How much walking does my greyhound need?

[Music] hi everyone grey hands are typically known as 40 mile an hour couch potatoes and some people can think that they're really quite lazy but is that true are they lazy yes it's definitely true that they like to sleep a lot especially compared with some other breeds and particularly when you first get them home because that change of circumstances can be difficult for them to cope with and the body's reaction to that is to sleep and i've always found that mine are opportunistic so they will be snoozing away but at the slightest hint of us being able to do something different like go for a walk they're wide awake and ready to go so they're saving their energy conserving energy until the time is right to use it physiologically greyhounds are built for speed they're sprinters they're not designed for endurance and we can see this in their love of zoomies so they're going to go completely bananas zooming around the garden for maybe 30 seconds a minute if you're lucky and then that's done and this is a common comment from people who hire a secure feel for their dog you don't need an hour or even half an hour probably five minutes is enough so greyhounds are not really meant for spending long times out walking it's not what their body has been designed for and this daily twice outing for a walk is a very modern thing it's something that has developed over the change in work patterns and over changes in how people have dogs in the past dogs might have been left out to roam during the day but now dogs tend to be indoors they need to go out more in a more structured way and we take them for walk and the twice a day thing has almost become a ritual that we feel guilty if we don't perform but not wanting to walk every day or not wanting to walk twice a day doesn't mean that your dog is lazy and if you've had previously very active breeds it might seem that way but perhaps for your greyhound that isn't actually what they need so there could be a variety of causes for your greyhound not wanting to walk or not wanting to walk twice a day it may be that they find the outside world quite stressful and causing anxiety it could be noisy it could be they don't like other dogs that they meet they could find traffic difficult they might not like bicycles or push chairs or maybe something actually happened on a walk that makes them concerned about going out again some dogs may find it just too over stimulating there's so much happening out there compared with the quiet life of a kennel that they just can't cope with the amount of stuff for their senses to process they may of course have some physical discomfort as an ex-racer they may have previous racing injuries they may have a bit of arthritis if they're older there may be general muscular aches and pains perhaps they have soft pads that are not used to walking on a pavement and the surface is causing them problems and as a result of these you could see behavioral changes such as reactivity such as freezing and for these it was always a good idea to get help sooner rather than later because it's easier if the dog has not got so in the habit of that behavior and we can help them at an earlier stage it could of course just be that the weather's not suitable if it's too hot if it's too cold if it's raining they may not see the point in going for a walk and daisy who's just left is certainly one of those so how much walking is enough walking most organizations that home greyhounds recommend a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes twice a day but what does that actually mean i thought to work this one out i would measure out my walks and what i do with mine so my typical walk is about 30 minutes and i've established that i do about a mile and a half in that time so that is a reasonably fast walk works out at three miles an hour which is a reasonably fast walking pace and of course that encompasses stops for a bit of sniffing or toileting and so on we only do that once a day i don't do a second walk because i find that can be difficult to fit in with my schedule and also for some of my dogs it's not good to go later in the day when it's busy so we do alternative activities so the amount of walking that you do is going to depend very much on your dog if they're older they may not want to walk as much as a younger dog if there are health issues they may not want to walk as much as a dog without those health issues a younger dog is going to need more entertainment in general but with an older dog it may be that you have to make the decision not to go i've certainly had my fair share of experience of dogs who are getting on a bit who really want to come for a walk they like the idea of it but you know they're not going to cope with going for that full walk and so we've just gone out and done a bit of sniffing on the verge instead of actually having a proper walk so we need to think about how far we go and what you might do instead of walking so just because you're not walking twice a day for 20 minutes or more there are other things that you might want to do with your dog so think about what you do on your walk is it a fast walk a brisk walk or is it a slow and sniffy sort of walk it can actually offer a lot more mental stimulation although it might offer less exercise think about your routine if your dog is home alone for part of the day they're going to be more interested in activity and mental stimulation when you get home than if you've been there with them during the day so mine do spend quite a lot of time sleeping when i'm not there but they also like to supervise me whether it's making videos or doing the gardening or doing chores about the house or just moving from room to room to sleep in a different bed depending on what i'm doing there is more going on in their day if i'm home than if i'm out so the dog that is spending time alone whether it's just for a couple of hours or if you have to go out during a longer period and get a dog visitor in during the day they're likely to need more entertainment from you in some form when you get home so alternatives to walk are important you might not be going on a walk but they do need to do something else they might not want that hours and hours spent running across fields but they are going to want mental entertainment and enrichment so less can be more have a look at my other videos on things you can do to replace the things that your dog gains from a walk and to look at enrichment so you can see some of the things you might do with your dog instead of taking them for a walk if walking isn't quite their thing that's all for today we'll be back again soon with more videos for you bye for now look out for new videos every monday and why not subscribe so you don't miss out [Music] you

Channel: JW Canine Care

Views: 3,240

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Id: 0a7IBDlVSTg

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022