Too much exercise?

[Kristy]

Hello I was wondering if anyone could tell me when my 1 year old doodle will be content with 1 walk a day? At the moment he goes on 2 to 3 40 minute walks a day plus runs free in the park. This is the only way we can have a calm, content dog while we are at home. I understand he is still young and has tonnes of energy to burn. We do enjoy taking him for this many walks but some days we can only take him once. I am looking forward to when he will be content to be exercised once a day and happy to hang out with us at home :)

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Walks are for mental stimulation as far as a one year old puppy.  Mental stimulation is really important for  him too, but  it wont touch energy.  Not even close.  It is a joke really.

What we did, and still do, is take the dog outside and play ball.  Or you can take a Frisbee. Go out every couple of hours for ten minutes and run the dog!  He runs, you watch  :)  

These are Retrieving dogs.  They do require a job and retrieving makes them so happy. Plus you are having a healthy interaction with him too.

I also found when the dog returns to you, it is a great way to reinforce the command "Here" aka "Come"  

At four to five months we were out there in pouring rain and freezing temps, but we ran the dog. He as happy then and come in and rested.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

In the winter, we practiced dancing in the garage.  It was a great training exercise, which also makes the dog think. 

Thinking burns a lot of energy so incorporate training all day long in little pieces to burn off some controlled energy but keeps him learning too.

[Kristy]

Thank you so much Joanne. I have read up on some brain stimulating games & was even thinking of purchasing a basic agility set for the backyard. Thanks again for your tips, I will give it a go :)

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Yeah, walks are nice, but the human can get a bit bored and the dog comes home with no spent energy :)   Find some other things you might enjoy too.  I bet, after a year, you have had enough of that same old path.

Or, find other paths to walk too. Get out and enjoy the Fall.  Explore. Having a dog can take you many places you never thought you'd go.

[Pat and Traveler]

Trav is almost 4, and we don't do more than one walk a day.  However, we always play chase in the house. He runs with a toy and I chase a few feet while he runs all the way through the house--repeat until he flops down on the floor.  A couple of times a week we play ball in the yard, which doesn't have enough room for a real run, but he's gotten good at leaping and turning.  We do a nose work class once a week, which he loves and which provides both mental and physical stimulation.  He would like to go for several walks a day, but I wouldn't!

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Pat, we are the same here with Libby.  She only has one two mile walk a day, but we have outside time with her  playing fetch and it is usually for about ten mins. a couple times a day. She also likes to just take a ball and kick it around the yard with her paws.  We call it "her" soccer time.  When she is outside one of us or both of us are always with her.

[Sally S Miles]

Those little ball fetch games are worth a ton - sometimes after her 3 mile walk, we think she's wiped out - but toss a ball across the yard and she's up and at it.  Our girl will play and go at any opportunity, until she flops into a heap.  Yep - we play soccer here also and our girl loves taking turns with 'mom and dad'.   Last winter I sat under umbrella, wrapped up, playing ball with soggy Doodle :) This winter I will hit the repeat button.

Here, Lousy weather means more games! Hide her ball and tell her to bring it, confuses and challenges.  Tell her the cat wants to be washed - but she can only find the 'other' cat, the one that won't let her wash :).   Some days she is go go go, other days she is fine with her rug routine.   In short, sometimes one walk is great - but no way our girl is going to give up ball time and play is important - so one hour walk - supplemented with one or two ball/frisbee games and or serious training time = happy pup = happy me. Oh, but winter makes me grumpy...

[Lynda Kamrath]

I'm with Joanne.  I don't think you can get too much exercise for a doodle.  Our dogs really want a walk every day and they are three and seven years old.  We often take them for walks, bike rides, and even swims (more than one a day).  It will actually get you in better shape also.  It is good we have two dogs because they run outside and have wrestling matches when they need a little more exercise.  I thought it would slow down with age, but it has not.  They are definitely high energy dogs.  Do you have a backyard for him to play in?

[Kristy]

Sounds like you have some good indoor games to play with Trav. I have played with Mr Kingston like this many times but it still doesn't cut it :( maybe once he is a few years older like Trav this would work.

[Kristy]

Nose working class would be great, I hadn't thought of that. I will need to research to see if there is anything like this in Australia.

[Kristy]

Hi Lynda, thanks for your reply. Yes we do have a nice size backyard for him to play in. We had thought of getting another doodle so they could play but it's not the right time for us yet. I agree, they are high energy dogs, we love him so much & we tend to feel guilty if he doesn't get more than one walk. He does enjoy swimming, I am hoping to take him to my parents house this summer as they have a pool he can swim in!

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I feel your pain, Kristy. When Monty was little, we had a play date set up every other day with his girlfriend. And I still had to walk him before that. The walk itself would not cut it. It was crazy. He just wanted to play and run the whole day. He was getting two walks a day, plus a dog park.  Now that I have two doodles, I find it a bit more challenging to walk them. So we do walk together, but we do go to a dog park every morning. Monty is 3.5 years old now, Auggie is 1.5 (and much calmer and less demanding than Monty was at that age). We have our routine: we get up in the morning and go to our dog park to meet their friends. They run around for almost an hour, we go home and have a breakfast. Then the dogs sleep till about 3pm (I work from home so tiring them out is very important every morning). Then we go for a walk. They seem to be more active in the afternoons, perhaps the walk just does not drain enough energy for them. They do spend some time wrestling together and playing with the humans before going to bed at about 8:30pm.

I know every doodle is different and I've always thought my boys are high energy, but they are not. They are not couch potatoes either, they are just used to their schedule. At age 1, everything is fast track. He will slow down a bit, I believe. If you get overwhelmed with high energy, find a doggie daycare in your area and use it for a couple of days a week. It does wonders.