How Many Times a Day Should You Walk a Dog? Focus on THIS Instead

While you may be wanting to know how many times a day you should walk your dog, I want to convince you in this article to think about this question differently!

Before you close this tab, stick with me for a few minutes. I promise by the end of this article you’ll feel more confident in assessing your dog’s exercise needs each day. 

And I know the sentiment of this question comes from a desire to make sure you’re meeting your dog’s needs, which is a fantastic thing! So I want to dig into that a little bit more, and help us all improve our dog’s lives (and ours as well in the process).

If you’re really dying for a number, I’d say at least one walk a day. Or at least 60 minutes of total walking time. Preferably you’d give two walks per day, too!

BUT…

Let’s flip the script on this question and find a better way to think about our dogs’ exercise and stimulation needs.

Where I previously lived I almost never walked my dogs.

Yup, you read that right.

But you know what I did do a lot of?  Fetch, tug of war, playing at the park, snuffle mats, hikes, lick mats, hide and seek, and doggy play dates.

While we rarely went on a standard “walk” around our neighborhood, my dogs still had plenty of exercise, bonding, and enrichment time throughout the day.

The trap of thinking about how many times you need to walk your dog is that walks aren’t the only measure of a happy, healthy, and well-exercised dog.

And every dog is different (you’re gonna be sick of hearing that by the end).

Some dogs absolutely love walks. They love the bonding time, they love the sniffs, and they love the leisurely exercise.

Some dogs just don’t really care for walks but enjoy the experience and get enough enrichment out of it.

Some dogs need loads more than just a walk… 👇

I could walk my dog Scout for 2 hours straight and she wouldn’t be tired… at all. She would actually probably end up a little bit bored.

But let her play fetch for 30 minutes and she will be visibly enjoying herself and come home more tired than the 2-hour walk scenario.

Certain breeds have been bred for 100s (if not 1,000s) of years to perform specific tasks.

My Labrador Retrievers were literally bred to help retrieve items. That is their “life calling” if you want to give it a name.

So ask yourself, what was your dog bred to do?

If the answer is to be a lap dog, then walks might be perfectly suitable for meeting his or her exercise needs.

But if the answer is to help with hunting, walks might not be enough.

Or if the answer is to herd livestock, walks might not be enough.

Possibly the answer is to protect, and walks might not be enough.

Do you see what I mean?! Every single dog is different!

The key is to find what type of exercise your dog derives the most enjoyment and physical exertion from, and do that.

And if you find yourself coming home from a long walk and your dog is still hyper, it might be time to reassess your exercise routine.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pop furred.
Hello, pop parents and welcome to today's episode of the
perfect pup podcast. My name is Devin, I have two
goals in this episode. Number one is, for my dogs, not
to think that I'm going to take them on a walk because I'm going
to be saying that word over and over.
And number two, it is going to be to convince you to flip the

(00:24):
script on the question of how many times or how often, or how
long should I walk my dog each day?
So let's get right into it to give a basic answer if you
really want to know how many times you should walk your dog
per day, I would say at least once ideally to and at least for
60 minutes total and every dog is different.

(00:44):
We're going to talk more about that but I want to challenge all
of us as parents to think differently about how we
approach exercise and taking care of our dogs, physical
needs. We used to live in Utah and when
we live I rarely took my dogs onwalks.
We played a lot of fetch in our backyard at the park.

(01:07):
We did a lot of hiking, we did alot of things like tug-of-war
and using a flirt Pole or, you know, we would go in our yard
and our dogs would wrestle or just run around.
Play chase. You know, we did a lot of things
but we didn't go on walks very frequently.
There were most days that I never.
I didn't take my dog on walks atall and now I live in New York

(01:29):
City and my dog. Dogs.
Go on walks, very frequently butthat is because we, you know, go
to the park where they have timeto run off leash and explore and
play fetch. But you know, there's not a
card. We don't have a car to get them
there. We're doing it on walks but I
make that kind of Distinction tobring home that point that you

(01:49):
can give your dog plenty of exercise and plenty of
enrichment without ever going onwalks.
And, you know, I think a lot of times as new parents, especially
we We think. Okay, I've got to get my dog on
a couple of walks. We go for a 20 30 minute walk,
sometimes it's stressful, there's leash pulling, there's
other problem, behaviors, and then you get home and your dog,

(02:10):
still hyper and you're thinking,why, what's going on here?
I took my dog on a good walk, what's the problem here?
And it's important to look at our breeds and to think about
the differences that are breeds have and what your dog has been
bred to do, you know the word breed, right?
Like, there's bread in there andcertain breeds.
Have been bred for hundreds if not thousands of years to

(02:33):
perform specific tasks, right? My Labrador Retrievers.
They were literally bred to helpretrieve items, often fishing
nets from The Bays from water where they lived with their
humans. Other breeds were bred to herd
animals. Other breeds were bred for
protection. Some breeds were LED bred to be

(02:54):
left dogs and for those lap dogs, just going on walks might
be enough. But Your dog was bred to herd
other animals and have free reinand to run around and to chase
into two, heard a walk, only notgoing to be sufficient for
meeting your dogs need. So I think it's so important to
look at our dogs. Forget about just number of

(03:16):
walks or how long or how much should I exercise my dog?
And look at what is your dog? Looking for?
What will help your dog feel fulfilled and what is your Dog's
Purpose? Right.
And And deciding to find activities and to approach
things with that, lens will be so much more beneficial than o.
Give your dog to 30-minute walksa day.

