Why should I walk my dog?

Trishann,
 
You stated that Boss runs his own "track". That is considered a sterotypical behavior called "caged animal sydrome". This comes from boredom. By him not getting out of his normal territory, he has developed the sydrome. I am not implying anything, just thought I would point this out as some people may not know that this is an abnormal behavior. You see this in animals at zoo's or in cages. Caged wolves are very prone to it based on their large territory range (in the wild) and their need to hunt. Other canids also exhibit this abnormal behavior when caged, for instance, foxes, New Guinea Singing dogs, coyotes, etc. I have had alot of personal experience with animals exhibiting this type of sterotypical behavior.
 
I am a believer in outside stimulus for proper socialization. I see far to many dogs that are brought in to be groomed or boarded that do not get regular exposure to other situations (besides their own territory or people). They are very hard to handle and as we all know, these animals HAVE to eventually be handled by other or will have to have some type of contact with different people or places.
Walking you dog is not all about the exercise for the most part, but it is a "tool" for teaching a dog to respect YOU, learn not to be fearful, and to know what is expected of him/her. This tool, if utilized, provides your dog/s with the necessary means to make him a well adjusted member of society. That is what the CGC award is all about. There would be alot more places that would allow dogs to enter, if there were more dogs that could "behave" properly among the general populations.
Now, I feel, IMO, that anyone has the right to do what they feel is right for their dog/s. I don't have to agree or disagree, but as others have said, if it's something our dogs need we should not hesitate to do it because of OUR discomfort. A dog should be devoted and want to please us. If it pleases us to get out and walk in the rain, then the dog should obey regardless of their discomfort. WE are the pack leaders, and if we say walk, they should be the ones submitting to our will. Allowing a dog (barring health issues that prevent over-activity) to dictate to us (not wanting to get out) is them telling US what to do.
I do understand safety issues and inclimate weather (blizzard, -0, electrical storms, pouring down rain, etc), but we should not ask the dog to do something that we are not willing to do ourselves. But we are the people, with brains for reasoning, we can't rely on them to tell us what is best for them.

Kennel Keeper, you raise a good point.  Maybe we should look at the things that tell us our dogs need more exercise.  I have always gauged this by how relaxed my dogs are when in different situations.  But my dogs too, run a track for the first few minutes they are outside.  Does this mean they need more stimulation, even if they are well behaved in public?  My dogs walk when I say walk.  They sit when I tell them to.  They don't object to going out in any weather if I am willing to go.  But I have also noticed that Crusher is biting his nails and have heard this could be a sign of boredom.  Is it possible that most days he is happy but some days he is stressed, and that is when he bites them and runs a track?  I mean we do have lazy days when all he gets is one run at the park.  Not often but it happens.  Usually he seems happy enough to run around in the yard on his dragline on those days.

Okay.. obviously my mention of Boss' track was misunderstood. I did not mean for it to sound like that he just paces back and forth and runs the same 'track' over and over again. I just meant to say that he makes good use of the back yard and has developed a nice area to play and run that he can get going top speed and really have fun!

He doesn't just run that same 'course' over and over again.. it's just a way he runs around.. sometimes he switches up and runs under the deck for something different to do.. sometimes he decides not to take the steps and jumps up the side of the deck that doesn't have a railing on it anymore after I took out the hot tub. I was simply trying to show that he finds ways to stimulate himself outside right in our own backyard.
 
Also, I never said he doesn't get out of his own territory. In fact I just posted that I take him everywhere I go and that we go to my mom's to play with her dogs on weekends. I also have another dog in the house. My dog is not bored.. he is not a caged animal!

Trishanne FWIW I didn't think Boss was a caged animal from your post.  I read your Proud Moment thread.  I just wanted to know what signs there were that my dogs weren't getting enough exercise, that  I may have missed.  I dont think anyone here thinks Boss is a caged animal.  Hee hee right now my girls are caged animals.  Its past their bedtime and if I had let them stay up here Crusher would never let them sleep!

