For those who don't use their dogs for herding.

[Karl808]

I try to give Karl 3.5 hours of play everyday at the dog park. He runs with other dogs for half of the time and then I give him what he really wants, his beloved frisbee. The thing is I feed him Primal raw patties everyday, but if I feed him the recommended amount he turns to bone and skin. so I give him double the amount which is 2 patties a day, yet he is still very skinny. I was wondering how many hours of exercise you folks give your dogs, how much you feed and are they skinny? Thanks everyone.

[Mojo]

Hello, I wonder about this all the time!! A link to an old thread on this Board might help you better evaluate your pup's body condition:

 

What a healthy Border Collie looks like:

http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.p...hl=aussie+board?

 

I have to say, though, that three-and-a-half hours of non-stop play sounds like a lot at one stretch for a six-month-old pup!! I will definitely defer to the opinion of more experienced owners on this board, however, as I have never raised a BC puppy and have no idea what their specific exercise requirements are. As for my adult Aussie x BC mix, I had previously thought he was in great shape, and may even have been borderline skinny, but my agility trainer just told me earlier this week that Mojo needs to lose some weight!!! This flabbergasted me because I can easily feel the ridges of his spine, hips, and the spaces between his ribs with just a light touch of the fingers!! My trainer, however, pointed out the amount of loose, pliable, excess skin (I hadn't thought it was fat) on the top of his back, compared to his flanks (sides), where the skin is tight over his bones, so I have to trust his opinion! The loose skin becomes much more obvious when Mojo is sitting, but when he stands up, the slack is taken up again. What makes it even harder is that Mojo has a tremendous amount of coat that sticks out/up every which way, so I just thought that he looked stocky but wasn't, particularly since when he is wet from a bath, depending on the viewing angle, you can just barely see his ribs (otherwise, you can't see them). Mojo is 18" at the shoulder and 35 lbs, but he does seem to have a stockier frame/structure and bigger bones than a purebred BC of the same height. I had asked an orthopedic vet a while back about Mojo's body condition when I was first getting into agility, and he had said that Mojo was "just right," and commented that he thinks many other BCs and BC mixes he treats are usually too thin....my trainer essentially said, though, that vets are not good resources to judge sport/performance dogs, and that agility dogs in particular need to be much leaner than the average pet in order for them to stay healthy and fit for training.

 

As for Mojo's feeding schedule, I confess it is mainly based (for my convenience) on that of my other dog with kidney failure, who is unusual in that she has to eat small, frequent meals three or four times a day, depending on how she feels (but because of her chronic disease, is still skin and bones). So, Mojo also gets three home-cooked meals a day (1/2 cup to 3/4 cup per meal, depending on what particular food I have made that day (and the particular meat/veggie/grain combo changes daily because my kidney dog will not eat the same food more than two meals in a row), but it is always a stew based on five food groups: organic meats, grains, vegetables, dairy products, and fruits, plus vitamins/supplements. (BTW, if you want to know the specific details of what I do, please PM me--the balancing of essential minerals/micronutrients for two dogs with vastly different nutritional requirements is quite elaborate, and it takes a LONG time to explain, but what I do is pretty much de rigueur for a dog with kidney failure....at least Mojo gets to eat yummy meals as a side benefit of Godiva's illness. I will say, however, that the idea is mainly based on the book by Dr. Strombeck, Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets.) Mojo also gets organic/holistic treats (or real meat/cheese) during training (several times per day). Now that I am trying to get him to lose weight, I cannot stop giving him training treats, so I am cutting down on the overall volume of Mojo's meals, plus increasing the percent protein content, and reducing the percent fat and carbohydrate content. I am also trying to increase the amount of his daily exercise. Here in the SoCal summer, however, I am really limited to outdoor activities in the early morning or evening because it is just TOO HOT to deal with being outside at any other time of the day (right now, it is almost 100 degrees outside and the sun is blazing down). So, what I have been doing lately is run with Mojo in the early mornings for about 1 hour on a desert canyon trail that is mostly hilly/steep, and then in the evenings I take both him and my little kidney dog to the off-leash dog park for 1-2 hours to play with other dogs. Alternatively, we will all go hiking again in the evening for that time if my kidney dog is up to it that day. During the day, we work indoors intermittently (4-5 times a day, maybe 10-15 minutes at a time) on agility groundwork and tricks (more mental than physical exercise) in the comfort of air-conditioning, and every other day I put him on a human treadmill to walk and trot (speeds varying between 1.7 and 3.2 mph) for 15 minutes. I also will bring the dogs with me on errands for the purposes of fun/socialization (if I am going places where they will be allowed inside, of course), and if we are lucky enough to have an overcast day, we will actually go for a walk in our neighborhood in the afternoon for an hour or so. I cannot WAIT for winter to come again....after all, winter in Los Angeles is like spring everywhere else!!! I really hope this information is helpful to you!