(03:39):
This episode was inspired by a Reddit thread that I stumbled
upon I love. Reddit has so many great
insights for so many different topics but the way that the
poster and this Reddit Communitytalked about kind of flipping
the script and how we should askthis question of, you know, how
many times a day should I walk my dog?
They put it this way. They said how much enrichment
activity? And bonding time.

(04:01):
Do you spend with your dog? I think that's so much more
important and if you can focus on those three facets, your dog
will be much much happier and you'll be happier as a pup
parent. So let's break those down really
quickly, enrichment. Right, we've talked about this
before, mental exercise. There's things like snuffle.
Matt, slick, mats. There are foraging boxes.
You can play hide-and-go-seek with treats.

(04:22):
You can give your dog a mini obstacle course there.
So even trick training. There's so many different things
that you can do to work. Your dog's nose.
And in turn work their brain. The second is exercise.
We'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.
And then the third is bonding, right?
Even if you were to take your dog on a couple walks per day,
but then when they're in the home, they're just bored.

(04:43):
They're not doing anything. You're not paying attention to
them, you're not getting time to, you know, one-on-one
interaction with them. I think that goes a long way for
our dogs, they rely on us and they enjoy our companionship, so
it's important to give them someof that a lot of that as much as
we can in a realistic manner on it.
Basis point that I kind of glossed over a physical
exercise. Let's go back into that.

(05:03):
Let's talk about some alternatives to going on walks,
because like I said, walks can be valuable some breeds, that's
all they need some breeds, that's all they want.
They love just, you know, being by your side and getting some
sniffing in and peeing on everything and just exploring
the city around them. But for many other dogs, it's
not enough and my dogs in particular, I could take my dog

(05:24):
scale on a 23 hour long walk andyou know what she would come
home, she would not be tired. She would actually probably get
bored at. Whereas if I played 30 minutes
of Fetch with her, you can see it's hard, you know, I don't
want to be giving too much of ananthropomorphism, but it, you
can seem to see some happiness in her eyes.
And, you know, she just seems way more into it.

(05:46):
You have her Focus, she loves what she's doing and she's be
way more tired with 30 minutes of fetch than she would with a
two to three hour walk. I'm not exaggerating.
So here's some other walking Alternatives that you can try
with your dog if especially if you're feeling like, wow, these
walks are Enough for getting my dogs energy out and getting them
tired hiking. I love love hiking with my dogs.

(06:07):
The nice thing about hiking is that you can do it on a six foot
leash, you can do it, you can use the 30-foot lead to give
your dog more freedom to exploresome hikes, allow your dog off
leash. So there's just so much
opportunity for them to, you know, see new things.
One reason I love hiking with mydog's is, you know, you do have,
for example, two-mile hike. They probably do a 10-mile hike
because I run it back and forth in exploring and it's just so

(06:28):
much, exercise puppy. They do not underestimate the
value of a puppy play date because at the end of the day,
another dog is going to be way more effective at Tire.
Your dog out and honestly letting your dog have some fun,
then you probably will be because the Hogs they need
interaction with each other. There's the socialization there.
You know, you can't wrestle withyour dog, like another dog.

(06:49):
Can they're going to chase each other?
They're going to run. They're gonna interact and play
and just that sociability is so important.
We talk about this on a previousepisode running with your dogs
if it To your dog. If your dog is old enough, if
it's something you like to do, it can be a great way to you
know again take 30 minutes and instead of it being just a walk
it can be, you know, instead of about a mile long walk, you can

(07:10):
go to 24 miles and and be able to see new things and have new
experiences with your dog which I think is so important, don't
underestimate the value of even if you just want your walk to be
more valuable or to be more enriching for your dog.
Take A New Path find somewhere. You've never been before the new
smells and the sounds and the sights and the other.
Dogs and people they might run across.

(07:31):
It's going to make that walk so much more enjoyable.
I mentioned this before you can just do hide and seek in your
house or around your yard or however it works.
You know, if your dog's food motivated, hide their food, hide
some treats and let them sniff it out and run around and find
it. If they like toys are a ball,
you can hide their ball, my dogslove searching out there.
Ball one that I really must mention is a flirt pole, because

(07:52):
if you're using a flirt pole, it's really The Best of Both
Worlds, because you're giving physical and mental exercise
because you can incorporate, youknow, Telling your dog to wait
and then chase, you know, you'reworking on the drop Behavior.
There's that interaction, plus, they're running and chasing, and
you know, if you're stuck insidebecause of whether it's a great
way to Tire your dog out, I hopethat you can use this episode to

(08:15):
start thinking more, critically about how you're approaching
your dogs exercise and and really looking at your dog as an
individual, but also as a breed and thinking, okay, what is most
valuable to my dog, specifically, and how can I find
time to incorporate that versus just I've got to get my dog out
doing the bathroom. Let's get him on a quick block.

(08:36):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.If you have not already, please
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Give me feedback. I read every single one of them.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe,leave a comment and other than
that you will catch you on the next episode.