How much exercise to TRULY tire your dog out?

I think the only time Mira's every been truly exhausted was at the end of our 11-day road trip last summer. Vising four different places, traveling through five different states, lots of field work and long offlead walks/runs every day, living in a house with many strange dogs and people she didn't really remember, mini-road trips most days to new places...and then returning to the new place we were staying. And then capping it off with a weekend of agility at a new place in near-100 degree temperatures.

It was that long continuous drain for a week and a half with a lot of physical and mental work. Despite that, she still Q'd and placed 2nd in Masters for her last agility run of the weekend. But both of us were just "off" and I think we both slept a full day after coming home. Or would have, if Da Cookie-Baby had let us

But no I've never worn her out to the point that she isn't up and ready to go the instant she thinks I might be doing something interesting. Which isn't to say she hasn't been tired...even very tired...but her personality is such that she will ignore being tired to work. The only way to tell is that the work may be slightly less snappy, or she will flop down faster when on break.

Kim and Web it's harder to tell. Even after 13+ miles of hiking with a pack, Kim still has zoomies (though she will also sleep deeply). Kim gets bored with long exercise and will feign exhaustion but if you unclip the leash she'll tear around like a bat out of hell and be chasing squirrels and grinning up a storm. And Webster is this strange sort of guy where he doesn't *need* a ton of exercise...his demands are more mental as in, if he doesn't get something to think about he will either make up something I don't like or he will start to get tense about everything...but he can go forever at a moderate pace with little/no sign of fatigue.

I guess really it just depends what you mean by exhausted. Too tired to do more? What sort of recovery period is allowed. If ten minutes later they are ready to go again, does that count as having been (briefly) exhausted? They all have different tolerances for that sort of thing.

Reading all these I think my dogs are even lazier than I first thought!
We walk 2-3 hours after supper every night and often they are dragging home for the last half hour.
Wassim gets just far enough into the house for me to shut the door before he collapses in a pile. (Sometimes not even and I have to push him across the floor to shut the door!)
Takes him about 20 minutes before he is recovered enough to drag himself into bed. Then he stays comatose for hours and hours. Admittedly though he is a freaking princess.
Robyn and Trin aren't much better energy wise.
On weekends when we go to the dog park or hiking/swimming, same deal,
2 or 3 hours is it for them, then they just sprawl out and refuse to move anymore.
On times we've done longer adventures they are still recovering the next day.
If you factor in heat then it's even shorter. Yes my dogs are wusses.

So not envious of most people on this thread!

Frag... 4 mile bike ride after a few jumps at the park and about 30 minutes of swimming and he is kaput.

Sir... Flirt Pole for a half hour- 45 minutes after a 2 mile bike ride and he's down for the count.

Recon... uh.. I don't think I've ever really seen him completely exhausted. He gets close towards the end of a 2 hour dog park visit, when he won't chase balls anymore, but he'll still run all over playing with everyone. Luckily, he has an amazing off switch and even after days cooped up in the house, I don't know I have a border collie. XD

Macky: All day off leash exercise (like running through a forest preserve), or all day at a trial (that's ****'s hard work!). Really nothing else would exhaust her.

Keeva: Uuuhhhh well I don't really know yet... The only time she passes out is if I make her get up at 5 am to come to work with me, and then let her stay in daycare for a long time. But if I were to let her stay in daycare later in the day, it wouldn't do anything, really. So apparently she just likes to sleep in?

Blossom: Hahahahahaha, as if

ETA: That said, my dogs don't have to be truly tired to be satisfied. 40-60 min hard exercise is what I try to do every day. I would love to be able to do 90+ min but it doesn't always happen that way. They still hang out in the house and generally pretty livable without being "tired."

LOL, I had a feeling Kai was lazy, but after this thread I know for sure. We have a yard now( yay, yard!) and honestly, he is okay after 20 to 30 minutes outside. He would do little zoomies throughout that time, but after that, he is good. He can do more, but it is him that says "okay, lets go back in the house" not me.

^This. My dogs are virtually never truly exhausted partly because I have no desire to push them that far. There's no benefit. I do try to give them a good mix of intense burst and steadier endurance work doing a variety of activities for their physical and mental health (and mine!). They have off switches which I do my best to encourage but don't abuse.

I know there's that old saying "a tired dog is a good dog" but to me a tired dog is just...tired. And probably sleeping, which is boring. For me.

Oh yeah, I probably should have clarified that point too.

The reason I don't know when Juno is "exhausted" is because I am just too lazy/busy to provide that much exercise! I know she CAN go go go go all day long, but most days all she gets is a 20 minute walk and she's hardly annoying to live with. She's good about being lazy around the house when she has to.

