Varying your dog walks

[Penny Less]

I tend to do the same walk in the morning as it means the old boy can totter round a small park then sit in the car while I give the other dog a bit longer. I usually see the same people and most of them say they only ever walk their dogs there]. I tend to do a longer walk in the afternoons and try not to do the same one more than twice a week, usually means a car journey. I do wonder if this is more for my sake than the dogs and she would be happy doing the same walk every day. Do you think they are just happy to be out and dont care where they are ?

 

[deb_l222]

I rarely vary my walking spots. Mainly because I have a wealth of countryside right on my doorstep, so no need to travel. Even in the winter and I'm limited with daylight hours, I will go around the village in the same direction

All my dogs will find something new to sniff at daily so I don't think it bothers them at all. They do however get VERY excited if we go to the beach but that's a rare event because I live nowhere near it.

 

[Karran]

I'm stuck doing the same walks during the week this time of year, but at the weekend take them out of London to some of the country parks in Kent. In summer, when the parks are open longer I can go to woods after work and a larger park in the mornings.
They're always super happy to go in the car and I can tell with Mrs Spaniel at least. She makes it specially obvious at weekends, when she marches out and sits by the car door expectantly and says she'd rather go home than go to the same boring park again!

 

[Tinkerbee]

Monday to Friday I tend to do the same walks morning and evening, maybe going the opposite way on the canal. Always seems to be new smells for him to explore so he's happy. At the weekends I'll stick to local canal/woods if the weather is bad but otherwise like to mix it up quite a lot. Lucky as we have loads of different walks locally and on the edge of the Peaks so never short of a change of scenery. I do get a bit bored of the same walks, but it's nice to see the changing seasons along the canal

 

[AmyMay]

I vary my walks as much as possible. I really am spoilt for choice on where I can go and like to take full advantage of it. We both (me and the dog) enjoy the variety.

 

[alibali]

My dog is so much more excited and switched on when we go somewhere new or we haven't been for a while so I try to vary my walks as much as possible

 

[Chiffy]

I am always one who varies walks although I remember reading years ago that dogs don’t mind as there are always new sniffs and it’s the walker who likes the variety.
My dogs are still enthusiastic if I go the same way most of the time but they definitely do like going further afield to the walks we do less often. They get seriously excited when we arrive.

 

[Roxylola]

Mine don't seem to care massively. There are places we go less often and they always seem happy and excited there, interestingly they tend to always go rummaging in the same bush etc every time we go even if it is months apart. One of mine is a bit funny, in winter when our woods walk becomes a weekend thing not a daily thing (too dark so we pavement pound for a couple of months) she seems to want to scent mark everywhere with little wees, in summer when we go most days she's much less inclined to spray everything

 

[Stiff Knees]

Peril is a little reluctant to stray far when taken on a new route. She likes to get her bearings, then explore. Until she's confident enough to do that she keeps coming back to us for reassurance, gets a pat, then she's off again. The first time we took her into a forest, she seemed overwhelmed by the sheer size of EVERYTHING, and stuck like glue. She came to us at 14 months old and had been raised in a city so big trees and the size of the landscape were not familiar to her. She is definitely a rural dog now though. The forest walk is one of her favourites but she also does the same 6 mile walk everyday with my OH and never seems to tire of it. She knows exactly which trees will harbour squirrels, which fields will have puddles to play in and which farm gates to avoid (snappy dogs). ??

 

[paisley]

Probably, like everything, its dog-dependant. Mine gets a definate 'ping' to his step if we go somewhere new or different way round.
I have noticed a very obvious indifference if I've done the same 'walk round the block' before work too many times, and this includes when we lived near open fields in the country.

 

[Smitty]

I find my Duracell terrier is far less trouble on return and more likely to leave me in peace for a couple of hours if the walks are hardly ever done/new. Mind you, he is not an early riser and likes a lie in till 11.30 usually!

 

[oldie48]

We vary our walks a lot but Stanley does have an opinion and will sometimes just sit down to indicate which way he'd prefer to go. He's also adept at sitting down when we get close to home or the car in protest! It's not as if he's short of walks either as we are retired he usuallly gets two long walks each day.

 

[Roxylola]

Just occurred to me about variety, I sometimes see foxes out and about but they have very fixed routines which they presumably choose for themselves. So I might only walk or drive down a particular street at whatever time once every now and again but if it's about 9pm (or whenever) I can be pretty sure I will see a fox round there. I know dogs are far from the same as foxes but it's interesting that with anywhere to roam they choose and stick to a predictable route

 

[planete]

Most wild animals have an established territory and their route around it will only vary in response to weather or unexpected events. Dogs are probably much the same and may be more alert/excited and experience a slight rise in adrenaline when taken to new places as they will feel the need to be more alert?

 

[NAJRBSJ]

At the moment while its dark in th evenings I am walking the same common field in the forest. Mine are always off lead and I walk/run around the field 3 times to do just over 2 miles. Its big and fenced so it does mean I don't have to worry about them so much while I run. Once the evenings are light again I will vary my walk to a different fire road each day (Thetford forest so we have so many routes to choose from)

At weekends we do vary it but we also have our favourite walks.

 

[sportsmansB]

This time of year on week day mornings I pretty much always have to do the same walk, as the park opens at 7 and I can go in the dark.
I actually feel a bit bad if we have to go back to the same park in the evening (often she will come to the stables and just run for a few hours in the evening, but not every night at this time of year)
This morning, I had a meeting the opposite direction from work first thing so I was gonna have to come back past the house anyway. I loaded Nancy in and we had a lovely walk in a different park on a beautiful morning on the way to the meeting, she slept in the boot while I was at the bank, and then I dropped her home on the way past the house. I have NO IDEA if she cared about being in a different park this morning, but I enjoyed it...

I am a natural over thinker for my animals and always make sure that our weekend walks are in different parks to the weekday enforced ones, but if I'm honest she maybe doesn't care at all. She loves chasing a ball so we mix it up by sometimes bringing the ball and sometimes not, but I'm starting to think that I care much more about the locations than she does...

 

[yhanni]

It's interesting - the EBT gets very anxious if she is taken somewhere different. We have access to 4 different enormous fields that we walk her in and she loves it, she has various articles stashed about that she finds and plays with. The mastiff likes going to different places but is definitely more on his toes and hypervigilant. He tends to have 3 or 4 'educational' walks a week and the others playing with the Bull Terrier in the fields.