Midday Dog Walking Necessary?

May 23, 2018 6:06 AM

Asking for a teacher friend who has a 3 yo lab mix doggo who is polite and well-behaved. Said doggo gets 1/2 hour run at 7am, then is left at 8am with stuffed Kongs and other toys until 4pm. Walkies at 4, then another 1/2 hour run at 8pm.

My friend has paid for doggie playgroups where the dog was picked up at 10 and then played in a huge enclosure for 2 hours. She's also had a midday walker come for the dog, but she's wondering if these are really necessary. She says the dog appears to have the same calm and pleasant demeanor regardless of midday walks or playgroup.

She wants to be a responsible dog owner and will do what's right by the dog, but if she doesn't need to be paying for this stuff, she'd rather not. The dog is friendly and social and plays with other dogs on weekends.

TLDR: adult dog seems just equally happy without midday walks/playgroups, is it necessary for her to keep doing these or is she just wasting her money?

posted by yes I said yes I will Yes to Pets & Animals (14 answers total)

Best answer: Our adult dogs (large shepherd mix and pittie) are regularly home from 7 am - 4 pm without a walk or even a let-out and they are fine. They appear to sleep the entire time, and are so laid back when we come home that one dog won't even come out of "her" room to greet us sometimes because she is enjoying her afternoon nap. YMMV but after puppyhood, we've never taken the dogs out in the middle of the day. Nor do any of the many, many working dog owners I personally know, unless they have a puppy or a high anxiety dog.
posted by raspberrE at 6:09 AM on May 23, 2018 [11 favorites]

Best answer: Yes, it’s fine! Our big 4 year old dog is on a very similar schedule and is well exercised and very happy without a midday walk. We used to have someone walk him in the middle of the day but he started refusing to get off of his dog bed when she came because he wanted to keep napping. (Because we are high strung this sent us into a mild panic at first - we were convinced he was sick! Our vet confirmed that he is in perfect health and simply enjoys napping.)

Obviously, as her dog ages she may need to re-evaluate (older dogs sometimes start to have trouble going all day without going out to go to the bathroom) but If the dog is happy and well behaved, this is great!
posted by cimton at 6:22 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This varies a lot among dogs, but IMO most dogs, if given proper exercise and mental stimulation, do just fine without a midday walk or break. My elderly lab is alone from roughly 8am to 4pm M-F and is no worse for wear. I have a petcam set up so I can check in on him occasionally, but it's very boring (he's always just napping or looking out the window).

Based on what you've written, I imagine this dog would be fine without a midday walk or playtime. She might want to increase his morning exercise a smidge just to make sure he doesn't have too much pent-up energy, but honestly I bet he'll be fine.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 6:24 AM on May 23, 2018

Best answer: If the dog is not showing any difficult behaviors like eating furniture, constant barking, then the dog is likely fine. But dogs, like people, are really social, and if they can do a doggie-day-care or other option once every other week, the dog would really like it, especially while it's young. If there's a window that can be optimized for watching the neighborhood, that helps, too. In summer, I can leave the door open to the deck, with a screen the dog can walk through. He really enjoys it.
posted by theora55 at 6:34 AM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have a 2 year old lab. He gets a 1/2 hour+ walk in the morning and in the evening. The rest of the day he naps. I want his life.
posted by Sassyfras at 6:38 AM on May 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

Best answer: From my dog, I've noticed that situations where he gets less exercise/no midday walk for a day or so at a time are no problem but when he gets less exercise for several days in a row, we start to notice him go a little stir-crazy and various unwanted behaviors (even things like begging during mealtimes) get a lot worse.

If I were her, even if I'd seen no issues with the occasional skip, I'd experiment with keeping the playgroup on ~1-2x/week, rather than cutting it out altogether, for at least a month, and see how doggo does. Unfortunately, two half-hour runs is probably not enough for a lab mix that young (but the midday exercise could be substituted for additional morning or evening exercise, if need be).
posted by mosst at 6:45 AM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: A dog's energy is sometimes dependent on what happened the day before, or the day before that. (e.g. Our dog gets a "hangover" for 3 days following a week of full-day dog camp.) It's hard to say what is right for your friend's dog, not knowing the frequency of the playgroups... but I agree with mosst - it might be wise to taper off the playgroups until problem behaviours start to appear, then maintain just above that level of activity. (Of course, the more social time a dog gets, the better!)
posted by cranberrymonger at 7:10 AM on May 23, 2018

So I don't ever need a pedicure l, really, but I can afford this little extra stress reliever. Your friend should have a mid-day walk or playgroup a couple of times a week, unless it's a hardship.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 7:36 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think a mid-day walk becomes more a concern for people who have an 8-5 work schedule and are thus away from home for 10+ hours, which begins to push up against the bladder capacity of many dogs.
posted by drlith at 7:41 AM on May 23, 2018

Best answer: My 6-year old mid-sized dog hid from me when I tried a 3-times a day schedule. She gets a long walk in the morning and the occasional short walk in the evening, but spends most of her day chasing cats around (20%) and sleeping (80%). If I try to take her for two long walks, she just turns around after a while or lies down and refuses to move. After the dog park and hiking weekends, she just wanted a short walk only the next day.

Rule of thumb is the smaller the dog, the more frequent the walks needed to burn off energy. Big dogs walk less in my experience.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:06 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've worked from home for the last couple of years, and it's been a real eye opener in terms of seeing how long my adult dog can comfortably go without a walk. I usually take him out around 8, and he's totally fine going until 4 until he gets his next walk. And I'm right there, so he could bug me for a walk if he wants, but he very rarely does.

Also, I typically take him out for a pre-bed walk around 10 or 11, but lately he's been "politely declining" it more often than not (which looks like me excitedly saying "do you want to go for a WALK?" and him looking at me and yawning). So this means he can go 14-15 hours without going out, which had me worried enough to ask his vet. She assured me this is not unusual, and he doesn't have any kidney problems, so ... dogs are just better able to hold it than people, I guess.
posted by lunasol at 8:36 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

8pm to 7am is longer than 7am to 4pm. I'd be more inclined to try to push the 8pm to later in the evening than to worry about the mid-day walk.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:59 AM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

If it was a smaller dog I'd say no as they have real trouble holding their pee that long. What will most likely cause problems is sudden changes to the peeing & pooping schedule, if the dog is expecting a midday poop walk & doesn't get it accidents may happen.

I personally think 3 years old is a little young for doing nothing all day and just because the dog has been fine over a few instances doesn't guarantee that behavior will continue during long stretches of boredom. She will want to at the least make the morning walk even longer & more tiring to cut back on the chances of problems occurring a good hour should do it. As the dog ages, laying in the sun is pretty much their primary goal in life, but 3 seems a little young for that mind set. She may also have to cut way back on food now to ensure the dog doesn't become fat, labs without exercise are prone to turning into chunky boys/girls.

Now as to is she wasting her money giving her dog a nice life that consists of more than sitting around waiting for mum to get home. That's for her to decide.
posted by wwax at 9:32 AM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I work from home and it's only been in the past couple years as they've become truly Old Dogs that my two chill dogs will even go outside once all day even though the door is open the entire time. My no-chill dog does go out, but see also: no chill and she believes she has very important work/sunbathing to do out there. Even she, as long as she has a morning poop, can go all workday still if she had to, or if it rains.

Dogs spend most of their time in power-saving mode, so if there's no behavioral evidence that a midday stretch would improve their life it's probably not necessary. It's not going to hurt, most dogs will take it if they can get it, but I don't think most non-puppy/non-senior dogs need it.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:00 PM on May 23, 2018