Exercise and stuff

[Tracer Tong]

Hey guys, I just lost my puppy and I'm stuck thinking about the next dog for the time being, even if it is a few years off. I have some questions.

I'm really strongly drawn to German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois/Belgian shepherds and Dutch Shepherds. I want one of those, I've wanted one since I was a little kid and my grandparents had GSDs. And I'm committed to being a responsible owner so I'm trying to figure out how much exercise(mental and physical) these dogs need. All the websites I can find say something like "this is a working breed so it needs some job to do and training". That's not hugely helpful to me.

Any of you guys have experience with bigger dogs and dog treadmills for when the weather is terrible or the owner is sick and can't go out? I realize they don't provide mental stimulation but I hear that dogs tend to like them(with some work of course). I'd have a treadmill for my dog, and I might even rig it to dispense treats at random while it is in use. Wouldn't that be cool?

Another thing, to get the mental exercise needed does the training have to be continous or just the job? What I'm asking is, would going out and tracking things every day be enough, or would there have to be continued training in tracking?

I'm not a jogger(my knees) but I am a mountain biker in a place where dogs are allowed off leash! Could I expect a dog of any of those breeds to run with me while I ride my mountain bike(on mountain trails of course)?

Are these the kinds of things that count as exercise? Mental and physical.

Thanks for answering questions even though they are way ahead of time. You guys are great.

 

[oc_spirit]

What they mean by this is that you would need to find a job that suits both you and the dog and go out EVERY DAY and work the dog especially if you get a Malinois or a Dutch Shepherd. These guys are workaholics!!! It''d be a great idea to join some sort of bite work sport such as Personal Protection, Schutzhund, French Ring, or something similar. These are the sports that these breeds excel in and they cover both mental and physical excercise needs. Well not ALL physical needs but certainly a portion. These guys need a very dedicated owner who is not afraid to put every spare moment into working their dog.

You shuold talk to SummerRiot. She owns a Belgian Terv. They''re not quite as intense as the Belgian Mal or Dutch shepherd but certainly still quite demanding. Good luck!

 

[Tracer Tong]

And the idea that I'd be in over my head has crossed my mind. Picking a dog is a lot harder than having somebody say "Here, this is for you" which is what happened with my last dog.

So yeah, it's going to be a few years from now. And I'll probably rescue. And it could turn out that I'm on figurative crack and really don't want a dog like that at all. I think the main thing that appeals to me is the trainability and spirit that these dogs have.

Thanks for your input, it makes sense.

 

[oc_spirit]

Have you thought about perhaps looking into a retired K9? A lot of times when a police K9 retires they are adopted by their handler but sometimes the handler cant take them and they are in need of a home where they can live out their life. They''re not old dogs neccessarily, they simply cant do their job as well as they used to or as well as the younger dogs.

 

[Tracer Tong]

I hadn't thought of that. It's interesting.

I may also end up going with some sort of Shepherd mix. Really I have no idea now that I truly think about it, but I will want to be sure that my future dog is well exercised. That's what this thread is about.

Thanks again.

 

[oc_spirit]

Have you ever taken a breed selector quiz like the one at www.dogbreedinfo.com ? The results may give you some ideas of dog breeds you havent considered yet.

BTW I forgot to mention, a tread mill is a good way to excercise ADULT DOGS provided it isnt the only form of excercise the dog recieves which I know in your case it wouldnt be since you specified such already Good luck in your search!

 

[Tracer Tong]

I have taken a few of those. They tend to come up with things that I've never heard of and don't really pull at my imagination. Ya know, I'm underwhelmed by them.

Thanks for all the great ideas and stuff.

 

[Tracer Tong]

Is it possible to spam my own thread? I hope this doesn't count.

I was just looking on dog breed info and this is part of the exercise description for rotteweilers: Swimming or running beside a bicycle are perfect activities for this dog and it also loves retrieving a ball.

That sounds cool, where I ride there are also places a dog could swim.

 

[sam]

The thing I would consider even more than exercise with those breeds is what they were bred for and what that means. They were basically bred to be guardy / patrol dogs. They are SERIOUS about being protective and are naturally sort of 'on the look out for bad guys' (for lack of a better way to put it). These aren't breeds you get if you aren't 110% certain that you can put a huge amount of highly reliable obedience training on and also be prepare to do a lot of management. This isn't a dog you get if you want it to be friendly with everyone all the time etc.
I like the belgians, dutchies etc but even for a big obedience, dog sport nerd like me, they are a LOT of dog.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

The thing I would consider even more than exercise with those breeds is what they were bred for and what that means. They were basically bred to be guardy / patrol dogs. They are SERIOUS about being protective and are naturally sort of 'on the look out for bad guys' (for lack of a better way to put it). These aren't breeds you get if you aren't 110% certain that you can put a huge amount of highly reliable obedience training on and also be prepare to do a lot of management. This isn't a dog you get if you want it to be friendly with everyone all the time etc.
I like the belgians, dutchies etc but even for a big obedience, dog sport nerd like me, they are a LOT of dog.

I am a big fan of Dutchies and agree with this 100%. These guys are intense and mean business.

~Tucker

 

[fillyone]

5:00 am, 10 minutes training, Dante breakfast
6:00 am, Dante potties, 15-20 minutes fetch (Rain, Shine, Sleet, Snow..no matter the weather)
Then dang it I have to work.
3:00 pm-Sometimes this changes up, depending, but we do 20 minutes or so of training/play and then 20 minutes of fetch and then an hour off then feed, or I feed wait an hour and then do the above
7:00 pmish-Another 10-20 minutes training and another 10-15 minutes of fetch, or we skip the training and just play fetch for 45-60 minutes
8:30ish Dinner
9:00ish One last potty run, which usually includes a round of "zoomies" and then bed.

