Walkies.....
There is no doubt that if you don't enjoy walking you should not have a dog. There is many the dog that has motivated people to keep active into their much later life and who has helped their owner, recovering from accident or illness, to get up and go again.
Dog walking has to be one of the great pleasures in life....I can hear some people saying it 'this woman is nuts'.
Personally during recovery from horrible surgery, I struggled to get my three dogs out for a walk. All the time I was in hospital I dreamed of the day I would walk the dogs again, it kept me going. Then I broke my leg and smacked up my ankle, even with my leg in plaster I hobbled up the road using a borrowed walking frame to get the dogs some exercise. It just meant so much to me to get out there in the fresh air and 'do it'.
Nowadays I leave home at about 8.15 every week morning with the donkey on lead and four dogs and we walk about 4 ks along the lakefront at Hamurana on the northern shore of Lake Rotorua. It is a lovely reserve and reflects the seasons beautifully, and on the rough days when the wind is blowing and the rain is sleeting down and we all have our raincoats on, it is just as inspiring as on the beautiful crisp spring mornings with the lake flat calm. The black swan flapping across the water way out towards Mokoia Island, calling to each other, can be heard through the quiet of the morning two kilometers away. The dogs snuffle along off lead, on the safe parts away from the road, catch up with their regular toilet places, so we stop and use the plastic bags to collect, and then on lead when we are close to the roads they look to see if any of their other dog walking pals are in the vicinity. When they do catch up with each other they all sniff and posture and play or sometimes completely ignore the other dogs, depending on the mood of the morning, and I know the feeling.
This is our time with each other, no matter what the day brings. I stop along the way to let the donkey have a bit of a munch on a favourite bit of willow tree or a tuft of grass and the dogs hunt along the shore, sometimes flushing out a water rat, which promptly dives into the water and the younger dogs will give swim chase for a while until it is obvious that rat has disappeared. We do kill the odd rat but mostly it's just a hunting game. My dogs have been taught not to bother the birds which is good as the nesters sit tight and the dogs go around them, the scaup make a bit of a flutter as the dogs swim by but not enough to get lift off about.
I could continue with particular stories about my morning walks and the people we talk to and the seasons and the funny things that happen, and the tragic, as in when one of my dogs was hit by a truck and didn't survive, but that is really not the point.
Everyone I know who walks their dogs every day can tell stories just like those above, about the day their dog met so and so and the antics of unearthing a hedgehog having a nap in the bushes. It is a pasttime that gives rise to wonderful social communication for dogs and people and guess what, it costs absolutely nothing.
How far should I walk my dog? What type of dog do you have? How old is it? Puppies do not need walking up till when they are about 4and a half months, then I start off with little short wanders. I go out my gate and I let my dog sniff the ground and go up to fencelines and sniff the power poles, eventually my dog will piddle and maybe even do a poo. This is great, my dog is marking the space. I would then go home. Next day I would walk a little further, really slowly, My dog will head for the places it marked yesterday and probably do it again and we can move on a little further and so on, building up a history for the dog in this new place, so that he feels secure and happy there. If another dog comes along with or without a handler, I stand on my lead and put my dog in a down position. I say nothing and my dog just lies there and the other dog goes around it, pretty much 100% of the time. I do not want my dog to learn to lurch on the lead and I want to walk on a lose lead at all times. It is far cleverer to be able to walk your dog properly on lead for five kms or to run with your dog on a lead, than it is to just take it to the off-lead dog park and let it run riot. Once dogs learn to riot it is often difficult to get them back to you and restrain them on lead. I like my dogs working completely on lead on a walk before I let them have loose time. Get good training from your local Dog School on how to lead, join a Dog Trekking or Tramping group, make a sport of on lead walking, it will be the best thing you have ever done.
Remember that Giant Dogs do not need massive amounts of exercise, five kms a day walking is heaps, Jack Russells, and all those fast little terriers need five kms a day as well. On the other hand you can get away with about two kms with most of the toy breeds and about four kms for all the medium sized dogs. Dogs who are fit in old age can still do three to four kms per day, but as they tire and reach 12 or 13 you can scale it back a bit if they will let you. Eventually at 14 or 15years the mind will be willing but the little old legs probably won't make the grade, so it is back to those puppy wanders, out the gate to a power pole on leash to have a good sniff and a piddle and back in the gate again to rest and dream of earlier adventures when power walking was good.
So please, if you are a couch potato and get a dog, make a real effort to get out there and do a bit of exercise, it will save both of your lives.
Raewyn Saville
