Rest Days

Jenko109

Jenko109

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Do you give your dogs rest days?

There seems to be different schools of thought when it comes to exercising dogs.

Some believe a dog needs a walk every single day, without fail. Come rain or shine.

Others believe a rest day is beneficial for both mind and body, especially for the reactive dog or sports dogs.


My dogs have a rest day once every fortnight. It is more for my benefit than theirs, but they don't seem to mind.


So do your dogs ever have rest days?
 
Mine don’t need rest days, their ‘work’ aka walks and basic training is nowhere near enough for them to notice it as work! They’re on a rest life the lot of them..! It’s not planned as a dog rest day but there’s days they won’t get out for structured exercise just as part of our lifestyle especially with these warm days currently- we’re at human work aka dog sleep over until 9am and from 6.30pm.
Do guide dogs get days off factored in…?
I can see you don’t want to be training sports dogs hard every day the same as with horses or human athletes but even at their ‘hardest’ work mine are fully recovered a short while later. If we have done a decent CaniCross it’s me that’s calling the rest the day after not them!
 
There are days when we do less than others but mine doesn't get free run of the garden (low front wall and cats) and is clean in her kennel so we go out 3x a day regardless for leg stretching and toileting. I see people say they haven't walked their dog in a couple of days and I am by turns boggled and jealous :p
 
Mine will usually have one day a week of no walk. In this hot weather, they’ve been having extra days ‘off’ when I haven’t been able to get out super early and it’s still in the mid-20s in the evening.

It’s not really designed as a ‘rest day’ as such though. I’ve done it since puppyhood, as a single person, I want them to be able to cope with a day of no walks as due to work or illness they can happen. And nobody wants dogs being nutters while trying to get through a migraine, or struck down by the flu.

We do often do a bit of at home training or scent work on their no walk days too. They’re both pretty great at settling, and so it’s just part of our routine.
 
Mine go for a walk every day rain or shine, if I haven’t got out early enough when it’s hot they will have a slow walk in the shade and maybe swim in the river otherwise it can depend on how I feel but they get a minimum of 30 mins daily. It had never occurred to me to have a rest day as they have a very easy life all the time..
 
Not rest days as such, but ‘bare minimum’ days depending on previous day effort, temperature and how he is looking. He’s a creaky 15 years (and a half!) but wants to go out and will fuss about eating if he’s not had at least one shuffle round the park.
 
We sometimes have lighter days but unless really extremes of hot or wet weather we go out twice a day.

Trying to get Ivy to go outside at all on a relentlessly rainy day can be tricky! Not that we've had one of those in forever. But yes sometimes I won't argue with her too much and just call it a duvet day.
 
Now they're both mature dogs 9 and 5 they are OK with an occasional day off. It's very rare but provided they have each other and access to the garden to sniff and pigeon patrol/squirrel hunt, they are fine. They are reluctant in really heavy rain and extreme heat, but so am I.
 
Now that I'm running with Z, I definitely do 'rest days' more frequently. However, on those days she still comes to the yard with me twice and gets time to embrace her silly, spinny, bouncy side, plus we do 15mins or so of training each time. The training depends on how long i can maintain her focus.

On the very rare occasion that I feel like death and can't manage more than the absolute minimum, she doesn't lose her mind and will happily snuggle with me on the sofa/in bed. Worth noting though that I have always made a point of not exercising/doing the same level of exercise every day since I got her as a puppy. I've always been very aware that I'm on my own and if I get sick/injured, I might not be able to find cover for exercising her immediately, so it was a conscious effort!
 
Mine have rest days after heavy sports days, they all very much seem to enjoy them.

The youngest still likes to do something on his days off so we'll do some tricks or enrichment feeding.

The eldest (nearly 12yo) picks and chooses whether she wants to do anything on any given day, funnily enough she generally decides she wants to walk in the dry and picks a duvet day in any kind of poor weather 🤣

My most reactive dog will also have days off if ge has a particularly difficult outing (thankfully getting rarer and rarer) just to help him decompress, again he sleeps hard those days and comes back the following day with a much better mindset so we'll keep at it.
 
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Mine got one or two days a week with no walks. I want them to realise they dont have to go out every day. My friends dogs don't settle if they dont get out every day but mi e come and curl up with me.
I used to walk them every day but now I have health issues it means if my partner is away for a couple of days and I can't manage, there's no stress for any of us.
 
My younger, fit dogs aren’t on board with the idea of rest days and neither am I to be honest. I get tetchy if I don’t get my exercise in so we are out every day, whatever the weather, usually three times a day. Sometimes we may go for day hikes so then they just get a pottering walk in the evening.
The working collies get some form of exercise daily too - either through work or if they aren’t working then they get a good run three times a day out the kennels. We do have a large pen for the older retired dogs and pups so they are out all day self exercising, but they still get out with the others for a run too.
 
fidleyspromise said:
Mine got one or two days a week with no walks. I want them to realise they dont have to go out every day. My friends dogs don't settle if they dont get out every day but mi e come and curl up with me.
I used to walk them every day but now I have health issues it means if my partner is away for a couple of days and I can't manage, there's no stress for any of us.
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That’s interesting and as with everything it depends on the dog, but I’ve always found if I do have to give mine less exercise due to illness or whatever they just get on with it.
 
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