What sort of exercise do you give your dogs?

Any extras added onto walks? Special toys or activities? Do tell!   

normally 2 walks a day of a minimum of an hour, they have access to the springpole all the time really, flirt pole (until it broke) a few times a week.

When i can, take them weight pulling, am hoping to compete more this year with them.

No wonder your boys are so fit! What's your flirt pole like? Demps' is just a bamboo cane attached to a soft toy by a piece of cord.

basically a flexi plastic pole with hole at the end with bit of rope and toy, so not that different

Ah okay! Glad I'm not the only one who didn't go out and buy one of these professional looking ones!

haha nope!

Cheepskates!

No, why pay a fortune for something you can make yourself a helluva lot cheaper!

Although I'll probably switch the bamboo for something more flexible... It keeps breaking!

Our games tend to be 'pulling' rather than anything else. They both enjoy pulling on each end of a rope. Buster won't 'fetch' to save his life. Gus will but is intercepted by Buster. 'Out of the garden' activities are generally just walking as I have to keep them on-lead and out of trouble.

It can be a bind to live surrounded by countryside as everybody seems to have at least one dog and every remote place you go to has at least one other person there looking for a remote spot for their dogs. I can't tell you how many times I've thought 'great - nobody around for miles, I think I'm safe to let them off-lead, only to spot somebody with a dog in the distance.

Sometimes I go out at night in the pitch black simply because it is the only time I can have them off lead in the whole day (because I am the only idiot doing it and the countryside is dog free.)

That must be a pain!

It's one of the reasons I love walking in the rain - nobody else is around. The fair-weather walkers hide inside, while the rough-and-tough walkers stick it out!

No, lexi is literally the most boring dog. No toys, not nothing. Just walking about and the occasional chasing of a wind surfer lol

Eleanor wrote:That must be a pain!

It's one of the reasons I love walking in the rain - nobody else is around. The fair-weather walkers hide inside, while the rough-and-tough walkers stick it out!

We do the rain walking too and like you - I enjoy it because there are few other walkers around. Buster hates it though but there again, he is a wus.

Doesn't Lexi like toys? Bless her!

Isn't that always the way? Find an ideal walking weather condition and the dogs don't want to know!

Apart from walks, Kuchar's exercises are chasing things up and down our (luckily large) living room. His favourite at the moment is a largely disintegrated old trainer of my son's, but I also swear by plastic drinks bottles, capped and slightly deflated, beautifully crunchy and noisy!

They make excellent toys! Dempsey has one inside a natural burlap-type covering, which he got for Christmas.

Speaking of, I think I need to start upping his play time a bit. He's starting tearing up his bedding again! Pooped some out earlier!

me and Tilly have a game called "Daddy Chair" it involves her jumping up on my chair every time I get up or alternatively when I feel the head on my knee and am shamed to move over to let her fit in , she also jumps down , which in turn involves maybe 3 rounds of "Daddy Chair" per day ....................... lazy little mare

How nice of her to let you sit in her chair! You should be grateful!

My lot have a spring pole but to be honest only Gizmo uses it.

We also have several landrover tyres but again, its mainly Gizmo that plays with them.

We have an automatic ball thrower that can take up to 10 balls and the idea is they fetch them and drop them back in the bowl for it to go again however none of them have mastered that bit yet. We have only spent about 3 hours in total though over various days and i am hoping that by the summer Gizmo will have mastered it. It will wear him out when i am working.

Gizmo also loves to swim. When i had my hot tub he would come in that with me but i don't have it anymore. He has a little plastic pool that he splashes in and really enjoys it but we are looking to get him a pool he can actually swim in very soon. They did have an inflatable one in the Range near me that was 51 cm in depth and about 2.2 meters X 1.86 meters but not sure if he would be able to swim in it. It was only £15 so i may just take the chance.

I can just imagine you all getting fit using the automatic ball thrower and retrieving the balls for the dogs yourselves!  

ladymarmalade wrote:We have an automatic ball thrower that can take up to 10 balls and the idea is they fetch them and drop them back in the bowl for it to go again however none of them have mastered that bit yet.  We have only spent about 3 hours in total though over various days and i am hoping that by the summer Gizmo will have mastered it.  It will wear him out when i am working.

If you don't use a clicker get one and train them with it. I never believed in them but they do work, amazingly.

My lot have a run through the fields every second day and play in the yard rest of the time. I have a massive fenced area and they chase each other and do dog things. They also have some formal obedience training every day.

Really interesting to see all the ways people exercise their dogs!

Just walks, she very rarely plays with toys. It takes a very special toy (usualy pink) to make her play. Have been working on some dance moves lately, have her going around and through the legs hehehe

My two just get walks now. They used to run about mad playing but recently they havent been able to play offlead or have any toys because it just leads to fights

What a shame.   I don't suppose you can walk them separately for a bit of off lead fun?