How Do You Keep Your Dogs Fit

[foxy]

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I have spent months of hard work to get my dogs fit .

daily walks 1hrs (free running)

3 nights lamping

5hrs hunting on saturday morning.

now for the past fortnight hard frost has stoped all that dogs geting walks on the

lead daily but it is no good for keeping running dogs fit.

how do you keep yours fit ? ( help )

 

[*Lesley*]

Mine free run in the woods all year round if you go into the foresty bit it's not usually frosty just on the paths with no coverage :thumbsup:

 

[nigelmcfc]

Foxy, road walking will keep them fit, I know they need a run, but road walking will build and tone muscle really well . Look at a few greyhound racing books it`s all in there

 

[OEH]

2 hours free walking a day

1/2 road work a day

running at a greyhound track once or twice a week

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[Vicky]

Foxy, road walking will keep them fit, I know they need a run, but road walking will build and tone muscle really well . Look at a few greyhound racing books it`s all in there

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I agree, as long as you walk at a decent pace they get a lovely shape i find.

 

[sighthoundlover]

1 hours road work everyday and a 10 minute run afterwards. Road work is a great way to keep a dog fit and muscles tone really quickly, and your own!

 

[Strike Whippets]

Free running (frost or not :b ) .......Very rarely do any road walking .......Race them most weeks (but not when the grounds frosty or hard in summer :wacko: ) ......And Eric loves swimming (no not in a heated pool ......but in the cold river Avon (w00t) ) .....I blame his coursing blood ......or could it be the lack of oxygen at birth lol :lol:

 

[Joanna]

Free running every day for 40-50 minutes with whatever dogs are around on open ground!!!!!!!!! Racing fortnightly for treats :thumbsup:

 

[LVernon]

I have spent months of hard work to get my dogs fit .how do you keep yours fit ?  ( help )

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Hills!! lots of hills, walking up them, hopefully with the dogs running up them. It's tough in the winter as there's not enough daylight hours to work and play. We use the local vets "wave" pool and swim against the current for a bit of a fitness tweak in the Spring, before racing.

 

[05whippet]

I totally agree with Nigelmcfc we find that road work is all you need with a regular blow-out a couple of times of a week,that should do the trick nicely. :thumbsup:

 

[DavidH]

road work always difficult this time of year,all the salt about they will need there feet washing in weak detol/water. swimming is great if your near a pool.or if you have plenty of money buy a tread mill, they can exercice while watching the telly :cheers: mine get 3 to 4 mile and midweek run at greyhound track. hopefully race on a weekend, day after racing let him chill out do nothing, to get over travel and racing. hard work this time of year . if it keeps as hard as it is i thought of swimming him once a week he loves the pool.

 

[JAX]

Some dogs can keep themselves fit just by road walking , I find each dog is different . Mine gets gallops most days ( weather and ground permitting , ) but as mine are just `show `dogs we have to be carefull not to get them `over `muscled `, esp,, their shoulders :b .

 

[LasVegasNo1]

An hour every day with the tossit and a tennis ball! :cheers:

 

[Lakey]

Mine free run in the woods all year round if you go into the foresty bit it's not usually frosty just on the paths with no coverage :thumbsup:

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free running in the woods nearly cost me my dogs ( buck) life when a branch pearced bucks chest and whent down the side of his bicept and his ribs, the vet could get her hand in the wound. not only did it nearly cost me my dogs life, the vet charged me £300 for the pleasure of removing the splinters of wood for 3 hours. however having lost 3 bitchs earlier in the year (1 from old age, 1 form illness and the last one during whelp while carrying 9 of bucks pups which died inside of the bitch causing septasemia 2 weeks before bucks accident) losing buck would have would hve been the last straw and i would never have kept a dog again, so the vets bill i feel was very cheep.

i will never let my dogs run freely in the woods again, to me its not worth the risk

 

[Strike Whippets]

Same here .....Jacob, Joanna and Inca have been injured in woodland and Jacob's been impailed twice, nearly piercing his heart on the last occasion :blink: ...........My friends girl punctured a lung and nearly lost her life ......I blame the Deer

 

[Vicky]

Same here .....Jacob, Joanna and Inca have been injured in woodland and Jacob's been impailed twice, nearly piercing his heart on the last occasion  :blink:   ...........My friends girl punctured a lung and nearly lost her life ......I blame the Deer 

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Quite scary actually, same happened to Gabby (apart from that was a fence ) but god it's the one and only time i've heard her yelp and she screamed the place down, you could see right inside her chest and her heart beating n everything, makes me feel sick now thinking about it

 

[Rae]

Yep - we've had 2 deep penetrating stick wounds and a broken leg from free running in woods....I guess it depends on the time of year as it's worse in the autumn when the branches are coming off the trees. I keep Leia on her lead in the woods now but the rest are OK.

I blame the deer too :- "

We do 2 walks a day - free running between 30 mins and 1.5 hours each, but we are lucky to have permission to go onto farmer's land. If mine only get lead walks they do not tire out at all. Lead walking might keep the muscle there but I dont understand how it would help their cardiovascular fitness?

 

[*Lesley*]

Mine free run in the woods all year round if you go into the foresty bit it's not usually frosty just on the paths with no coverage :thumbsup:

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free running in the woods nearly cost me my dogs ( buck) life when a branch pearced bucks chest and whent down the side of his bicept and his ribs, the vet could get her hand in the wound. not only did it nearly cost me my dogs life, the vet charged me £300 for the pleasure of removing the splinters of wood for 3 hours. however having lost 3 bitchs earlier in the year (1 from old age, 1 form illness and the last one during whelp while carrying 9 of bucks pups which died inside of the bitch causing septasemia 2 weeks before bucks accident) losing buck would have would hve been the last straw and i would never have kept a dog again, so the vets bill i feel was very cheep.

i will never let my dogs run freely in the woods again, to me its not worth the risk

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What a tradegy for you Lakey, I'm so sorry that this happened

As for mine they've done it since babies lakey but just for reassurance were we walk through the woods it is very trodden down and sparce to be honest, big trees with big spaces in between not a lot of things to chase so they don't charge off they have a route they follow and tend to stick to it I just follow,more like a big path mine run just in front of me so not in the deep woodland area they spend more time sniffing than anything, if I thought they were at more risk there more than any other place I wouldn't take them, it the lesser of 2 evils really because I would worry more if I was taking them somewhere where there were roads nearby, it's hard to find a good place for dogs like ours to run and be safe don't you think?

 

[LasVegasNo1]

it's hard to find a good place for dogs like ours to run and be safe don't you think?

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Yeah I agree, in fact we now only walk on an island basically! The land is surrounded by a canel and a river with bridges as the only exit route! :sweating:

 

[Fast but dim]

can't see how roadwork gets a dog fit.would a sprinter walk to get better at sprinting? maybe in the 1890's, but not now. i'm a sport scientist, but work with people, not dogs, so could be wrong.

Are todays racing dogs trained scientifically, or just traditionally?

All i know is if i was training to run fast i would'nt be doing much walking.