I have dogs who are not friendly with other dogs, or people. Emma was well socialized, Teenie was not (I acquired her as a senior). It is NOT safe for Teenie to be off lead, outside of a fenced yard, EVER. She has NO recall when there are distractions. It IS safe for Emma to be off lead, if no other dogs are around, and not too many people are around. I occasionally take her to the beach and (illegally) let her run, in the off season. I do not walk them, because my neighbors let their dogs run, and at least one pack of dogs is aggressive. There are about a dozen very excitable Pitties chained up in the woods less than 1/2 mile from my house. We stumbled across them one day. One puppy approached us, and his owner found a large stick to beat the hell out of him with, for leaving the unfenced yard. One neighbor has a Pit-type dog and a Dachshund. They chain the large dog, but the small dog runs free. One neighbor has a three foot fence with a Malinois, a Pit Bull, and a Rottie in it. They all seem rather bored. This is all within two miles of my house. I don't feel like *I* am safe, and the dogs are even less safe than I am. They get  walked in our yard, only, and only when someone else is around in case other dogs run up and harass us. There isn't a dog park, but if there was, we couldn't go. They do fine running and playing in our yard, and getting leash walks around the pond and pasture. 

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but here is what I do not understand--if your neighborhood is not good for walking, why not take the dog somewhere else to walk?  I do this all the time.  There are 2 routes in my neighborhood that are no-goes due to the threat of loose dogs, and the rest I've been through on horseback so much that I now find it rather boring.  We also have horse trails on site, but again, I spent the 8 years I worked at the barn I live next to taking trail rides out on them and do not find them very exciting.  Therefore, I take Sally other places.  I walk her in my mom's neighborhood, in downtown areas, on public reserve trails, on the beach, on hiking trails, on the bike trails--anywhere that allows dogs.  It is an excellant chance to get her out in public, and I do think that for the most part the more different situations I get her into the better.  BTW--for those of you that don't know Sally has timid issues, and can be reactive to other dogs, so it's not like I'm saying this about my perfectly non-issued dog.
 
I do take her to the dog park once in a great while on off hours and let her run in the arena next door.  I think that dismissing walks as unnecessary just because they don't provide the cardio that off leash does is unwise.  Walks give some exercise, provide socialization, provide great real-world training opprotunities, offer a chance for greater bonding, and let your dog experience parts of life that they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Trish,
I appologize for mis-interpreting your post, but it does give people some thing to think about.
 
Odd behavior does provide a way to monitor our dogs physical and mental state and as most idoggers know, a behavioral "change" idicates problems. We just need to know how to understand their "signals".

Candace
Dogs do feel "stress" (or should I say distress). Boredom can definately bring out odd behaviors and cause things like separation anxiety, self-mutalation, distructive tendancies, etc. By understanding them inside and out, we know when they are having issues. Most of the members here, are very intuned to their fur-kids, know when some thing is "off" and respond.
 
 

This has been a very interesting thread. 
 
I use leash walks as practice to remember their leash manners, and those have to be in town...I suppose they wouldn't have to be, but it seems silly to put leashes on my dogs to walk them around my 4 plus acres.....I could go next door to the new subdivision, but there aren't many people living there and the construction workers don't really have time to say hello to dogs walking by.  So I prefer to go into town where there are going to be other people, other animals, and lots and lots of distractions.  I like working on manners AND socialization at the same time.  Since everyone does GREAT on these walks, I'm guessing that the once a week is enough  The rest of the time they have a blast exploring the acreage.  And, even tho it's the same old acreage, and we pretty much walk the same route, they have never failed to find new "stuff" to explore on each and every walk.  And unlike those of us with only 2 legs, they CAN get down the hill into the woods without falling on their rears like I do.  They sure don't ACT bored romping through the woods and fields.
 
I'm not going to MAKE them go for walks tho when the weather is truely nasty.  I live in NW Michigan, less than 2 miles from Lake Michigan and we get some brutal winters.  For several days near the end of the week and over the weekend we had temps in the upper 40's to mid 50's.  Yesterday morning was in the teens and really damp.  By yesterday afternoon the winds had picked up to the point that it sounded like a train was running by the house.  This morning we have 5 plus inches of new snow and it's still coming.  Sideways.  The snow is not falling, it's blowing sideways....we're getting gusts up to 70 MPH!  Their walks are supposed to be fun....not torture, and it's going to be torture out there today, as it was yesterday.
 
