How Much Walking/Exercising Does Your Doodle Do Daily ?

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

Curious about how much walking everyone here does with their Doodles ?

I have an almost 7-month Toy Goldendoodle.  I live in a small 1-BR condo so doing stuff inside is kind of tough.  I can't let him run around outside since I don't live in a house with some acreage and outside of late-at-night when nobody is up off-leash running is a no-no.  

Teddy goes out 6-7 times a day to do his business.  Some are 5-10 minutes; others are 20-30 minute walks (if it's raining real hard, those can be 3 minutes and 10 minute, respectively).  I've been tracking him the last month or so (it's Winter here in the NYC area) and on average I'd say he is walking about 75 minutes a day.  Miserable rain maybe 45 minutes; very nice day maybe 90 minutes.

Some nights I will throw him the ball and he'll chase it 10-12 times running hard back-and-forth 50-75 feet or so.  2-3 times a week he is playing at a Dog Park/Pen anywhere from 1/2 to 1 hour.

I've been watching his protein intake on his snacks because a friend warned me that too much protein leads to kidney/liver problems in (inactive) dogs.  I guess the more active a dog is, the higher he can utilize more protein.

Anyway....how much activity do your dogs get ?

[Amy and Annabelle]

We live on 3 acres and Annabelle does a lot running, playing frisbee, or chasing a ball, and once in awhile chasing a bunny. She runs a race track around the garden her first trip outside of a morning. She has all this pent up energy for sleeping for 8 or 9 hours. If we had a lot of snow, my husband makes her trail around the property with the snow blower.  If the weather is really bad, we have an open great room with an18 foot ceiling. The stairs going up are right there. So we will sit on the couch and throw the frisbee up the stairs and she will run up and down chasing it for half hour or how ever long my husbands arm holds out. She will also walk the property with us for an hour or so weather permitting. Then some days she is lazy and just wants to nap. I was dealing with a morning barfing issue with her, so I try to give her a half hour before and after she eats breakfast, of inactivity. Plus I don't want her get bloat either. On a really active day, she may get 5 or 6 hours or so. On a lazy day, maybe 2 at the most.

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

That's great....my condo community has a couple of stretches of grass that are maybe 100-200' long.....at night, when most people are asleep and the threat of someone walking their dog is much reduced, I let go of Teddy's leash with him and play fetch.

I'm hoping we can build a Dog Park/Pen this year.  We've just started to explore that possibility.  It won't be as big as the public dog parks but since it would be for our community alone, it wouldn't have to be.

Plus, it's better than nothing !  LOL

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

Last night Teddy played in some snow we got with a larger but only 7-month old Golden Retriever. Teddy rolled around all over him and in the snow.  They played nice together for like 15 minutes or so.

I took him home and he had like frozen snow/icicles hanging on his leg hairs.  I've never seen that before. Maybe he was sweating and the snow melted and re-froze on him quickly.  Never saw that before when he ran through snow on his own.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dogs don't sweat. :) 

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Mine have always been couch potatoes - even as puppies.  Now as adults they play fetch 2 - 3 times a day..  Although they enjoy playing ball, fetching the full length of our side yard, they are exhausted at about 10 minutes!  Charlie always lets me know when he has had enough, he will come sit at my feet. We then walk around the yard or go down to get the mail and they sleep for several hours.  I feel fortunate.  I have a good friend who has a puppy (he is now 7 mos. old) and this boy seldom sleeps - only when crated! Crazy energy.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Teddy is so small, I think he is getting plenty of exercise.  This is just my opinion.  I would do the inside ball fetching daily.

Choose a food brand from the food group and you will be feeding Teddy a great, fully nutritional diet and he will be just fine.  We feed our lazy, inactive dogs a very high protein diet and they are totally healthy according to our vet.

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

What % is high ?  Teddy's main food is in the high-20's but I will give out much more sparingly snacks like Bully Sticks or Purebites that sometimes have protein % in the 60-70% range.  I was told that a steady diet with protein % in the 30's is too high for the average dog (maybe not a super-active one that runs around for hours or goes jogging with his daddy/mommy).

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Your friend is misinformed about protein in a dog's diet. Protein is a dog;s natural food. (No carbs in a rabbit, lol). There are only three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. If you limit calories from protein, you are then increasing calories from carbohydrates (sugar) or fat. Obviously, a high fat diet is not desirable, and can lead to pancreatitis. A high carb diet can actual put more strain on the kidneys and liver, as as both have to work harder to process plant foods (carbs) than animal foods (protein). Here is some information you might want to pass on to your friend.
 http://www.championpetfoods.com/library/

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Calories come from only three sources. Protein +carbs+fat =100% of calories in diet

So if protein is 30%, that leaves 70% of the total calorie intake being made up of fat and sugar. 

Also, protein and carbohydrates both contain the same exact number of calories. So activity level would have no effect on protein requirements. Fat contains more than twice the calories of either protein or carbs, so that's what should be limited unless a dog is extremely active. 

A diet consisting of 50% protein would not be too high, and most foods contain less than that. 

More info on protein requirements for dogs: http://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_dg_focusing_on_protein_in_th...

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

QUESTION:  How Tired In AM ?  I was wondering how tired your dogs are in the AM.  Teddy is at his most tired AFTER he has slept and wakes up.  Admittedly, he has "weird" hours:  normally he is next to me on the couch/bed from about 1:30 AM until we wake up about 9 AM or so.  Sometimes his last "call" is even later -- 2:30 AM or so.

Anyway, regardless, he is getting 6-7 hours of sleep/rest but is very tired when he wakes up.  Little interest in breakfast and sometimes can go a few hours without having to go outside when he wakes (a big change from a few months ago when it was the 1st thing he would have to do).

I'm sure if I took him outside let alone to a dog park at 9 or 10 AM he'd perk up a ton but right now he's like my late Uncle Joe who was always sleeping/resting at family events.  LOL

Just wondering if your Doodles who are on more normal hours are full of energy or tired when they wake up.

 

 

[Frank & TeddyToyDoodle]

RAIN:  Teddy gets real wet and soaked when it rains given his coat.  Is it OK to let it dry normally (I try and dry his paws a bit but even they are damp)....or should I try and blow-dry him and get more water off his coat/legs ?  He probably won't like it but I don't want him to get sick from excess dampness.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

He won't get sick from being wet, I promise you. :) 
I think it's a good idea to towel him off if he's soaking wet, but that's all you need to do.