Walkies till I drop.

Well Tess is almost 14 weeks old and has been going out for 2 weeks now and have sussed a pattern which works (for now)
Late afternoon about 4.00ish take Sal out first either to park in car for a ball throwing hour and half including some training to make her think . Or a good hour and half road walk.
Then I get back and take Tess out for 20 minutes either over the shops or to the school at playtime, sometimes a ride on the bus. Lots of meeting people situations etc. Most of Tess's walk would take me 4 or 5 minutes at most with Sal but with a puppy I like to stop and chat. When Iget back take Sal for a short 10 minute walk, so she does not feel left out.
Before this I take Sal out first thing in the morning about 5.30am for an hour road walking and the pup for 10 minutes to get the paper.
Then in the evening an hour road walking with Sal then back to the house to pick up Tess so they have a walk together for another 15 minutes which is very very slow because trying to walk a black puppy and an adult Stafford together seems to catch everyones attention and they all stop to chat.
So as you can see I will eventually become a shadow of my former self. Who needs weightwatchers when you can walk dogs. The above is a working day, not a day off when on day off Sal obviously has a good 3-4 hour walk in sutton park or similar. Plus of course she does agility on Tuesday evenings and flyball on Sunday mornings if I am not working. (Just so you don't think she is under-excercised/socialised) Tess will be going to training classes to.
Karen

Keeping u busy i see Kazz! lol

wow, my dogs would love that much, Leo and Tara get 1 five mile walk in the night and about 2 miles in the morning, Grace gets 3 30 mins walk,

i dont think i would have time to do that much walking (but then again im sleeping at 5.30am )

They're definatly keeping you active

I can sympathise although I do lots of work for some reason I still need weight watchers lol. I have always done lots of walking with my two (usually about 3 hours a day) but I stepped up what I did recently as we are getting Cassy in shape at the moment. This new regime consists of: Our first walk is an hour about 5am (every morning rain or shine being Scotland you can probably guess what it usually is ).

Then my o/h (is at home most of the day I am not) walks them durnig the day they get three 30 minute walks "round the block" as well as some springpole work. I get back at about 4:30pm and then take them out for a walk from the area that I live into a neighbouring area and back round (all road walking) this takes me about 1½ hours depending on the weather. Then I come home sit down (at last) have my tea and head straight back out for some free running. They have to go seperatley as they will fight over the ball that I use, I throw this ball uphill for about 20 minutes for Cassy and 10 for Kip.

If the weather is good I will do a half hour on the bike (only Cassy) around 8pm then they get their last walk at about 9pm (10 miniutes to relieve themselves) and then its back to bed lol.

The weekends are slightly different and instead of the three 30 minute walks that my o/h takes them I like to do some flirtpole work (Kip loves this especially) or we do a long walk through the countryside (usually about 4 hours if the weather is real good). The most important thing for me to get Cassy into shape is the biking it does wonders and is more fun than walkining I dont know how I managed for so long without it to be honest. The only problem is I never seem to loose any weight myself lol. Could be something to do with what I put in my backpack when we do a long walk (crisps, coke (the drinking kind although perhaps the other may help in my quest to stay slim lol).

Well to some this may seem excessive but since I started doing more work with the dogs now I find myself feeling guilty if I sit down, I feel like I should be out and I enjoy being outdoors walking and relaxing rather than sitting at home and worrying about bills or whatever lol. And it does seem to work (for them at least), if only I could have a body like this :

Jas gets 2 x 1hr walk a day. It's all road walk at the mo and he gets 'round the block' walks (about 20 mins)

God karen, you are making me feel like I'm depriving my bunch
I take them out during the day, for about an hour of non stop running mad, chasing sticks and each other.
Then on a night time they get a 4 mile walk, which is half running free and half road walking.
On a weekend we tend to go further afield, the river, the beach etc.
All this has to be planned round getting 2 kids up and to school, before I go off to a part time job, 3/4 morning, depending on which week it is.
Sometimes the day time walk is done in 2 seperate walks, depending on where I am going, to if I can take 3 together.

Mitch.

Hmmm Laura the bike interests me how do you manage to keep Casey with you on the bike? what do you use? And how did you start? Sal is 22 months old and I would say fit but could do with something to put that final polish on, if you know what I mean.
Maybe going out with the bike would do it.
Mitch,

Your lot are far from deprived what happened to the agility classes?

Karen

can i ask and im not having a go but do Kazz and Laura have small children i have 3 but before i had the baby (18 months old) i was walking mine over 4 hours a day and longet on the weekend and they were a lot fitter than they are now (that does inclued me )
i cant wait until he starts school and i can start walking them like i used to again,
and the OH working shifts dont help

Hi Kazz,

Well Cassy was just about 18 months when I started her on the bike and at first she wasnt really keen (I started using a springer www.springer-uk.com) so I used one of my horse rope leads and started her real slowly (walking between her and the bike at first) with that gradually building her up each night.

Now she adores going out on the bike and I have managed to get her back to using the springer again which is a lot safer. Whenever I go to the spare room and she hears the wheels her eyes light up and she is waiting at the front door lol. The difference in her physicially is amazing her muscle tone is perfect and any underhang she had came right up. I would definitley give it a go its well worth a try (and good for you too lol). I suppose the lazy way to do this would be to have a treadmill, however, I dont fancy one for some reason.

Laura

Sorry www.springer-uk.com