How often does your dog go outside?

[Zach'smom]

I'm new to this dog ownership thing. We adopted a 2 year old German Shepherd/Black Lab mix from the animal shelter 3 months ago. She is a moderate to high energy dog. I'm just wondering how her outside pee/exercise/play time compares to other dogs. I want to make sure I am giving her everything she needs.

Typical weekday schedule
8:40- Goes in the backyard by herself to "take care of business" comes back in in about 5 minutes.
9:20- We walk for about an hour or so while she is wearing her backpack weighted down with water bottles.
1:00ish-I take her outside for 30-45 minutes to play
4:00- outside for at least 45 minutes. Can be longer if she is playing with my son and friends.
6:45ish- 20 to 30 minutes to play.
about midnight- final 5 minute break before my dh and I go to bed.

She will go longer without going out when I am out running errands, appointments etc. or if we go somewhere on the weekend. We will also take her hiking with us on the weekends.

So is this too little? Too much? Tell me about your dog??

[Chloe'sMama]

My dogs are much older, but they go out about every 4 hours. They can hold it much longer, but I just like for them to try about that often. When they were younger, they would want to spend more time outside (2 walks a day at least and an hour of play time at a dog park with other dogs). Now, they don't even want to go outside.

If your pup seems frustrated you may need more time outside. It depends on each dog.

sounds like you are doing good though.

[SophieAnn]

That sounds like lots to me.

We have a male age 2. He has pretty low energy/exercise needs. He goes out:
Sometime between 5am-7am to play/potty before dh leaves for work
8am to play/potty before I leave for work
Around 5pm or whenever the first one of us gets home from work play/potty
Anytime in the evening that he rings the bell (maybe a couple times)
Around 10 or 11pm last potty before bedtime.

He will typically potty:
a pee in the morning (about 75% of the time)
a pee after work around 5pm or 6pm
a pee mid-evening around 8pm (only if he skipped his morning pee)
a pee before bed around 10 or 11pm
one poop per day (time varies)

So, he will usually only pee 2-3 times per day and poop once per day. He's like a camel though, and has held it for as long as 22 hours before, despite having many opportunities to go outside.

Each of those times outside includes some playtime. Sometimes he'll ring the bell to go out and we let him out alone and he'll just run a few laps of the backyard and come back to the door. It's like sometimes he just feels like burning off a little energy.

[mamallama]

I think that sounds about right.

One of my dogs is a high energy lab/shep. At age two I was walking him for an hour every day, playing frisbee for 10-15 min two, three times a day, sending him out on his own (fenced yard,) several times a day...and if the weather was horrible or if I was sick or if I just had to skip the long walk that day--he was really hard to live with, even with lots of extra frisbee.

He eased up on his exercise needs at around age 3-4. He's six now, and while he can still go, he has definitely figured out how to be mellow.

I love my lab/shep! He's a fun mix of a dog!

[june'smom]

It totally depends on the dog. One of my dogs could go a long time without going out. He likes to go for walks, but he won't destroy things if we miss a day because of illness or whatever.

Our second dog, on the other hand, needs at least one long walk everyday and lots of play time. She is an absolute nightmare if we miss a walk. They are about the same age.

I wouldn't worry about how much other people do, partly because most people don't give their dogs enough exercise imho and partly because they don't have your dog.

[Alyantavid]

It kinda varies on the day, but typically:

5:30 out to pee
7:30ish out to poop
8:30-12:30 she goes out when she rings the bell and dh usually takes her out to play for awhile somewhere in there
4:30 out to pee and poop
9ish out to pee

Between 4:30 and 9 (the last time before bed) she goes out every few hours or when she rings the bell or when I need to go out for something.

Weekends, there isn't really any regular time to it. Except first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. Most of these pee times (except the 5:30 one), she runs and plays and we stay out for awhile. We don't really have anywhere to just go for walks here so it's mostly yard playing for exercise.

[Doodlebugsmom]

There are days when my 15 year-old cocker only goes out twice. Other days, when she's feeling frisky, she'll go out 10-15 times. She likes to patrol the yard and lay on the deck to watch for the UPS truck so she has something to bark at. She's a real character. We usually take her on a 20 minute walk each day too. We're pretty lucky, we can leave the back door open (privacy fence) and she can come and go as she pleases when the weather permits.

Our 7 month-old pyrenees/husky mix goes out first thing in the morning. Then she comes in while the kids get ready for school. We take her with us to walk to the school bus stop, then take a longer walk. She goes out to pee about every 3-4 hours, I'd say. She also goes on 3-4 twenty minute walks each day. She recently has proven herself trustworthy of going out back off leash. I check on her every few minutes. She likes to lay on the deck watching over everything. I think it's the pyrenees in her.

Both dogs usually sleep through the night without needing to go out.

So, really it's different dogs/different needs.

[Ola_]

Our two dogs go out three times a day - once in the morning, shortly after waking up usually. Then again in the afternoon, which is typically when I get home from work. And a final time right before bed. If someone has an upset tummy or didn't potty completely due to a distracting squirrel or not wanting to stay out in the rain they may ask for another break, but that is not typical.

If we are going somewhere in the car or have people coming over we will often take them for a quick potty trip first, just in case. This has been their schedule for about the last 5 years or so.