What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

I take Tiger out for a total of 2 sometimes even 3 hours a day for exercise. This includes walk and a game of fetch. Then at home I give him a bone provided that he do the basic commands given. I am really thinking of putting him in an adult level 1 training class at my nearest pet store. Of course he is a family dog and while the rest spoil him, I still persist and try to work with him. This way, I am working on advice from certified trainers and not random, entitled people at dog parks. I am also thinking of buying Pippa's book (s).

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

My lab usually gets two outings a day. Sometimes they're walks and sometimes they're training. The morning outing is almost always a walk and is anything from 20 - 45 minutes depending on other commitments in the day. The second session varies between another walk of 30 minutes or more and training. If I'm training on my own it's usually around the 30 minute mark, if I'm in class or with friends it can be 1.5 hours in duration.

In between that I do little odds and ends of training through the day as time allows.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Charlie gets 4 or 5 walks a day. : Only one of which is serious training, but it's the longest one. I try to do bits of training in the house, but most of what I'm working on needs space.

This is a hang over from when he got 10 walks a day recovering from surgery. We've never managed to reduce it down further. Plus, even now, it's still better for him to have his exercise in shorter sessions rather than one lump.

He gets 2 x 30 minute lead walks, which helps his lead walking (although not so much these days, as really to advance he has to be in a more exciting environment) - a dog walker does these walks so I can be in the office for part of the day.

Then, I'll do up to an hour off lead training and walking (more training, than walking).

He'll get another 30 to 40 min walk to the park with OH after work, which is nothing but messing about catching balls and failing to walk properly on his lead there and back. :

Last thing at night he gets 20 minutes round the block for a last poo.

He gets hydro sessions when my schedule allows, when it's less frantic, twice a week.

2 or 3 times a month, we go for a half day (3 hours) structured gundog training. And this year we'll do 2 weekends and 2 separate weeks away gundog training, and 3 days at clicker expo.

When I'm not at work, weekends and holidays, I do more training than this.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Wow Riley is seriously short changed !

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

It's a bit of a rod, I think. 3 hours a day plus the water treadmill, he just gets fitter and fitter and wants more and more.

But then, I'm proud when the gundog training says Charlie is fit enough, and fast enough - I wonder if I secretly want my show lab to be fit at gundog training.... ;D ;D ;D Yes, I think that might be part of why I maintain this routine.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Very different in the UK! What is a water treadmill???

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

[quote author=JulieT link=topic=10182.msg149270#msg149270 date=1426274340]
It's a bit of a rod, I think. 3 hours a day plus the water treadmill, he just gets fitter and fitter and wants more and more.

But then, I'm proud when the gundog training says Charlie is fit enough, and fast enough - I wonder if I secretly want my show lab to be fit at gundog training.... ;D ;D ;D Yes, I think that might be part of why I maintain this routine.
[/quote]

lol !!

I think Riley trains hard probably 4 times a week which involves really working. Fast outruns and returns, hunting in cover. If I want to get him panting some serious hunting in cover is the quickest thing!

A walk doesn't even come close. I think he could walk all day and it wouldn't make much difference to his fitness.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

[quote author=TigersMom link=topic=10182.msg149271#msg149271 date=1426274835]
Very different in the UK! What is a water treadmill???
[/quote]

It's as it sounds - a treadmill in a cabinet that is filled with water. Charlie started doing it when he was injured, and now we do it for fitness but also to maintain muscle tone on his hind, which suffered during a long rest period.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

[quote author=bbrown link=topic=10182.msg149273#msg149273 date=1426274951]
I think Riley trains hard probably 4 times a week which involves really working. Fast outruns and returns, hunting in cover. If I want to get him panting some serious hunting in cover is the quickest thing!

A walk doesn't even come close. I think he could walk all day and it wouldn't make much difference to his fitness.
[/quote]

No, walking isn't going to bring up a dog to a level of fitness for sprinting. Sprinting does that. But walking does help fitness, three of us walking Charlie up hills for 3 hours a day on lead made a significant difference. And when he didn't walk at all, his muscle reduction was just seriously scary.

