Do dogs need a day off?

How often do you give your dog(s) a day off?

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Galupy

Galupy

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It's a lazy morning here in the GR household and the dogs haven't been for a walk yet. We have plans to walk the beagles (Willie is on house arrest because of his leg) mid-morning/early afternoon but it occurred to me watching them snooze and listening to them snore away that they haven't had a day off from walking in quite a while.

So, do dogs need a day off every now and then? What do you do with your dogs? I'm hopefully adding a poll but we'll see how that goes :o.
 
It depends what you mean by a day off. On some days Evie may not have a walk on lead, but will have several sessions round the field (7 acres) with lots of ball throwing. Buffy just has a sedate potter round part of the field if I am short of time, she would happily settle without exercise but Evie has to burn off the energy or drives us mad.:D
 
Once a week, sometimes twice, I used to be a bit precious/obsessive about it, but it really does depend on the dog, I couldn't have got away with it between the ages of maybe six to 24 months, but they have settled down and matured and I don't imagine them thinking "I WISH I was out in the sideways blizzard" on a Sunday afternoon.

As MM says, some dogs need more stimulation than others and I find a bit of tracking or brain training or hide and seek will tire them out more than a two hour walk!
 
If I'm poorly or if we're travelling, he might not get a walk. But generally we go out whatever the weather, I actually quite like walking in foul weather, you don't tend to meet too many people so you can just wander along with your own thoughts:o
 
MurphysMinder said:
It depends what you mean by a day off. On some days Evie may not have a walk on lead, but will have several sessions round the field (7 acres) with lots of ball throwing. Buffy just has a sedate potter round part of the field if I am short of time, she would happily settle without exercise but Evie has to burn off the energy or drives us mad.:D
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I think I was picturing more of a day off from exercise altogether to where we don't do anything with them at all but hang out and they potter in and out of the garden if they want to. Mine are older now too and it doesn't look like they care about going out right now ... they are far more interested in snuggling up with us and chilling out. I think we might have a day off. I've been a bit reluctant to recently because we've been walking mostly in the dark during the week so that's meant on lead only (because of the coyotes around here) and I feel bad wasting a day where we can walk in the daylight on a rest day but conversely I want to get them out in the week because they are alone all day.


CaveCanem said:
Once a week, sometimes twice, I used to be a bit precious/obsessive about it, but it really does depend on the dog, I couldn't have got away with it between the ages of maybe six to 24 months, but they have settled down and matured and I don't imagine them thinking "I WISH I was out in the sideways blizzard" on a Sunday afternoon.

As MM says, some dogs need more stimulation than others and I find a bit of tracking or brain training or hide and seek will tire them out more than a two hour walk!
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Roast_Spud said:
If I'm poorly or if we're travelling, he might not get a walk. But generally we go out whatever the weather, I actually quite like walking in foul weather, you don't tend to meet too many people so you can just wander along with your own thoughts:o
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We definitely don't walk in a blizzard but we do still walk in most other bad weather because I enjoy it too and if it's a work day, I like to get them out and tired before I leave as they are alone all day. I also like not meeting other people which is why even at the weekends I will try to get out with them very early in the day. That, coupled with the fact there are woodsy areas around here where people rarely walk anyway means that we can have a nice quiet walk without worrying about other people.
 
Mine get a day off when I'm ill or some disaster has struck! I usually regret it the next day though! When we got Milo home the girls didnt go out for a few days because I couldnt take him and couldnt leave him...they drove me bonkers! So much so that on day three or four I carried him round wrapped in a blanket just so they could get the energy out! :rolleyes:
 
Well our dogs have a kind of free range lifestyle in that we are out on the farm all day every day and they come out with us as much or as little as they wish but rarely get taken out on "proper" walks (apart from when one of our liveries who is a dog walker brings her pack here for their walk and our lot tag along).

Oscar is getting on a bit now and tends to snooze in the office most of the day but he loves the snow and has been doing a lot of daft bounding around lately lol!

Dash is a youthful beastie with energy to burn so he spends his days beggaring off after rabbits then legging it back to me to make sure he's not missing out on anything exciting :rolleyes:

Susie thinks the sun shines out of my OH's behind so she trails him all day unless the weather is really bad in which case she superglues herself to the nearest heat source.

If the weather is really bad I tend to find all three pretending to be invisible in their beds in the morning because the only time I insist on them going out is first thing in the morning for an hour.
 
I voted "other" before I read the explanation! What a wally I am.
I can't remember the last time my dogs didn't go out at least once for some sort of walk/exercise. (even though there are some days when I wish I didn't have to put on all the outdoor, cold weather gear, wellies etc)
When I read your poll I thought you were talking about a day off from their activities e.g. agility, flyball, training etc.
Mark me down as the "stoopid one" lol
 
day off from what? our farm dogs work when reqiured love it and sometimes feel cruel for not taking them only have day off if not fit for work.
 
Never! I have had dogs for over 30 years and have walked them twice a day every day without missing a day! I can't imagine NOT taking the dog for a walk :D
 
So the beagles had a day off and barely raised their heads all day confirming that they are old enough not to be bothered by it at all and maybe they just enjoyed a rest as well. They'll be up and out early tomorrow though but not in the dark which will be nice. I was thinking back that it has been at least since early September since they have had a day when they haven't been out on a walk.

It's interesting that nobody has really replied that it absolutely should be one way or the other or that they believe a certain thing. It really does seem like we all look to our dogs to tell us what they need which is by far the best way for it to be :).
 
Big dog would explode. He never has a day off and sent all morning running full pelt round the yard yesterday. The puppies had a short lead walk (couldn't get to the woods :() and were fine: think the mental stimulation of seeing all the snow, a huge Akita and the scariest plastic sledge ever :rolleyes: was enough. Injury would mean a day off, nothing else. They would be nutty without being able to burn off the madness! The weather makes no difference.
 
Both of mine would happily go a couple of days off walking, especially in the rain as I have to drag them out. They generally get one good walk and one round the block but they're happy enough with just going round the block if I'm poorly.
 
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