[Ruger's Dad]

Since I don't consider walking or playing with other dogs exercise, Ruger will get from 1/2hr to 45min of frisbee a day. He is 2.5 by the way. I pretty much stop when I get bored or he wears out where he can't make the catches any longer. Inside the house he can be a perpertual motion machine but I don't count that as exercise either.

 

Ruger will eat from 2 to 4 cups of food per day. I let him free feed. He is a solid 40lbs. Ruger finally filled out when he was around 1.5 years old. It seemed like over night he got buff. Must be that doggy testosterone. LOL Until then, he was skin and bones. Now he finally has a good layer of muscle along his ribs instead of just ribs.

 

Remember, Border Collies are alot like kids. They start out as pups and one day you have a young adult on your hands. They are just cleaner, more obedient and smarter than your human kids.

[Guest TheRuffMuttGang]

Just depends on the day. Somedays they get next to no exercise and others we go on 3 hr hikes. We also do frisbee, flyball and agility. But there are some days where I just have too many other things going on. Luckily they've been trained to be calm in the house despite no exercise so they aren't too bothersome most of the time.

[Shetlander]

30 - 60 minutes of fetch and/or agility training on average, especially during the work week. Some days are much busier. A few are much less. My dogs also spend a lot of time hanging out with me, going along when I run errands, chewing on a toy, playing briefly with each other, etc.

 

It's also important to keep the dog's mind active and busy. A tricky 10 minutes of obedience training can do a lot to settle Quinn down.

 

Being moderate drive at best myself, I've always been amazed by the idea of spending 3 or 4 hours every day playing with my dog. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I don't think it is necessary for all dogs, or maybe even the average BC. It hasn't been necessary for any of my dogs over the years. I do think we can condition our dogs to need hours of exercise each day. This summer, I started playing a round of Frisbee with Quinn every morning before work. That was when it was coolest and we had long, long days so no problem. Now he expects that game of fetch every morning. He was perfectly fine waiting until evening to play before.

 

Quinn eats a lot (not going to go into what I'm feeding him since diet can be such a heated topic) and is 21 inches and a trim, very muscular 38 lbs.

[Karl808]

Hey mojo thanks for the reply. That link was really good. Looking at the other BC's made me more confident that my BC is not underweight. He is probably just right. He is still young so I guess he's still needs time to fill out those bones with some muscle.

 

I miss my dog. He still at the vet being neutered.

The vet called me and said the surgery went fine, but still he must be worried since this has probably been the longest he has been without me.

Thanks

[WyoBC]

I usally try to play for about 20 to 30 minutes in the morning with his frisbee and his ball. Then about that or a little more at night. With some playing in between when I let him out. He'll be three years old in Dec. He weighed in at 43.3 lbs. last time I was at the vet. He's a little bit on the bigger side for a BC though. But since I have to feed him some puppy food to help with his gastritest (sp?) he stays about two lbs. over weight. But I try to keep it under that.

[OurBoys]

But since I have to feed him some puppy food to help with his gastritest (sp?) he stays about two lbs. over weight. But I try to keep it under that.

 

 

AJ, what's gastritest (sp?) and how does puppy food help?

[Guest LJS1993]

Since both Freckleslalamom and myself have pretty active lives, our dogs level of exercise really varies these days. As for Frek, I would say about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs of exercise in the evening is typically what she gets. I would definately consider playing with other dogs exercise. Why? Because they grapple, run, jump, get knocked over, etc.... If doing that for about an hour isn't considered exercise than I don't know what truly is. The way I see it it's the equivalent of grappling for people, which is very intensive and exhausting. When she isn't grappling I love taking her on runs with my mountain bike. In fact, just a couple days ago I would say we went about three miles around the ranch, with Frek jumping into irrigation furrows.

