Help me with the guilt!
Brief rundown. My golden is an active, 1.5 year old boy. He has the best temperament, listens well - everything he does is to please. I love him.
He usually gets at least one walk a day, lots of bathroom breaks and lots of stops for attention at home. I leave for work at 8:30AM, my husband hangs out at home with the dog until his shift starts around 3PM, and he walks the dog down to me at my office.
He has lots of admirers at the office, and free run of the building (although he mostly spends his time lying at our desks). After a full day at the office, sometimes the last thing I want to do is carve out another 1 to 1.5 hour walk in my evening before finally getting home to do chores, clean up, dinner...
So, provided my sweet boy gets at least one walk, a full day of time with people rarely ever left alone, gets lots of pets and scratches, etc - would *you* consider this fair time and attention? Or would you be making sure he gets 2-3 hours of walk/outdoor play time per day?
All I want to do is give back to my dog the way he gives to me, and in a perfect world I exist with 10 clones and he's kept busy and doted on and active, climbing mountains and swimming and chasing balls all day long. I guess I just want to hear if it's OK to, you know, not do the whole extra walks after a full day together, sometimes.
Posted Sep 27, 2022, 12:28 AM UTC
Goldens don’t need 2-3 hours of exercise daily and it sounds like he’s good in the attention department, but you should still aim for 40-60 min minimum of active outside time a day. I’ll bring my boys out for 25-30 min in the afternoon to a park and the same in the evening and it works great for them.