There are many forms of exercise and some may or may not be appropriate in various contexts.

As a dog in a kennel is being "exercised" by being exposed to a level of stimulation not usual to most house dogs on a DAILY basis it actually does not NEED any EXTRA exercise for short periods of time.

The same is true for example if a dog is housebound due to extreme weather conditions such as snow and ice where it could be dangerous to take a dog out for both it and the owners.

There will ALWAYS be times when exercise is restricted for short periods of time for dogs:

illness of dogs
illness of owners
hazardous weather conditions (ice, heat etc)
kennels

etc etc

Dogs do not come to any harm from this.

They often DO come to harm from being taken out when they are ill, unfit, when it is too hot, when it is icy, etc

Jolly well said!! I absolutely and totally agree. Exercise to a dog means at the very slowest, trotting, interspersed with long spells at the run and full stretch, depending on their size, age and level of fitness. To give an example, my daughter's little chihuahua ran the whole length of the beach from Putsborough to Woolacombe in Devon, and most of the way back again, interspersed with several spells of manic flat out circling round and round, plus several forays into the sea.

How on earth could you give that little guy that amount of exercise on a lead? That is an extreme example of course, I am not suggesting that a chihuahua needs that level of exercise, but it you even drastically reduced that down in both length and time, unless you are a jolly fit jogger, then there is no way you could give anywhere near that amount of exercise to Gucci on a lead.

You can exercise your dogs on a lead from a bicycle, or even a horse, and of course in harness pulling a rig, but there can be no better way to exercise your dog than letting him run free, to twist, turn, stop, start, jump, do whatever he wants unleashed and free. This is not meant to be a criticism at all of people who have to keep their dogs on leads for one reason or another, just purely a belief I have based on my knowledge and understanding of dogs.

True ... but walking - in your own words - is an "excellent way of building fitness - once built, then you need to run. Once a dog is fit, as mine are, walking is only used as a warm up and a cool down, or merely for lavatorial purposes.

When the hunters were brought in off the grass to be clipped and got fit for hunting, they were of course as fit as pigs and totally unfit. We would gradually get them fit by walking, then gradually increasing the length of the ride and the pace and so on until they were hunting fit. They weren't walked whilst out hunting, they were a lot of the time working extremely hard. The equivalent to a dog being kept on the lead the whole time is for a hunter to be forced to walk the whole time whilst out hunting.

Swimming - now you're talking, that is of course a brilliant way for all of us, horses and dogs included, to exercise. But dogs are not aquatic creatures, they are not seals, they have legs, they need to run, and that means being let off lead if at all possible.

Well I think the point here is that it is all relative to the individual dog(s) and their owners?

There are some dogs who cant take the sort of exercise that mine can take even though they are medically healthy and the same age, so I suppose for some dogs the mental stimulation coupled with a short toilet break may be enough?

Unless the dog was chronically sick or very old, I would say that "just a short toilet break would never be enough".

[QUOTE] wish you could convince Tupac of that!

Your definition of exercise is certainly nowhere near mine! Mental stimulation is just that ... mental stimulation ... it is certainly not physical exercise, and I will never ever be convinced than dogs do not need, want and thrive on physical exercise, in the same way that we do.

I walk my dogs in all weathers - heat, ice, deep snow, hail, rain, thunder storms, howling gales, come what may my dogs get their two daily walks.

Dogs need exercise, the same as we need exercise, honed for sure in times of illness, injury or infirmity, but physical exercise they surely need.

My daughter has just left having brought her new chihuahua puppy over, a dear little bitch of about 12 or so weeks old, maybe older. Earlier this evening we walked her round the field with our two, a distance of probably three quarters of a mile, and she did the whole thing, mostly just trotting along but breaking into a gallop on occasions when she had got left behind. Bless her, she weighs probably less than a kilo, and she managed the distance, including the hill. No-one was forcing her, at any time we would have picked her up if she had shown any sign of distress, but she was having a wonderful time. When we came in, she jumped up on the sofa, much to the horror of my boys who are not allowed on the sofa, and curled up and went to sleep. Happy and contented following a good work out. Exercise is vital for health and happiness.

Yeah, I know what you mean, show Ben a piece of water and he launches himself into it ... he smells out water, especially muddy water, and makes a bee line for it!!

If they cannot do it properly then they shouldn't be in business IMO. If that means charging a bit more and blowing your trumpet about what you do as good PR, then that's fine by me. I hope that I never need to use the services of a boarding kennels, but were I to have to, I would most certainly seek out - and be prepared to pay a higher price - for a kennel that took the time and trouble to exercise my boys.

I never use kennels but if I did I wouldn't pay for off lead area, I don't think mine would run around unless a ball was involved or someone ran with them, I don't like Mollie running anyway as it is always when she has run her hip hurts her.
Duncan would get over a fence unless it was sheer slippery sided as he seems to be able to climb anything !

As for is exercise on lead really exercise I think it must be as mine are rarely off and are fit as butchers dogs apart from allergies and Mollies hip, which is worsened by too much exercise.