longer walk together, we have to be mindful of Caspers joint problems, so really he is limited to 30 mins x2 daily, however he does get slightly more than that. Benson goes hiking with my dad at 6am on a Sunday, and doesn't get back until about 9am usually, when we all sit down for a huge cooked breakfast. The plan going forward is Bramble slots in with Benson's walking regime during the day with the same dog walker, and separate training, but with me when I walk Benson. The three of them will be walked together in the mornings. We both work full time, although I am off work until I start my new job in April, and Marcus goes back to work in a week. We have plenty of space and can literally let the dogs out the front door to run around an enclosed paddock or the larger top field which opens onto some nice quiet footpaths It can be a real struggle at times, which is why we have my parents a couple of minutes away plus 2 excellent dog walkers, who are worth their weight in gold
Homer gets two walks a day with his dog walker during the week, off lead with his friends, then I either play with him for 15 - 30 minutes in the evening after dinner of a quick walk 10 - 20 minutes around the block on lead. Weekends, holidays (I'm a teacher so there's lots of holidays) he gets the same but with me or hubby. We go off lead along the river or to the common to play ball.
Dexter gets 3 often 4 walks a day. His first is at 5.30am, a quick 10min on lead walk up the Rd to the green with my OH before he leaves for work. Dexter has 3/4 of his breakfast and then puts himself back to bed until 8-9am. He then has a mainly off lead walk with either retrieving or other general training/games with me for 45mins-an hour, using remainder of breakfast and some of his treat pot food which is from his daily food allowance plus high value reward food. Whatever is left over he has in his dish when we get home. Lots of training games during the day using his midday meal, he's not one to entertain himself much unless he's up to mischief. I use his Kong wobbler/treat & train/frozen Kong if I need a break to actually do some housework, or play sit & stay/touch etc then give him a kibble as I Hoover or sweep the floor. When I run out of ideas we go for a jolly on lead to nowhere in particular. Then about 6.30-7pm my OH takes Dexter for a short 10mins around the block. Dexter comes back has supper and puts himself to bed and refuses to budge until the morning. Dexter's a bit of a training addict during the day and I take every opportunity to reward good behaviour/laying quietly or chewing a chew toy but he gets bored really quickly so lots of training gets done with fun games. I sleep better though now as I'm happily knackered by tea time
