Walking a dog

granny, if you don't have a neighbour who could help, have a look at the Cinnamon Trust website - they provide volunteer dog walkers for just this kind of situation...

grannyactivist We have a largish dog. He has a 40 minute-1 hour walk in the morning - around 10.30 - and about 30 mins in the evening - around 7.00. I think that's sufficient. Three long walks a day seems excessive to me.

I hope the info re the Cinnamon Trust that devongirl gave you (thank you devongirl) will prove useful, and that you soon feel better.

GA - your dog will have to fit in with your capabilities.
Ours is a border collie. We used to do one long walk in the afternoon, about 1.5 hours, but we've reduced it now. to about 30 mins. even she can't do it. She's nearly 15.
It's always puzzles me why dogs don't take themselves for a walk, they obviously enjoy it so much.

Must be because they know it's illegal for dog to be out on the street without a lead Tricia

I don't know anyone who walks their 5 times a day ga
We don't have a dog at the moment but have only ever done twice a day.

Depends a lot on the age and breed of dog grannyactivist sounds like a lot of walks to me. My three dogs don't have anything like that. As TriciaF said your dog needs to fit in with your capability. There are people who dog walk for a living so worth a look.

We take our two out for about 20-30 mins off lead in the morning (around 7.45) and again for a little longer in the afternoon - that's it. Thy have the garden to run around in too.

While you are unwell the dog will just have to fit in with you! It's not ideal but you must come first, so long as the dog has chance to relieve itself regularly he will survive!

Your dog is having you on!
We had a lab for 16 years and no way did she get 5 walks a day!
One main walk supplemented by the morning/evening "toilet " stroll.
Could you take a friend with you on the main walk and do what we used to do to wear our dog out exercise our lab. You each stand either side of something the size of a cricket/football pitch. And take it in turns to call the dog!
Surprisingly easy especially if you both have treats in your pockets.
Finally please don't let on to Hattie about all these walks !

Thank you, this is all very reassuring. A long time has passed since we last had a dog and my older children were teenagers then so there were a lot of us who enjoyed walking him; I didn't really know what was 'normal'.

Having had a labrador in the past, agree with others, five walks a day is excessive! ours had two, morning and evening, otherwise gambolled about in the garden.

My little old dog gets a walk as and when I feel I can do it . Definitely not 5 walks a day .if I can only manage 2 short walks then that's all he gets.

Hi grannyactivist, your dog is having more walks than needed. Mine are young, fit and active, the routine is usually an hour in the morning, including some off lead and half an hour evening, on lead. They fit in with us and can manage without off lead as well as shorter walks.
My dog training friends all advise, make them think, ten minutes trick or obedience, retrieving, sitting while you hide something in the house or garden , then the command 'find it' will tire them more than an hour's excercise. I learned this from a brilliant trainer - the hard way! Look after yourself x

How old is your dog? If he gets out twice a day and has a happy owner at home , he is a lucky one, don't hurt yourself, dogs love walks and will walk all day and still look at you with soulful eyes as if you have done nothing for them ever, as long as he is fed, has company, has a run and gets toilet breaks he is fine, care for yourself first

We had a lurcher many years ago and she HATED exercise! I took her for a short walk first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and a slightly longer one in the afternoon, all she wanted was to curl up and sleep.

Sounds like my kind of dog, callgirl. Our JRs exercise themselves running round our field.

ga, who normally does the walking? If it's the Wonderful Man can you not send the dog to doggy day care until he gets back?

Lots of walks are great for a dog if the owner loves it too but dogs are adaptable and as long as they're having a few toilet breaks then a rest from frequent walks while you're unwell is fine. Don't make yourself I'll to walk the dogs.

We have been using a dog behaviourist to help us iron out a couple of bad habits ( our fault) that our Cavalier had .

One of things he said was exercise is not all about walks , it's about activity. So for instance every other day we go into our garden ( it's not huge) , make Sam sit and wait and toss a piece of food out into the grass. We start at about 2 metres away. We then release Sam and he has to 'work' , using his nose to find the food. We spend about 20 mins doing this , throwing further and further away. Sam is panting and out of breath by the time we finish. If it's windy , it's harder work for him to find the scent but if he's missing it we just walk out into the vicinity of the food until he tries again.

It's tires his brain, not just his legs. The food we use comes from his main meal so it's not as well as ( otherwise he'd be waddling by now ?) .

So, maybe something like that might help cut down on lengthy walks while you're not feeling so good Granny ?

Tricia; I used to know a Labrador (Dougal) that took himself for a walk round a nearby country park each day (his owner lived next to it; no roads to cross etc). Really important that you take it slowly Granny activist, but you know that anyway; don't feel guilty about the dog...look after yourself first.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9mSPFw7BXo

All together now......