And Dante is 3 years old, medium drives.

 

[fillyone]

Oh and that doesn't include all the play time in the house, that's just all the outdoor stuff

 

[Tracer Tong]

You guys are great. One thing that I totally forgot to consider is that I would take the dog to jujitsu events with me. And the dog would see me "getting beaten" by various big scary men. So that's another thing to think about.

Thanks again guys(gals).

 

[Laurelin]

Growing up I had a GSDx and mind you he was all American lines and crossed, and he was still way more intense than any dog I care to have again. He was very strong and active and VERY VERY VERY protective. We had a couple of dogs get loose on our property and he was very aggressive towards them. He was super good with the children and very smart. He had to be exercised A LOT. He went on runs with my father, was taken out to the lake frequently (loved to fetch the decoy that was supposed to be for our lab at the time), and I took him on walks (with the help of a parent of course). He also had horrible HD which is something to consider if you're going to get a GSD, especially if you're getting a mix or a rescue with unknown ancestry. It can be very expensive and it ultimately cost our boy his life.

 

[IliamnasQuest]

I've had German shepherds since 1989, and I love them. Overall they are dogs that are willing partners in training and they thrive on consistent, fair, high reinforcement training methods. I was doing the high-correction training when I had my first shepherd (who was a BYB medium drive dog) and moved to high-reward methods with my last two (both mostly or all German lines, much higher drive) and it's been amazing how focused and intent they turned out to be. I let Trick out of the van a couple of nights ago with a moose about 20 feet away and she glanced at it and then turned toward the house when I said "let's go inside". She was off-leash. This is the kind of partnership I want with my dogs.

I'm not a real high energy person myself, unfortunately. I have never been tremendously athletic although up until recently I was relatively active. I did fine with the shepherds however because I did a lot of fun training, retrieve games, mental exercises where they had to find things, etc. Here in the middle of winter it can be way sub-zero in temps so outdoors work is not very practical and we end up playing indoors. I send my dogs to retrieve things and reward them for bringing me shoes and dog dishes and keys and phones and whatever. They search out biscuits and toys and do puppy push-ups (sit, down, sit, down, sit, do .. you get the idea .. *L*). There are dozens of ways to entertain and exercise your dogs.

And then they chew on bones until they're panting and tired.

I haven't ever had to run my dogs into submissive exhaustion. While it's good to take the exercise requirements of dogs into account when choosing a new dog, you sound like a relatively active person who won't have any problem exercising your dog. And the breeds you are considering are ones that mature into their brains earlier than many breeds. By this I mean that you can do mental activities easier with a young German shepherd than you can a, say, typical lab of the same age. I'm not putting down labs - it's just that they tend to have a longer "goofy puppy" stage when it comes to their way of thinking. Shepherds are more serious at a younger age and can handle mental exercise more.

I'm in the process of getting a German shepherd puppy now (had planned on getting it in January but have opted to wait for a later litter). I'm going for full German lines, full schutzhund background even though I now have an auto-immune disease that affects my joints and I can't get around like I used to. I don't have any fear that I will have a problem keeping my pup stimulated and exercised. In part it's because I have lots of games in my training toolbox and in part because I have other dogs to help me exercise/train the new one.

You'll do fine with your new dog and the right one will come along for you at the right time.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

 

[Tracer Tong]

Awesome very informative post, thanks a bunch.

 

[DanL]

I've found the mental stimulation is just as important and just as rewarding for my GSD as the outdoor physical stuff. When it's too nasty out, we play games indoors- searching for a hidden toy where I put him in a down, then I go hide a toy somewhere in the house and have him go look for it. I have him gather the 8 to 10 toys he leaves laying around the family room floor and bring them all to me, once I have them all I down him and then throw them all, and have him bring them all back. I have him bring specific toys to me out of a pile of them. We go over lots of basic obedience stuff- a sit to a down, back to a sit, back to a down, 5-6 times in a row then reward him. Long down/stay- 10 minutes or more. Problem solving- putting a ball under a chair or something where he can't reach it and then coaxing him to use his paws to reach in and get it close enough to grab it.

Outdoors is much easier. Frisbee- 20-30 throws with him sprinting out and back 50 yards at a time gets him going pretty good. I do a lot of stuff in our yard too, using 2 balls to keep him sprinting at a steady rate for 15-20 minutes non stop. I throw 1 ball, as he brings the other back he'll drop it and I'll throw the 2nd ball so he's constantly moving. We've also been playing around with tracking stuff, I lay down a track and bait it with food and have him follow it, with a toy at the end as a reward. I have to change this up all the time because once he's done the track once he keeps looking to where the reward was last time, even if I wait a day to take him back out on it. He pretty much tells me when he is ready to play, about 4pm each day. I can get up from my desk and he bounces to the back door. If I let him out and don't follow, he sits at the back door and barks for me to come out with him. I don't get a chance to give him hours of exercise a day, so we maximize our time by doing the high intensity stuff like the frisbee or 2 ball.

 

[Tracer Tong]

Another great post, making best use of play/exercise time. Good stuff.

 

[noludoru]

For biking with your dog... this is a great thing to read, bookmark, worship, etc.
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/index.html