Ladies and Gentlemen:

I'm new to the Dog Forum, so excuse me if you've beaten this one to death. My search for info on this subject was not particularly fruitful.

I have a two year old English stock chocolate female lab. She is holding her weight at +/- 60lbs. I am interested to hear your collective thoughts on establishing a routine physical fitness program. (Knowing of course, that nutrition is a critical element here.)

I know that much of this will be individual to my dog, but in general, how much running is appropriate, both in distance, time and frequency?

And what about conditioning swims? Again, any thoughts on time-in-water, frequency?

One reads various tables and formulae for aerobic training and fitness in humans. Is there a similar thought process for canines?

Any insight or advice will be greatly appreciated.

let her run and swim as much as she wants? make sure she gets atleast one run a day, as she needs time to empty out.

i have 3 working dogs that i use for sheep and cattle. they are outside running around free 9 out of 10 days for most of the day, for the other day they just get 15minutes out of the kennel to empty out. they also do a lot of running and they are all fit as.

i feed my dogs at night time, and i let them out after probably 10 hours or so. this gives them time to eat and rest and also to digest.

if you are always letting them out in the morning, they will almost always wait to be let out and wont piss or take a crap in there kennel, mine consist of basically a big wooden box, with a 2m long run that is caged. it wont matter if yours is on a lead tied up to a triangular box, they normally wont crap on the lead(hopefully). but im lucky as mine are situated 30m from the house in the paddock and they can do their business in the paddock and i dont have to worry about cleaning it up.


anyway. you probably need to do what suits you. just take her for a 2km run or so before or after work, and on a hot day run past a river or lake or whatever and let her go for a swim! itll keep her happy and with the running youll do youll get fit and be in good healthy physical form yourself

I like to let the dog decide for me how much. I work heavy construction and have returned to see our hammerhead way too fat, kind of like me. It is hard to find a safe place to swim up here this time of the year. The deep snow is a great resistance medium. Toss a dummy till you see a noted decrease in the dogs speed, she is telling you she is tiring. In the open water season we will go until he is tired.

I really think charts are a little off base for people,too. Too many variables in the individual. Apply a little common-sense and no one should get hurt.

Sometimes dogs do need help to be fit. Here's how i'd help a lab dog if i had one. They showed this backpack on the "dog whisperer" show which you could probably buy off the net. It straps over the dog and you put a bottle of water on each side for weight. This gives the dog a little job to do so it feels useful, plus it helps give it an intense exercise if you take it for a walk. I'd probably tie it onto the back of the 4 wheeler and give it a nice run up in the woods, or let it just follow if it was well behaved.

Plinker

quote:

Originally posted by youp50:
I like to let the dog decide for me how much. I work heavy construction and have returned to see our hammerhead way too fat, kind of like me. It is hard to find a safe place to swim up here this time of the year. The deep snow is a great resistance medium. Toss a dummy till you see a noted decrease in the dogs speed, she is telling you she is tiring. In the open water season we will go until he is tired.

I really think charts are a little off base for people,too. Too many variables in the individual. Apply a little common-sense and no one should get hurt.

My thought exactly, might as well be working on the retrieves at the same time. Probably 10-20 mins every day. Swimming is always better. I don't know how much a constant pounding of running is good for a Lab. Most "wear out" from work well before their time - and time is short enough as it is with good hunting dogs/pets . Mine is nearing 10 yo, hasn't been worked hard enough really, and is in pretty good condition.

My wife, a DVM, likes the Purina One foods - follow the Recommended Amounts (according to temps and activity level of course), and mine eats the Healthy Wieght Formula. My almost 1 yo English Setter has just moved from the puppy formula to the Rice & Chicken/Lamb/Beef.