How Long do you Walk?

[Bubb's Mom]

Hi,

Bubba is now 6 months old and our trainer wants me to walk him 2 hours a day. He is too little and is done after 40 min. I have had serval
Chows and never walked them that much. How long does everyone walk?

[Sirchow]

I asked advice here when Bramble was five months old and got various answeres up to 2 hours but as she injured her leg not long after that I did a lot of research on the subject. The British chow chow breed council suggests the following.

8. EXERCISE
Chows are compact, heavily-built dogs and should not be encouraged to jump up or race up and down stairs, as this can lead to injury to their straight hind legs. They can run fast over short distances. They love to play in the snow, enjoy dry cold weather and will happily lie outside for hours on end provided they have somewhere to shelter as most Chows dislike getting their feet wet and are reluctant to go out in the rain. Chows do not require a lot of exercise but are always interested in going for walks and enjoying new smells. Puppies should be able to play in the garden and have short (10 minute) walks twice a day until they are a year old when the length of walk can be increased.

Vets generally say five mins for each month of their age. This needs to be with thought to temperature as well. Here in UK we seldom have extremes of temp but in the US your climate is very different. So hot weather walks need to be early morning and late evening.

In my experience with Bramble I wish I had given less rather than more exercise till her bones and ligaments had had a chance to mature. You need to listen to your chow first and foremost and see how they cope with the exercise and then you need to remember that you are the adult and a chow puppy will go on long after they should have stopped and will jump off things they shouldn't.

My trainer also said that but they work mostly with other dogs not chows so be your own expert!

[Layla]

That's far too long! Even an adult chow doesn't tend to need that much exercise daily. I tend to walk mine twice a day for about 40mins then 15mins. If we go out snowshoeing they just about go for 2hours & they only get 1-2 short walks the next day.

At 6months, you chow isn't fully grown yet & you can damage their joints. Listen to your chow, if he's done, then that's the time finish the walk. i have never met a chow that didn't want to stay out.

My pup is 6months old as well! Love this age

[samsonite23]

Yea, I think 2 hours is a really long time! For me and Skye! hahahah seriously! I usually do about half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night. Just a stroll pretty much!

[onthemove]

I agree that is too long at one time. Deuce is 6 months old and I walk him 30 or so minutes at a time, but that is a leisurely stroll with lots of pausing for sniffing and such. Usually once a day here at home, because he has a 1 acre fenced yard to run in as often as he wants.

Does the trainer mean 2 hours a day broken up over the day, or 2 hours straight at one time?

If your dog has excess energy that needs to be burned off, you might need to take him out for several walks a day. A tired puppy is a happy and more obedient puppy. When we stay at our condo, we walk the dog at least 3 - 4 times a day for 15 - 30 minutes. Plus he has a small yard there he can go out in.

You may need to walk more if you don't have a fenced yard you can turn him loose in. I also play a lot with mine indoors. He loves to fetch, so we have 1 - 2 indoor fetch sessions a day in addition to his backyard forays and walks on a leash.

If Deuce doesn't get his excercise, then he gets into things he shouldn't in the house. He is a very good boy otherwise.

[Tippsy'smom]

In the summer mine will walk 10-15 minutes then be ready to come back home. But when it cools off they can go from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Jasper usually goes the longest, so I usually try to have a route where we'll end up being near my house when tippsy's ready to go back but that I can still go right back out for Jazz to go however long he feels like.

[Bubb's Mom]

Thanks for all your imput. I knew it was too long. But I start questioning myself, trainers should know more, haha! Bubba is good with 30-40min a day sometimes broked up.
He is a typical Chow as far as energy goes, he is still a baby. I have had Chows all my life, and none of them could have walked 2 hrs a day.

[Swerve]

Personally I feel 2 hours is way to long. IMHO I reckon about 20-30 min would be perfect.

[JasonandNat]

Hahahahah, we started with 60-90 min walks 2 times daily from six months old. They also get about 2hrs a day outside dong whatever in the yard.

They now get the same time but its for runs through the ravines. Very little walking. Took FengHuang to 1-1/2 yrs to really handle it well as she was stumpy. Now she runs like the wind out front and proud. ShenLung happily chases along behind her and with us hoping to see a bunny or squirrel to pour on the jets for. When we socialize at the park, both love to pick a big fast dog(s) and run 'em to ground no matter how long it takes. So far these two have yet to drop before the chosen 'prey'.

Just like any other form of training if you let your chow determine it, you will get a shorter response each time.

Let's see, powerful dogs, pack on energy, high strung to start with, sounds like a recipe for serious exercise needs.

Of course we believe people need to move as well.

You can try different things of course, like squirrel hunting, bunny races, tie your chow to a local kid, or remote control car, or a really long zipline from the clothes line out back, options exist.

We're teasing alot in this, we just tend to find people think the chow isn't energetic, powerful, capable at anything other than the role of giant toy dog.

Hopefully

[ilovemysmoothie!]

I usually walk Little Bear for about an hour to an hour and a half everyday... and that seems to be the perfect length for us... I think it depends on the chow! When LB was little, if the walk was too long for her, she would let me know by lying down on the sidewalk and refusing to move!!
Towards the end of our walks now, she starts to slow down, and seems less interested in her surroundings, so that is my cue to wrap things up!

[Lion_Dog]

with my first chow, i walked her 45mins- 1.5hr each walk. she got a 2-3 walks a day. my current chow, she's a lot stalkier and chunkier (not overweight or anything, just shorter and heavier boned) i walk her max 45mins because she's huffing and puffing after walking for only 15mins! i thinks it's because her nose is more punched in compared to my first chow, who had pointier nose. i take more rests when walking my current chow because i don't want her to be over walked. Every chow IS so different.

[kingalls]

Our 2 get a 30-45 minute run/walk in the evenings. In the summertime it's shorter. They seem to be pretty content with it. When they were younger, it was much shorter because of what we read about them needing to develop before stressing their bodies. One time Nahkohe got tired and just plopped down on a lawn - pretty much saying I'm really tired, Mom...Nahkohe is a runner and prefers to run the route. Shiloh likes to sniff everything so it takes much longer for her. Nahkohe & I will run from one end of the block to the other, wait for Shiloh to catch up, then run to the next corner, wait for Shiloh - pretty much a run/wait outing.

[corz]

Once we walked Chelsea too far and we were walking for about 40minutes when she just refused to budge anymore. She just lied there on the sidewalk refusing to get up! We had to carry her the rest of the way. Moral of the story: chows don't walk too much.

[chowpups]

Chelsea and Nikki are quite alike.. My son took Nikki for a walk and thank goodness he had his cell phone with him .. I got a call .. "Mom, somethings wrong with Nikki she won't get up and I can't pick her up either".. (she weighed about 56 lbs then). So I got in the car and drove over to where they were. Only in the next neighborhood street but as soon as she saw my SUV coming she got up and jumped in the back as usual. She was just hot and tired and was tired of his silly walk.. He learned quickly chows are not running, hiking, or swimming dogs..LOL (he was use to a g.shepherd). He use to roller blade with our last dog but she had shepherd in her and could go for alot longer than Nikki..

[dizzy]

i take my 2 and 3 yr old chows out 3 times a day on 30 to 40 min walks in summer i walk them early mornin and late afternoon the pant and over heat very quick in high temps

[kazschow]

my pair get 4 walks a day normally, each one roughly 30 mins some shorter some longer, but averaging out at about 2 hours/ day each... at weekends we usually go for a longer one in the country....