One Long Or Several Smaller Walks?

[Guest Willow]

Ok, so as the title says, if time were not an issue (ie you didn't have the constraints of work etc) would you prefer to do one long walk, or two or three smaller ones?

"Walk" can mean either an on lead walk or an off-lead run.....whatever your usual method of exercise is.....

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

it depends

I like to do two long walks, one am and one pm, but if I had puppy again, I'd do lots of shorter walks.

I do lots of short training sessions.

I can't always fit two long walks into the day but I don't always know in advance which one is not going to happen (thunderstorms can be hard to predict).

[B-Q]

1 or two long walks. I live in my pyjamas at home and its a pain to get dressed to go out.

[TC001]

How much time is a long walk?

[Nushie]

Depends on what you call a long walk.

Do you mean would i prefer to do 4 x 30minute walks or 1 x 2 hour walk?

At the moment, Jager gets 2 x 30 minute walks a day. He is still pretty young and he seems to get bored and tired pretty quickly. But on the weekends, we go out to the park or visit with some friends and he usually gets a good 2-3 hours of running around like a maniac.

The 2 walks on week days fit in better with our day and it means that he gets a walk in the morning prior to being left along all day and then one at night to get out and stretch his legs.

[Greytmate]

Shorter walks.

If we attempted more than about a half hour walk, I would have to bring them home in a shopping trolley.

[Nushie]

Shorter walks.

If we attempted more than about a half hour walk, I would have to bring them home in a shopping trolley.

My aunt loves walking and goes for about 2 hours each day, but she only has small dogs. So she bought a pram from a second hand shop and pushes that around on her walk. When the pooches get tired after about 30 minutes they get popped into the pram and she continues on and they just sit and watch the world go by.

[Gemelo]

I like taking my guys for one long walk, Cant always, I have two adult dogs, an oldie and one young puppy.

Lately ive been running the adults off our bikes (aussie shepherds) and the Pointer baby and the old lady get taken for a walk.

[megan_]

Mine prefer lots of shorter walks - it breaks up the day and gets them out of the house more often. For us, anything under 1/2 an hour is a shorter walk. We do go on longer walks on the weekend, but they still get some short ones to keep it interesting.

[aussielover]

Ideally I like to do 2 long walks (1hr +): one in the Am and one in the PM, with several shorter walks (15-40 mins)througout the day.

On weekends I like to do whole day walks.

Currently we are only doing shorter walks several times per day as I have a large breed puppy.

[WreckitWhippet]

1 longer walk each night.

I use the dogs walk as their raod work, it's done at a trot for 5k's , to build muscle. They rest inbetween their exercise, be it walking or swimming or off the bike

[Crazy Daisy]

I much prefer shorter walks and more often, especially when the humidity here in Brisbane kicks in. My Shih Tzu can't handle long walks and my Golden is still too young for long ones.

[wuffles]

Longer. Half an hour or less is nothing to my Aussie, it would be like we hadn't gone at all.

[nickyp]

Longer. Half an hour or less is nothing to my Aussie, it would be like we hadn't gone at all.

The same applies for our girls (kelpie x and kelpie x acd), even though they're 11 and 10 now. A half hour or so just serves to rev them up and they want more. An on lead walk needs to be at least an hour (about 5km). Off lead can be shorter, because they run themselves silly. The other evening my OH took them for a 9km walk and they slept very soundly that night!

[wagsalot]

When Riley was younger it was one long walk.

Now he's nearly 10 the vet recommends 2 or 3 short walks a day.

[Polgara's Shadow]

Ideally we do two walks a day. On week days we aim for a short one in the morning - 15-20 mins and a longer one in the evening - 1hr-ish. In the warmer months our evening excercise is usualy a swim at the beach.

We can't allways fit both in but if we miss walks we know about it!

Weekends are varied as we are usually out and about so he gets longer walks, car trips, visits to friends and family and their dogs, helping us garden :rolleyes: going to cafe's or spending the weekend away. This all seems to get his brain and his body working and we usually end up giving him a rest day on Monday because he's often pooped

[W Sibs]

They normal walk 10 - 15 minutes in the morning and about 20 minutes at night. On weekends, we add in several mini walks when the come with me to the shops to get coffee or lunch or go visit some neighbours...

That doesn't include off leash walks/run at the park after work (gotta love daylight savings).

Charlie can't handle a long walk and we don't push him.

[mita]

I own a short-nosed breed & that means the dogs can't rid themselves of body-heat as efficiently as longer-nosed dogs. (Dogs don't perspire like humans do, but have to regulate body-heat via panting.) So any shorter walks are better for them.

But we also do longer walks by doing a version of the Scouts' Pace. The tibs walk one streetlight length, then get carried one streetlight length. Great exercise for us humans. Other walkers flash by with weights on their arms. We struggle by with tibbies under our arms. Cheek of said tibbies, they grunt with the exertion of it all....while being carried. :rolleyes:

As they're very social as well, just a walk down the street to the newsagency or post-box, also sends them into raptures. Because people talk to them.

Edited December 7, 2010 by mita

[Vehs]

Before I joined the gym D used to get a 20min run in the mornings and a 45min walk in the arvo (half off lead).

Now he's just getting a 45min walk in the arvo (except for this week when he's got a visitor and I'm doing a 20min walk in the morning and 45min in the evening so they are sorta tuckered out in the morning).

On the weekends I TRY to do a longer walk around the lakes, go swimming or goto the dog park

[poodlefan]

I prefer long walks - we get further away from home and they see new sights.

However with a couple of my dogs aging now, I expect I will have to take the seniors on their own shorter walk.