Now I have to go out and walk the fence line.  Since a kid in the subdivison forced me to run barbed wire through the woods to keep him OUT, I walk the fence line every day at least once to be sure no animals are caught in the fence.  That's a time that the dogs aren't invited.  I don't need to come on a deer caught in the fence and have a big dog scare them further. 
 
Leash walks are simply not going to satisfy the exercise needs, especially of a BIG dog.  We all do the best that we can to make sure that they get those leash walks to continue the leash manners and to expose them to new situations.  I for one am not willing to drive into town each and every day to do a leash walk when I have four plus acres that offer much more fun and exercise for my crew.
 
Christine, nothing that I said was in reference to you or to your comments regarding multiple daily walks.  This wasn't about you and still is not.  The conversations you refer to are threads on the old board, and it wasn't me you were so enraged with, but Brenda who's minpins don't even know what a leash is.  And even tho those little dogs NEVER leave their own yard, they've got a pretty darned good life.  It's just plain silly to try to pick a fight over something that you can't control....and how other people tend to their dogs isn't someone you get to control.

As everyone's concluding, it really depends upon the dog and it's needs.  Here on the North Shore of Boston, there are not dog parks and very little open space, and the open space require your dog on a leash.  If I had a large dog, I'd find one of the tucked away areas where I could let it off the leash and have a good game of frisbee or catch.  Walking with me wouldn't be enough exercise for a large dog. 

When the weather is right (above 55 degrees please) I take little Misty for 2-3 small walks a day.  She loves to go for a walk, she investigates every tree, leaf and stump along the route and socializes with everyone she meets.  I believe it makes her day much more interesting.  Since she is a 5 pound dog, a fifteen minute walk is alot for her, so she's pretty easy to exercise.  Often I take her in the car to a different location for a different kind of walk, so as to keep her interested. 

The walks are also training tools, getting her to pay attention to me and connect with me as we go along.  Not that she needs to be any more connected than we are!!

we don't have dog parks here either...so it's off to the White Mtns. for Molly to be able to run around off leash. Even then, once in awhile, someone will comment "thought you couldn't bring dogs here" and I so badly want to say "back off b***h this is my territory" cause it's usually a tourist. We always leash when we see people.
Today we had a play session set with Beau...it's POURING out and has been for 2 days. Don't think it'll happen today either. Molly loves running around with her bud Beau.
 
 

It sounds to me like we all make a HUGE effort to be sure our dogs get the exercise they need, as well as the leash training they also need.  And while we may have different methods of doing it, which seems to cause a bit of contention, the bottom line is that we DO IT.

FWIW - my  newf gets walked twice a day - every day - rain, shine, snow, wind.  We go for an hour in the morning which consists of a combination of street and off street walking.  Weekend mornings we frequently stop off at a local park where some of her dog friends gather so they can run and play, then we continue our walk.  Afternoon walks are anywhere from one to three hours -depending on the weather and where we decide to go.  Sometimes we walk throughout the city and visit friends, neighbors, stop and play with children and area dogs.  Other times, we go to a lake and walk the miles and miles of trails.
 
I think it's important to walk them on a regular basis.  Exercise, bonding, training, socialization, change in scenery, etc. are all great reasons to walk our dogs as frequently as we can. 

I agree to a certain extent, BUT I think free roaming over the four plus acres is every bit as good as a walk in the city.......

Kennel Keeper, as a child I remember not going to the zoo because I couldn't stand to watch some of the animals do that repetitive, neurotic pacing thing. So sad. We knew back then it wasn't a good thing. Even though in my local zoo we now have a "wolf environment" it still just doesn't suit a roaming wolf's needs. I've noticed the pacing behavior with them, also. So sad. BTW, I like reading your all encommpassing animal (not just dogs) info!

I wish I didn't have to take my dogs far away, for good exercise. Not that I mind doing so, but it bothers me that I have to drive the car 5-10 miles. We try hard to not use gasoline and save the environment in every tiny way we can. My DH and I ride our bikes or walk to work, but I still can't find a good alternative for the dogs. I feel I have to drive them to the country for their appropriate exercise.