Gun Dog Forum

How much do you do for your dogs?

I am running now with both my dogs - alternating days - My big dog pulls 10 ft of 3/8 chain hooked to his roading harness dragging along behind him - my younger dog drags about 5-7 lbs of electric cable behind him - while we run 4 miles a day - with a rest day in between - mostly for me at 40 yrs and 50 lbs heavier than I should be - figure it is good for all of us.

What do you do to condition the dogs?

if you are in the early phase of conditioning a dog for roading, and are running 30 min. or less, every other day is probably ok. but these should be light workouts. how much weight the dog pulls (dragging on the ground, not lifting) should b e governed by how much the dog weighs and how well conditioned it is. 8 - 12 lbs. works for me, for trial GSPs in the 48-55 lb. range. work up to pulling a min. of 30 - 45 minutes. then you should road at most 3 days a week, and that just to get the dog into condition. once it is conditioned, 2 times per week for maintenance. don't overdue, and watch for signs that they are under stress, such as not wanting to run as fast over the course of the workout. if you see such signs, give them a layoff.

When I condition my dogs I just keep them hunting but take them away from where the birds nest. Instead of using wild game I will go out before hand and plant the odd pigeon or somthing to keep their interest. Right now I am running my 5 month old about 2 hours every day (1 in the morning 1 in the evening) Even if it is playing fetch in the back feild as long as they are running its fine with me.

I have never tried to give a young fast growing puupy much strenuious exercise of any type. I think you put extra stress on the tender joints such as the hips. There is time to condition a dog after it has grown. So before that they get to go for a walk in the field evey few days and we work primarily in the yard on commands. After the first year then the conditioning can and should be gradually increased till they are two and then do whatever. We all lack a lot of patience and I think we pay for it later. Seeing how young we can train a dog says a lot about the trainer and little about the pup.

Ezzy

i agree with ezzy on young dogs. let em solidify before putting a load on them. just free run until then. typically, they will run their butt off at that age anyway.

My dog is older so I swim her now that it's warmed up.