Puppy Exercise

[Prag]

Hello,

I was wondering how long people exercise large breed puppies for?

My Doberman is 13 weeks and she has only been having very short walks but frequent training sessions.

I would love to hear how other people exercise their puppies particularly inside since it is still Winter...

I really do not want to damage her joints but am keen to get her out for longer as now she is only getting about 10 mins, 20mins at the most.

She is still sleeping a lot so it is not like I desperately need to give her more physical exercise but would be nice to get her out to more places.

[Dory the Doted One]

I take Willow to training one to two times a week.

At home training...I aim for everyday, but more like every other day.

Walks once or twice a day depending on time, about 15-20 mins. This involes lots of sniffing etc so not a hardcore walk.

Take her on loads of car trips, friends, work, beach etc.

She plays with Dory.

If she's feral we try training first. No tricks, just heeling, sits etc.

With all that lot, she still sends me mad. LOL.

[Kavik]

With my puppy I do several short training sessions a day:

Tugging

Basic control positions (sit, drop)

Impulse control (boy do we need lots more of that lol!)

Shaping: Body awareness exercises (backup, stand on balance discs, get on travel plank, perchwork etc), get on things, go under things, go around things, nose touches etc

Retrieve (needs a LOT more work!)

I go to training once a week where I practice those basics around distractions, and to the park to work around distractions as well (there are sometimes kids sports on the oval so good for socialising and distraction work)

[LisaCC]

With Nova (14wks) on an average day (so not including play dates, spontaneous trips to the river etc) and excluding general play.

I will do either a short walk or go to the park and do long line work (tires him out more than walks). Which at the moment involves lots of recalls with distractions, tugging and retrieving. Also lots of free time to sniff around and play in puddles.

I generally take him somewhere with people where he is to sit/walk with me and ignore people, so to my uni or to a coffee shop.

Then at home we do lots of short training sessions of basic commands like sit, drop, stand (also transitioning between the three) and stays.

Some targeting, his favourite game at the moment to put his paws on a coster, I move it around in different places. I'll be trying to hide it soon like 'hide and go seek'.

And some shaping and trying new tricks (currently attempting Roll over).

Heeling.

All of the above use both food and toy rewards so lots of tugging and chasing during all the training.

We do body awareness stuff to, on the wobble board and front feet/back feet on stuff, put all feet in a box etc.

Waiting for obedience school to come back from holidays and then we will have that once a week.

Working his brain tires him out more than just walking etc.

PS: I'm sure i'm missing heaps of the stuff I do but it will come to me lol.

Edited August 15, 2013 by LisaCC

[Dory the Doted One]

I'm so slack in comparison to you lot. LOL

[JackC]

Don't worry dory, your not the only one :D :laugh:

both me and my partner work long hours and with my surgery just been my boy has had a bit of a slack week or two.

I try to get at least one 15-20min walk in per day every night, starting to get a second in the morning now I am back to recovery, if I don't get a walk in cause I'm sore or lazy he has the beans in the morning and likes to see how fast he can get from the bedroom to the end of the yard and back two or three times over :laugh:

training for me is every other day, usually no more than 10min, trying to mix it up and now with more light at night we are doing a little bit of outdoor work as well, small jumps, ducking under low objects etc, not too strenuous though as he is still young, at least nothing more than he would normally do by bolting around the yard by himself.

He is outside in our yard during the day when we work so he burns allot of his own energy out there, its not the biggest yard in the world but it seems adequate for him at the mo.

I've found a close off lead park near me so when it starts getting brighter I will be going there most evenings for his run around.

comparing him to others in his litter he has a moderate energy level, it gets high when we miss a walk or training session but drops low when we have done a good walk, he is happy sleeping at my side when I work at home and will let me know if he wants to do something usually by finding one of my socks and running around the house with it, kinda like saying "daddy lets play, pleaseee otherwise ill run around with your socks and i know how much you hate that"

[bellske]

wow some excellent things you guys do with your dogs, I've been trying to think of things to occupy mines mind that isn't just the boring old sit, stand, down heel etc training.

I've used a cup upside down with kibble in it as a puzzle for her but she worked it out in less then 5mins lol so thank you for giving me other things to do with my pup

[Guest hankodie]

Things we have been doing with Hank (10 weeks):

* Free playing/running in the yard throughout the day mostly alone but short sessions with our other dog (I break this up if it gets too rough). I add toys and try to enforce some fun training like recall games and getting him to heel by my side. I try not to enforce too much running around and channel his running around into something productive but sometimes he has to burn off a couple of zoomies!

* 5 minute training sessions x3 a day using his meal as food rewards. I use the clicker for this but I keep it short, shaping behaviours like sit, lie down, stay etc etc. These are kept short because he can't hold his attention for very long at this age

* If I can't train during lunch time then I put most of his meal in a kong/puzzle toy which he has great fun figuring out, I can usually hear him in his playpen growling away at the toy while I work :laugh:

After he's fully immunised I plan on taking him out a couple times a day to do work on the long lead but I don't think I'll give him formal walks until later on (apart from a few minutes of leash training up and down the street maybe). For now the free time in the yard plus training seems to wear him out for the most part!

[LisaCC]

Don't feel slack :) I'm pretty sure Kavik is of the same mind, but as well as basic manners I'm putting in foundations for agility and obedience. Its all quick fun games :)

[Kavik]

Yes I do a lot of foundation work for agility :)

Just lots of little fun things.

[sandgrubber]

According to one very respectable study (500 dogs followed for 10 years), long walks on gentle terrain are good for reducing HD.

http://www.usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=2288

Stairs are bad. It would be good to find the whole document to see if anything is said about styles of play/games.

Edited August 18, 2013 by sandgrubber