But it's true that what keeps Charlie fit to run fast is retrieving and the treadmill.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

[quote author=JulieT link=topic=10182.msg149277#msg149277 date=1426275720]
[quote author=bbrown link=topic=10182.msg149273#msg149273 date=1426274951]
I think Riley trains hard probably 4 times a week which involves really working. Fast outruns and returns, hunting in cover. If I want to get him panting some serious hunting in cover is the quickest thing!

A walk doesn't even come close. I think he could walk all day and it wouldn't make much difference to his fitness.
[/quote]

No, walking isn't going to bring up a dog to a level of fitness for sprinting. Sprinting does that. But walking does help fitness, three of us walking Charlie up hills for 3 hours a day on lead made a significant difference. And when he didn't walk at all, his muscle reduction was just seriously scary.

But it's true that what keeps Charlie fit to run fast is retrieving and the treadmill.
[/quote]

I didn't mean to be flippant. Of course walking provides a baseline of fitness. I would say having undergone some reasonably intense training myself that walking uphill is significantly more exercise in fitness terms than walking on the flat and, importantly, still low impact in comparison to the jog or run rate required to see the same elevation in heart rate.

(I probably equalled Charlie's uphill walking hours at one point in my life : )

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Oh no! That's ok, I didn't think you were being flippant.

I'm probably still bearing the scars of the walking regime! I dislike - intensely - both walking for a long period with a dog on a lead and walking up hills. I'm a dog off lead on a flat beach girl really.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

We're lazy here in redneck country Idaho. :

Bella tottles around the yard for about 5 minutes in the morning to go pee/poo while I'm doing farm chores. Then she plays in the house until she leaves with Hubby to go to work with him.

she plays with cardboard, chases bottle caps, and otherwise entertains herself with (very) minimal supervision/interaction of hubby for a while before customers arrive, and then she's into the crate for a couple hours. She has lunch and a quick onlead potty walk mid day, sometimes some out of the crate play time...but mostly she just chills until I get there. I take her for a 5-10 minute onlead walk about town with opportunity to pee/poo. Then we go home.

At home she tottles around the yard, sniff and snoop, some bitey face and chase games with her big sister dog - if she's in the mood : and then inside we fix dinner, do a little basic pet obedience and trick games sometimes, and usually a play with the squeak and chase toys up and down the hallway....depending on her day sometimes she's a complete hooligan and does the butt-tuck running thing...and sometimes she just crashes on the couch chewing up whatever plastic bottle/container she's recently been given.

On the weekends is the only time we have where she can go on a serious off lead walk anywhere...and then it's one big walk of 45minutes - 1.5 hours or so out and about in the sometimes scary and dangerous woods of rural Idaho.

Now that the days are longer, we'll probably do more outside running around in our yard chasing tennis balls and such in the evenings - but all her outside play has to be supervised for safety sake. We don't have a fenced area for her to just be outside without supervision. But we do play pretty rowdy in the house on a regular basis ;D ;D ;D

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Welly is only 9m old so our routine is pretty much this...out for between 30 mins and 45 mins in the morning. This is a walk/training session, I try and mix it up, couple of exercises, then some play time, few more exercises and so on. Then if I'm in the office, my (20) yr old stepson or girlfriend will take him round the block at lunchtime (15 mins), then again at dinner time, then I usually take him for his pre bed stroll around 9.30 which takes another 20 mins on average...but might depend on how good he's being on the lead! We can go backwards and forwards quite a bit ☺️ So sometimes we get nowhere very fast as we try to practice lead walking.

When I'm not in the office and at the weekend Welly will get slightly longer walk-train I the morning, may be 60 mins no more, and then just some time in the garden during the day, lead walk at dinner time and bed time as before - 15 mins tops each walk.