For Nico, ^this. I can play fetch with him for 3 hours and he won't stop. He's fine in the house and isn't a pacer, but the second I move, he's up and ready for action.

For Saga, waking up from a nap and stretching gets her ready for another nap.

Yeah, being "done" just really isn't a part of this breed, lol. It's... pointless to try to "tire them out" and IME that's the case with most high energy breeds. I aim for mentally and physically content/satisfied and I do pay attention to maintaining her off switch. I think trying to work them into the ground regularly just builds their endurance.

I'm about to head out for an off leash hike with the herder girls... we'll probably be out for like 2 hours or so, Blossom will play fetch the whole time. She'll lie down on the car ride back, and then when we get home, she'll still be super excited to go into the yard and play fetch more. She likewise is fine in the house but always ready for action. I can't leave toys down anywhere, however, or she will bother me with them non-stop. Ask me how I know that... LOL

Agreed with all this, especially the bolded part.


Auggie and Payton both seem to work in reverse - the more they play (like, for example, spending an entire day at doggie daycare) the more ready to KEEP PLAYING they are when they get home. My favourite is still bringing Auggie home after a full day playing at daycare, and while I was getting his food bowl ready for his dinner, he was busy running circles around the house with an empty water bottle in his mouth, chomping and crackling it as he ran. And I was like "This is not how it's supposed to work." LOL.


OTOH I probably wouldn't have high energy dogs if them being high energy bothered me, so it's not like I have this OMG I HAVE TO TIRE THEM OUT SO THEY WILL LEAVE ME ALONE type of thing going on. So I think there's an element of how much, uh, pestering? you can deal with involved. I don't really care if Payton is still awake and throwing his stuffed gator around my bedroom at 2AM while I'm sleeping LOL. Go on puppy.


(Payton is totally a "I need a nap. *ten minutes later* BING! BATTERIES RECHARGED!" kind of dog too. Unfortunately that nap usually happens in the car on the way back from where ever so he jumps out of the car like "=D =D =D NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO.")

Totally this.

I do the stuff with the dogs because I enjoy it. I mean, they still need it but I wouldn't own these dogs if them being 'go go go' was something that annoyed me. And I don't think I would enjoy it if I worked them into the ground and they were too tired to do anything, then I would be poking at them. Luckily that hasn't happened yet.

As far as the exercise building endurance thing, I agree with it but at the same time I think it's a fine line to be walked. If you're only exercising your dogs so they'll go be tired and leave you alone you can really get into a bad circle as endurance builds and they require more and more to "go away and leave me alone" and soon you're going to have an Olympic athlete who doesn't know how to settle still.

But at the same time I do train and work them to build their stamina because I want them to be physically fit enough to go all day doing anything and everything without hurting themselves. But, that also means you need to build an off switch and not reinforce for busyness at home.

I feel like people think it's one or the other, either they are trying to tire their dog out to the brink of collapse or they think they can't condition them because then they'll need it all the time. (Not necessarily anyone here! Just in general).

But I'm someone that flips around a lot. One day they'll get nothing because I don't feel like doing anything and they need to be ok with that. The next day we might do a ten mile bike ride with lots of swimming and hiking in the middle and they need to be up for that too.

This.

But yeah, there is never a moment that I stand up and don't have 6 eyes right there, ready to go wherever. Even if it is only the bathroom.

I'd say depending on the intensity of the exercise 30-60 minutes a day makes mine liveable. Swimming, fetching uphill, biking, treadmill, hiking, training, clicker stuff.

I will say that playing with each other might take the edge off, but in no way do they get enough stimulation from that. It doesn't make them tired at all.

For my guys there has to be a decent mix of exercise and mental challenge. Just plain old fetching can go on for hours and when we go inside after they cool off it's like we really didn't do much. Swimming (and fetching) tires them out better, hiking and fetching on "breaks" helps. Biking will tire them out, I think it's a combo of the longer distance and them having to pay attention to speed, turns, and a change of scenery. Treadmill just takes the edge off and gives me the ability to control how long and how fast they run.

Bodhi used to go, go, go, go and never tire. She's have a 10 min nap and be ready to walk again if I wanted.

Her record is almost 24hrs playing fetch with different people. We were at a party, outdoor party, and I was up all night, and she was giving the ball to whoever would throw it. She literally passed out on me the next afternoon when she eventually stopped

Now.... She is still 100x fitter and more active than a lot of dogs. But she's not in the best shape as she's been, as we've had a very sedate winter. And she will play hard for a bit then fancy a little lie down and pant she's also 8 this summer too, so not doing bad.

