[nagdu] how offten?

Tami Jarvis tami at poodlemutt.com
Thu Jun 25 16:55:52 UTC 2015


Pam,

Since I moved to the small town here, I don't get my dog out often 
enough at times, though I shoot for at least several times a week. I do 
better if I have something to go see do than I do at random walking for 
walking's sake, so I have to push myself sometimes. We have a nice yard 
for the dogs to get play and exercise, so I don't need to go looking for 
that... We also don't have a dedicated dog park, just one multiuse park 
where off leash is legal because it's just outside the city limits and 
another one where folks do offleash stuff with their dogs while everyone 
looks the other way. I miss the human socialization as much as the doggy 
social scene from having a great dog park at just the right distance! We 
find some of that at the farther park, but there are people who aren't 
their for dogs and picknickers who don't want to talk to every dog in 
town and -- worse! -- those who will feed every dog that comes along. 
Nothing like a bit of raw hamburger to ruin years of offleash training 
to ignore picknickers. So now if I want to go there, it needs to be in 
really off times until I do better at getting Mitzi's recall firmed back 
up. And get a whistle, since her hearing isn't what it was. Loki is 
doing well at being offleash, but at 14 months he's not reliable. Point 
being, I don't have a dog park as a motivator to get out and walk a 
couple of miles.

I've heard an awful lot about how guide dogs *must* be worked every 
single day or else they will lose their training and all sorts of evil 
will befall. I haven't found this to be the case with my dog, though I 
sometimes gett pretty sloppy and have to concentrate to get back into 
good working habits. Mitzi can deal with that, though I sense she feels 
great relief when I get it back together. /lol/ I now suspect that the 
stern lecturs on getting out every single day is given in the hopes 
folks who don't have work or school or something to demand they get out 
will at least take their dogs for a walk a few times a week.

I also find that weather affects my decision to go or not more than it 
would if I needed to take my dog out to get somewhere. Braving heat or 
cold or wind or more dangerous conditions is fine when it's necessary. 
Guide dogs can obviously survive busy lifestyles in more extreme weather 
than we have here. But I have to ask myself if it's worth it just for a 
leisure walk? With my trainee, I'll be doing more dire weather work to 
train him for it and because he's an energetic young whippersnapper who 
does need the experience and practice. Mitzi was staarting to slow down 
anyway not long after we moved here, so she wasn't bouncing off the 
walls to go.

I wish I was one of those people who can get out and walk three miles a 
day just for the joy of walking, but I need to be able to buy a coffee 
or something along the way to make it worth the walk or something. When 
we have better cash flow, I plan to do that! A latte a day keeps the 
doctor away... So what I end up doing for now is reminding myself of all 
the women my age or older who get out daily no matter what and how they 
rule and I drool, so that's my big motivation. Sad, but whatever works, 
I guess. /smile/

Tami

On 06/25/2015 08:45 AM, Pam via nagdu wrote:
> just curious how offten do u all go out with your dogs? i know some of u r working but for those of u that don't. do u go out every day. i usually go out about 4 or 5 times a week. even if it's just for a walk. i live in a village so there's not many shops etc to choose from. so just curious :) Sent from my iPhone
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