What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

We try to be reasonably consistent across all days of the week as supposedly that's best for preserving joints. About an hour off lead walk each day, sometimes we drive to the park or sometimes we walk which adds maybe 20-30 mins lead exercise to the walk. If we are short on time we just play a bit more fetch on the walk so she's equally as tired. There are some days where we do bigger walks with friends and their dogs or if we go somewhere exciting but then we tend to leave the ball at home so she runs and potters rather than flat out running, skidding, sliding, rolling. leaping etc the whole time. Now she's one we're about to add in some fun agility training and maybe some hydro playtime.

Training wise we do a bit each day maybe 10-20 mins in house or garden - learning new tricks, practicing old ones or getting her to accept brushing her hair and other boring tasks. On walks we constantly work on recall (which fortunately she has always been great for) and getting her to stay close in busy areas or sit next to me and wait while bikes go past etc. Working on a drop command for the tennis ball as madam still plays with us on her terms - which I don't object to really as I just want her to have fun but sometimes a really effective drop command would help.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Gypsy's training is both simple and very complex. (She's a Guide Dog Puppy)

Simple because she comes everywhere with me. I went for an afternoon tea for my friend's 60th birthday at a very posh restaurant on Thursday - along came Gypsy, she was a star and (as always) the centre of attention!

Because she's doing so well my supervisor has shown me how to train the beginning of guiding.

Gypsy has to walk ahead, with her rump by my leg. She must take a straight path wherever possible. Her lead must be loose and she mustn't look back at me. I am training her to slow down when we come to an obstacle and then decide whether to wait or go round it. (I do this by deciding for her and giving the command 'steady' or 'wait' but soon she should start doing it for herself) I have started closing my eyes for very short sections of our walk when in 'safe' places like shopping centres, so that she gets used to me being unsure and her having to be bolder in deciding what to do.

Our next lesson is to be stairs behaviour. I think she has to stop, putting her front paws on the step and turning her head in towards me - but we haven't had that lesson yet, so I won't pre-empt it. I can't wait!

Her spending routine is important too. She mustn't wee or poo on lead, but she must do so on command. She's brilliant - she doesn't even wee or poo on a free run, she saves it 'till we get back and she can go in her spending area. The thing I don't find easy is getting her to spend when on lead. She's rather wait even if we have been out a long time.

Exercise - wise I take her and Tatze for a good free run in the morning and Tatze's Dad takes her for a lead walk in the afternoon while Gypsy comes with me on a 'work' walk, often to different town centres and on buses and trains.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Bob has about 3/4hr off lead after I drop my little boy off at school. And another 3/4hr off lead after we've collected. The afternoon walk is very unstructured, lots of ball/stick throwing and retrieving etc. The morning walk involves some off lead heel work, sit/stay practise etc. I don't really do much else to be honest. We do more lead walking either morning or evening at weekends because we generally do one longer walk in the middle of the day as a family.

Lou x

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Mine varies depending on the day and the weather. At seven months of age, the guideline is for two 35-minute walks a day. I don't tend to do that, though. I always do at least one of my walks a day with the dogs separately, normally in the morning. So, I go out with Willow for about half an hour or so, then take Shadow afterwards. Depending on where I go, this is usually focussed on training rather than a regular "walk".
The evenings are generally when I take them out together. I'll do a little bit of training with them together, but normally, this is more about exercise for them, so I take them on one of the circuits around the mountain. Every now and again, this will be a longer walk of just over an hour. I'm really looking forward to when I can take them on longer walks every evening.

Depending on their activity levels during the day, and how busy my work is, I'll throw in a couple of short training sessions during the day, too; about 5-10 minutes each. Space is limited at home, so this is all about working the brain rather than the body.