What Does Your Doodle Do For Exercise?

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin isn't big on fetching. Or running. He'll have a good romp at the dog park once a week or so... but most of the time he'd rather curl up and take a good long nap. If we want him to get a lot of good exercise, we leash him up and take him on a nice leisurely walk. For those with non-fetching doodles, what do you do to keep your pups in good shape?

[Camilla and Darwin]

When Darwin sees us reaching for our leash, he jumps for joy. Literally. It's pretty funny. Soccer? Amazing! I'm heading over to watch that now.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack only wants to play fetch, and he runs like the wind when he has room to, which is not often enough. We play ball in the yard, but it's so small that he has to throw on the brakes to keep from hitting the fence. We take two walks a day, but I can't walk fast enough for him to really get any exercise on leash. I have got to get him up to the forest preserve parks more now that the weather is nice.

[F, Calla & Luca]

This is why you need 2 doodles. It may not be the best for my exercise needs always, but L and C get a very good workout from each other. Granted, my yard is large but you don't need a really big one for World War reenactments and fighting wars really gets the blood going in all ways.

[Missi]

That's what I was going to say! Lizzie and Marley give each other exercise running and jumping and humping in the back yard. As soon as I let them in, they are asleep!

We also take them on bike trails. They are both really good at running/jogging beside a bicycle. One for me, one for dbf. It means we can go fast and far enough that they get some good exercise in the process. Lizzie gets all kinds of wiggly when she sees us getting the bikes out!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

When I can get up to the forest preserve trails, Jack is fine without another dog. But that's 30-40 minutes each way, and then the time spent there, plus $10 a visit, so not an every day thing.
Even when I do have another dog here, he just isn't interested in playing with another dog too much. He really wants to chase his ball, and most of the exercise he gets is in trying to get away from the other dog and/or trying to get them to leave him and his ball alone.
I figure for what another dog would cost me, I could hire someone to run him a couple of times a week, lol.