I have not made anything personal and have been discussing the matter in an adult manner 'oldboy'. The comments have been in line with the thread topic and nature progression of the conversation.

This was something i was also trying to get across, for me a keystone of dog ownership is walkies. If its just compainionship you are after then get a different pet with less need for exercise of this nature.

Exactly! Also, the people who complain about living in a city and having few places to walk are of course far more likely to live in small to medium sized houses with little garden or no garden....... which is kind of a double whammy for the poor old dog.

I mean obviously there will be some compromise (unless you happen to own a farm in the middle of nowhere with acres of land).............................. Living in a city means I basically only have 1 place to walk mine where the lead can come off (along the canal), in an ideal world we would be able to explore somewhere *new* everyday. Although walking along a well used canal does (I imagine) give lots of interesting smells to explore. I try to vary the routes by getting on and off at different points, going one way and then the opposite way the next day... etc etc.

But all that requires effort of course..... some people would rather half a 'house' dog or simply walk around the local waste ground for 20mins once a day.

People who are too lazy & selfish to walk their dog/s are as bad as people who insist on shutting a cat indoors all the time IMO.

Come off it Labradork, like I told Razcox - if you wish to have a personal argument, then please use the PM, I am more than willing to play. Members do not wish to read a ping - pong game of me against the few.

In fact some posters have already demonstrated their intelligence by giving quite positive replies.

John Bull

The problem is you only seem to consider the intelligent posters to be the ones agreeing with you. Believe me there is nothing personal in this thread. Try getting invloved in an NI thread now that gets personal! . . .

There is a reason that taking aways one freedom and confiment still being the excepted method of punishment for the worst crimes we can commit. Its a horrible way to live. I would not condem an animal i profess to love to this exsistance if it could be avoided by me getting of my bum for 1/2 an hour a day.

I have to admit I'm quite selfish when it comes to walks - I like longs walks and it makes me happy when my dog is having fun too. We have one 1-2 hour walk every day, the doggy has a bit of on lead time, some sniffing time and some playing/chasing with other dogs time.
If we only do on lead walkies he will pester me to play later which only means he didn't get tired enough. So I'd say quality is more important.

I did not "get personal".

You said anyone who thought walking their dog every day was an idealist, living in a fantasy world, has been watching too much Walt Disney, etc. That is your opinion, fine, but I think you'll find that the vast majority of people would disagree with you. Confining active, social animals to the same four walls 24/7 is cruel. You can't compare dogs with caged birds and zoo animals; we are talking about animals with entirely different needs here. If someone wants a pet but can't be bothered to take it out every day, they should look elsewhere. Cats don't require walking, or perhaps like something like a hamster.

I walk Ivan at all different times of the day so he never knows when a walk is coming. He adores going for a walk and will do his wookie talking and get all excited when he sees the lead.

BUT even if I don't walk him until late evening he will just laze about all day. He never demands to go for a walk or really looks to go out at all. Once I am in the general vicinity he is very content. I think it makes me feel better more than him. I wouldn't walk him for more than an hour either given he is giant breed with delicant joints etc.

So I would say horses for courses or whatever the saying is. Every dog, breed and owner are different and I think it's a matter of finding what suits you and your dog. An owner can tell when his or her dog is happy be that after a two hour jog or just a big big cuddle and quick game of fetch.

At the moment Jones has a main exercise walk, either beach, local ponds, cannel or up on the hills... Anywhere where is resonably quite... We do try to include a morning and evening stroll, which we are building upto...

But Jones is a special case, as where he spent his time in kennels he has socialised with other dogs, but didn't get the socialisation with encountering different environments as a pup sadly... So we are working on building his confidence to cope the semi-urban living...

My dogs that I had in the past were walked 2 to 3 times a day one main exercise walk and at least one small troddle out...

Time spent walking, has always been dependant on the individual dogs needs at any one point of time...

I have always found that even a stroll around the block for 10 minutes my dogs have been happier....

Does a dog need to exercise outside it's main home, couldn't say yes or no!

But I can say one thing, that it seems strange that the dogs that are distructive, pull on there leads, disobediant in many ways tend to be the ones, who see little of the outside world!! Yes it could be down to an owers inability to train there dogs well, but it could be said that the poor dog is bored out of it's tiny skull so is just amusing itself the best it can in a confined enviroment!

I only take my dogs for one walk a day when I finish work and thats normally for about an hour and half.

I would say it's a combination of both quantity and quality. In order for Jed to get some decent exercise, there has to be alot of scent about for him to get excited over because he doesnt play ball and he's piled on the pounds again lately. Therefore I have to choose somewhere where there is a high rabbit population or a wood with plenty of squirrels otherwise he wouldnt burn off his grub.

Winter is always hard because the dark nights are against you but i'm fortunate enough now that my job allows me to finish when I want really (the boss is unaware of this though!)

I vary where we go each day and what we do. Sometimes I take a toy for a different kind of exercise, sometimes they swim and sometimes they hunt. When all of these are combined in one walk, thats what I deem to be truly sufficient exercise for my dogs because then they are exhausted.