On Saturday's I usally take him training for an hour to the local dog club, and on Sunday's I take him either to the beach or the woods to see if we can meet up with other dogs and I can work on him being a bit calmer round other dogs....☺️☺️☺️☺️ He is dog mad, and wants to play with every dog he sees, can't seem to understand that some of them wouldn't want to play with him and will even walk off with them rather than me. I'm afraid we definitely don't have a strong recall in this situation....which is why I'm practicing/don't even try..most of the time I have to go and get him and put him on the lead. I'm hoping as he gets older he might grow out of this?? LOL although it is lovely to see him play and I wouldn't want him ever to stop, I would like him to know when enough is enough and it is time to move on/come with me.....but oh life could be so much worse eh, at least I have a friendly (if overly friendly) pupster

Any suggestions though on whether folks think I'm training enough would be appreciated. It's probably 15 -20 mins, with an hour once a week and the odd 5 mins in doors if I'm trying to teach something new...like bow, or stand, or this weeks exercise will be paws on a mark/board

Also Julie would love to know more about where you go for your training 'holidays' and I must see about clicker expo!

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Dexter has 3 hours a day,2 hours in the morning off lead and an hour in the evening before dinner on lead ....whilst the weather is still cool enough I might give him another 20 /30 mins mid morning.He has a full day ,well 8.30-3pm at daycare once a week too. I don't think he needs that much but I like giving him that much because I'm lucky enough to have the time and getting out and walking with him was one of the things I was really looking forward to doing when we decided to get him,

[quote author=bbrown link=topic=10182.msg149273#msg149273 date=1426274951]

A walk doesn't even come close. I think he could walk all day and it wouldn't make much difference to his fitness.
[/quote]

I can have Dexter in the desert off lead walking,retrieving ,scampering,sprinting ( up,and down sandunes) then I can clip him on and walk home and meet someone with a dog just starting on their walk and Dexter will act like he's just come out of the house !! I have never seen him flop down tired until,he gets home to his bed ;D We do an hour lead walk for his tea time walk and we power walk it and There isn't a feather out of him

And I think the reason for this is as Julie puts it ......

[quote author=JulieT link=topic=10182.msg149270#msg149270 date=1426274340]
It's a bit of a rod, I think. 3 hours a day plus the water treadmill, he just gets fitter and fitter and wants more and more.

[/quote]

The more you do the fitter they become and I remember reading something warning about this.....don't just rely on walking a young dog to help you with any undersirable behaviours ...all you will end up with is a fitter young dog with more energy for mischief ;D
I also grab the clicker a couple of times a day and we do something to keep me laddos head ticking over ...
I like being in some kind of training class too as it's good for me to have focus and great for Dexter to work around other dogs but I've kind of exhausted all the options here now....
Wish we had dog clubs here!

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

There are loads of suppliers of doggy training holidays, the ones I go to are just training weeks and we all book our own accommodation and there isn't anytime to do anything outside of training.

But Philippa Williams, for example, does "proper" doggie training holidays, that have more activities than just training. For example: http://www.dogsforlife.c (dogs for life) o.uk/holidays/gundog_training.aspx

[quote author=LisaB link=topic=10182.msg149332#msg149332 date=1426316489]
He is dog mad, and wants to play with every dog he sees, can't seem to understand that some of them wouldn't want to play with him and will even walk off with them rather than me. I'm afraid we definitely don't have a strong recall in this situation....which is why I'm practicing/don't even try..most of the time I have to go and get him and put him on the lead. I'm hoping as he gets older he might grow out of this?? LOL although it is lovely to see him play and I wouldn't want him ever to stop, I would like him to know when enough is enough and it is time to move on/come with me.....but oh life could be so much worse eh, at least I have a friendly (if overly friendly) pupster
[/quote]

My dog used to be like this, but we got over it. We still have a problem at training if other dogs are playing with toys, balls and dummies but that's just about our only danger point now.