By the end of the summer, I expect her to be back to better fitness, but she will never be like she was a few years back I don't expect!!

Fred..... Who knows?! He's still a puppy, so isn't even at full capacity fitness wise, muscle wise etc etc etc etc. and he's on lead walks only, so I have nooooooooo idea what his stamina is like.

I'm looking forward to finding out though I like to be able to beast the dogs lol I expect he will take a lot to tire when he's eventually up to full strength.

30-45 mins makes Jackson liveable. Of course there are some days where he doesn't even get that.... but I make him tolerate. Like today I came home from work and just was SO tired. I had been planning on going to the park but just couldn't even get myself to do, so I laid down and fell asleep for 4 hours (I just woke an hour ago lol) and now he's of course pacing around a bit and he keeps looking at me while I just sat down on the computer and giving a little whine. I may do a little 'trick session' with him in a few mins. But I don't feel so guilty since yesterday he had quite a bit. I don't think I could do more than 2 days in a row of days like today though without him being annoying.

is this spam?

Im terribly lazy, and I got lucky with my older girl that shes lazy too. shes perfectly content to do nothing and be a spoiled couch Queen, or have a 10 minute zoomie around the yard a couple times a week.

her granddaughter, on the other hand, is a gamedog throwback. There is no Off. There is just Monkey. And what Monkey like is GO GO GO. Thank god for bikes and balls. I dont really push her hard because shes 10 months old, almost 11 months, but it takes a lot to wear her out. So far Iv gotten bored after an hour of nonstop ball-throwing and she hasent wanted to quit

little turd. good thing shes adorkable

^That, totally. I can be insanely lazy some days and crazy active the next.

Both Aeri and Kes have done 10+ mile hikes with packs that had them very chill for several hours, but not a whole lot more chill than they are in the house usually tbh. I can't think of a time with any of the dogs where they were so tired they stopped on their own, but they do flop once it's time to go home.

Flirt pole will give me flat on the floor dogs quickly, but they bounce back quickly, too. I can get a dog to flat on the floor and yet an hour later get nice obedience work from them for example.

It's funny to me that my so called "high energy" dogs all are lumps in the house even with no exercise of consequence for days. It's awesome.

Yeah me too. Blossom is really good in the house, honestly. She is so wound up and intense at bite work that I consistently get asked or have comments made about her behavior in the house from other club members, LOL. "Is she hard to live with?" comes up a lot. But it's just that when she's on, she's on... and when she's off, she chills on the couch like right now.

Keeva is honestly more difficult in many ways. When she's bored she's scary, she scales the dining room table and will demand bark at you for entertainment, etc.

If we go for more than like... 2-3 days without entertainment, though, I start to get into trouble lol. They just get... antsy. Squabbles are more likely, garbage-raiding attempts double, they obsess over guarding the house, etc.

Mia has just now this last year gotten to where she's really adaptable. For the first two years she did not stop moving. She would sleep until about five am and then start hitting me to get up. For those two years we pretty much religiously did two hours off leash playing every single day. The second year we did agility class on top of that.

Nowadays she's a lot easier to live with but she's still as quick to go. We've done days of them hanging out at a trial then going to the park. Basically dusk to dawn and they keep up well. But this week since summer is on rest I haven't done much at all. Mia's spent an hour or so outside and run around part of that. We've done a little training. Last night we played ball for 30 mins (Mia playing ball means she's going the entire time like a madman). The ball actually ramped her up MORE and it was harder for her to settle. But she will just settle some without much now. About 5 pm every day though you can hear her start sighing and wanting me to do something with her.

I do appreciate the settling but to be honest I sometimes miss the franticness of her youth. She is still crazy and funny but it was very entertaining watching her grow up. Maybe I'm just insane, I'm not sure. I sometimes miss those no off switch days.

For me I just don't mind a busy dog. I find the idea that dogs should be asleep when you're not doing stuff with them kind of odd/dull.

Oh, my dogs certainly aren't always asleep when we're not doing anything. Right now Blossom is wandering around, glancing out the window, picking up an antler, putting it down, repeat. She's not pacing or panting. I consider her behavior appropriate and would not label her "busy" for wandering casually around the house. Keeva is sleeping but that's because she doesn't like mornings, LOL.

I'm pretty much happy if they can find something to do that doesn't require significant involvement from me, and aren't pacing, barking, fighting, or destroying something. Around my house we play a lot of antler/marrow bone/kong toy shuffle, where they circulate through different low value chews, lol.