Question for dog owners

[meandthebump]

Hi there fellow doggie lovers
I have two lovely dogs and usually walk them twice a day, totalling between an hour and two hours. I just wondered how you're all finding dog walking these days? I walked about 4 or 5 miles today and was shattered. It was an easy walk along the beach so not scaling mountains or anything. I'm definately finding it more tiring than i used to and fell asleep on the sofa when i got home for a couple of hours.
My DH is going to be working very long hours in March/April so i'm going to have to do most of the walking and i'm a bit worried that i'm going to find it increasingly tough.

 

[Serendipity_]

My OH walks our dog but I am going with him in a little while to get some fresh air to try and clear my headache.

 

[ella]

Our dog is relly old and slow but I did still find walking her tough towards the end last time

 

[ejjie]

We've got a border collie so he needs a good long walk morning and evening. I've been fine so far but am getting slower and more breathless each day. You are a few weeks ahead of me so I can imagine it's tough. Maybe you could start making the walks a bit shorter but take a ball to throw for them when hubby is away? x

 

[Trudyscrumptious76]

The same as Ejjie really get them to do the running around. I'm lucky DH walks them mostly. The big one can pull a bit when excited, which I can control but DH is worried. We take him to a river about a mile away and he romps up and down that for hours if we let him. Or they'll both happily chase after sticks/balls/frisbees. Maybe make the dog to a bit more running while you get to stand still!

If they're anything like my 2 though they don't retrieve so I do have to do a fair bit of wandering round picking up bits but it's easier than a full walk.

 

[meandthebump]

Yes, will start taking the ball with me more. I'm lucky that one of them will bring it right back to my hand so i guess i could just sit on a bench and not even have to bend down to pick it up! This walking must be good for us though, it's the only exercise i'm doing at the moment. We'll have to wait and see how fitness levels go over the coming months

 

[ejjie]

I've taught my dog to bring the ball or frisbee back and put it in my hand too. I did it when I first found out about my pregnancy cos I realised I wouldn't be able to bend down to pick it up. You can buy frisbees from Sainbsburys that are really good and go a long way without too much effort!

 

[EllieBelle]

I managed to walk our collie for 2-3 miles a day until I hit about 32 weeks, then I had to cut it down to a mile a day and take a ball with us so she got additional exercise playing fetch for 10-15 mins, from 37 weeks I was lucky as my hubby was working at home and was able to walk her for me........she is currently on holiday for 3 weeks on a residential training course, to give me a break after the c-section!

I did look into getting a dog walker 2-3 times a week, but because we are in a tiny village miles from a main town, I wasnt able to find anyone locally, the nearest one being 14 miles away and it would have cost £20 a walk (£13 of that was travel expenses).

 

[Frog99]

Mine dogs were a right handful before I got pregnant but it's become a bit of a nightmare now!

Dog one - is an 11yr old boxer who will walk nicely by my side until we see a person. Then I have to put him on his lead as he 'goes for them' - very over protective and always has been.

Dog two - is a 5yr olf staffie X who pulls a lot on the lead (even dog training didn't stop this). I let him off most of the time and he does have a tendancy to run off but he does always reappear about 10mins later. I don't think he'll ever got lost so I don't think it's a problem. He's always been fine with people and other dogs but recently he's been barking at people which is a new habit - I think he might be becoming over protective.

Dog three - is a very boiserous 3yr old boxer who I've only had for 6mths. He dislikes other dogs so will fight and is obsessed with toys. He refuses to drop them for me but will jump up at me and try to get me to play with him. This is the one causing me the most problems at the moment - he can very easily pull me over which is a concern plus the jumping up
thing isn't very safe.

I'm lucky and live 2mins walk from the beach and 5secs for the coastal path so I used to walk them all off their leads together and rarely had much trouble with them that I couldn't deal with. I used to take them out every morning for about an hour. However the extra mis-behaving and me being more worried about getting knocked over etc has meant I now have to walk each one individually - which means they only really get 20mins max each which isn't really enough for such large energetic dogs.

I'm not getting tired as such, just REALLY out of breath.

I did enjoy taking them all the beach the other day though - it was really quiet so I just sat down and let them run about on there own until they looked suitably tired to round up and trek home.

When it starts getting lighter in the evenings I'll walk them with my OH which will be fine as they all behave a lot better with him. No idea how I'll handle three dogs and baby though - it'll be chaos!