He didn't just grow out of it. We went to a trainer who had a lot of dogs, and we trained around other dogs using careful set ups. I am not sure letting him play on walks and just trying to get him to come away will help, really. I think the key is to get your dog used to, and expecting, to have to work around other dogs, and then proof all your cues properly.

Now, I expect his attention to remain on me until I tell him "go free" - and I only do that if I know the dog is one that is friendly and is likely to play appropriately. They don't need masses of play opportunities, a few with good mates is lovely, but moving away from the expectation of play with every dog they meet is key.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

I walk Poppy for about an hour a day, during the week, half an hour before work and half an hour in the evening. OH walks her for about an hour or so during the day, which involves a lot of tennis ball chucking and unstructured retrieving play. : My morning walk is often a mixture of bumbling and training - I often take a tennis ball or small dummy and hide it on the walk, then send Pops back to practice blinds, including the stop whistle and directional control. Obviously I can only do that once - once she realizes I have a ball, then she watches me like a hawk! Otherwise we do lots of memory marks, walking at heel, then sending her back for the retrieve.

I train formally with her most weekends - a Gundog training session with trainer and usually five other dogs, for around three hours. Sometimes we go to full-day seminars; and now the working test season has started we'll be entering several of those.

I think labs require a minimum of an hour's really good exercise each day, preferably with more at the weekend. And as already said, once they are fit, you can barely tire them out. The only time I see Pops really tired is when she has been mentally stimulated - after training, or visiting a new place. So the mental stimulation is just as important as the exercise, particularly with young fit dogs - otherwise they can start getting into mischief.

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

I do think my training time is quite inefficient. Other people have much better trained dogs, with less time.

My trainer says Charlie is a dog who is very forgiving because he'll keep trying even if I completely mess up it all up and fail to reward, but very unforgiving because he learns errors very quickly - which I then have to sort out. She says I'm not consistent enough, and I don't think things through enough... I must try to improve those things...and it's true I think, most of my training is trying to sort thing out...

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Thanks Julie and you are right apart from the once a week... I find it hard to find other dogs to practice any kind of training with apart from at training class, but you are right I need to continue being able to get him to focus on me when there are other dogs around outside of the class in different locations because all he wants to do is go play. More work on this is definitely required!!!

Thanks for the holiday/training tips will definitely check them out
Lisa

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

Having been used to German Pointers who can go all day and barely be out of breath, I find that my Labs are happy with about 15 mins on lead walk in the morning and a good hour off lead in the afternoon. They sleep between those times, one is just 3 years old and the other one is nearly 9, he is slowing down a bit!

 

Re: What is your daily training and exercise regime for your lab?

My two, both 3 years old, get 1.45 to 2 hours in the morning which is pretty full on mostly off lead and I get them sprinting a lot doing just fun ball play, more structured ball play ( flinging out three balls and them having to pick up in order I say etc etc), and some retrieving dummies/sit-wait-recall work.... A lot of their walk is in hilly terrain so they are working hard when they are just even scampering. They dont ever just walk, they mostly run or scamper, fast purposeful trot might happen for a bit if they are really puggled. Twice a week we hit the beach and thats just a swim and sprintathon. Three hours or so later before I go to work they get twenty mins or so one to one with me in the park doing some training. We work on different stuff depending on who it is, a lot of my training has been a bit haphazard so Im trying to do more structured stuff now...tea time when im home from work we go for a sniffy lead walk for 45 mins. Couple of times a week they come running with me instead of the sniffy lead walk, we are starting Canicross racing so we do kind of Training For Race Purposes Running, learning commands for fast, slow down, careful ( running down slippy hills) and stuff.... Couple of times a month we go hill walking, most they've done has been 3 hours. I have only seen Cuillin tired once, after physical exercise. Like others, training and going to new places tire her out much much more. . Im really aware that they just get fitter and fitter too if you throw lots at them, not that I mind as I like doing physical activity too....