[WyoBC]

I'm not sure on the spelling, but it's something that he has that once in a while his stomach won't digest his food right and he'll throw it up. Sometimes it will set in his somach for a day or so before it comes back up. The puppy food help his stomach digest it easier, and if he doesn't have it he gets way to skinny and loses all his energy. He was about 36 lbs. before we figured it out.

[Kat's Dogs]

Like already said...some days Daz gets almost nothing but inside play and mental games. Other days we go on day hikes. The more average day includes frisbee at the park plus some agility and other clicker training to get her tired.

 

what we do and how much also depends on the season. In the icy winter or very hot summer we do less than fall and spring.

 

 

ETA: sorry, sorta forgot the other part of the question. Dazzle floats between 28 and 30 pounds. She really is skin and bones. you can feel all her ribs, hips bones are pointy, spine is like a saw blade. But, she is still considered a healthy weight. Now with feeding "satin balls" and raw, she is actually putting on a lot of good muscle and her coat looks much better than it did when she was on SD - she is still super skinny, but a much healthier skinny.

[RaisingRiver]

Ditto to what RuffMutt said and Kat's dogs. My BCs eat Merrick which is high in protein - both 4 cups total a day (2 feedings) and dogs are very fit (ie. thin by most standards). They are 43 & 33lb, almost 2yr olds.

[sandra s.]

For us it completely depends (mostly on the weather and how much time we have).

 

Today, I'll probably take Kessie for ball playing (that includes stuff like fetching the ball, walking up to it slowly, walking past the ball towards me, putting in on a wooden bench etc, so it's about mental energy as much as physical). Later in the afternoon, we'll take her and Kyla for a walk together so they can play killing each other (and I agree with LJ, if that isn't exercise then I don't know what "exercise" means!).

 

Yesterday we climbed a mountain (about 5 hours hike). For Kessie, that's hunting. She never stops sniffing, watching, listening and running around at a fast trot, and I think she burns a lot of energy just on being excited. We sat on the top watching the mountain goats clamber around below us. One day her eyes will just pop out of her head .

 

The day before yesterday, we roamed around on the riverbank for an hour and a half or so, and I let her search for a stick that I kept hiding in the bushes for about ten minutes. In the evening we played with the big ball for a while (maybe half an hour?). That's the only game she'd play to exhaustion (and it's exhausting as h*ll, judging by the length of tongue, so it's a game for cold wet weather).

 

And that's how it always goes, I try to do keep some variety in what we do, and we never know what comes next. Staying indoors is not an option, but there are days where there's almost nothing going on. If too many days like that occur in a row, Kessie will get frustrated and start behaving like a...border collie! Then it's time to play some games with her and burn some mental energy so she can get back to being Kessie .

 

The amounts of food she gets depend on what kind of day it's been, and how she's looking. At the moment she's a little on the skinny side, so she gets a little more.

[mbc1963]

My dog is probably 3 - 5 years old, and he is very mellow for a BC. He gets a 30-45 minute walk in the morning - at a park, sometimes on leash, sometimes off, with some dog friends he doesn't play with. Then in the afternoon, he gets a good walk, off leash, in the woods, for about an hour. Sometimes he gets another walk just before bed, sometimes not. So... not too much exercise, and most of it is walking and sniffing, though he will run to catch up with me or to chase a squirrel or stick. As far as I can tell, when I'm at work, the dog is sleeping.

 

He eats about 1.5 cups of Canidae a day, and he maintains a nice 43-lb weight. Occasionally, he'll go through a picky period and lose a bit of weight, and in the winter he seems to gain a bit, though it could just be the undercoat making him thicker.

 

Mary

[Genie]

Zeb is a year old and about 37.5 lbs. He's on Nature's variety raw and gets 2 patties a day (1lb of food). His doesn't get heavy exercise right now. Maybe 20 min of frisbee a few times a week or 1 hr of obedience work a day (which is very little exercise at all). The rest of the time he's with me running errands. He's good about settling in the house when I need him to.

[border_collie_crazy]

because of my work schedual I dont provide anything consistant as I dont want them expecting a bunch of exersize, when I cant always give it to them. on a work day I mostly just play with them in the yard, I do mental games like "find it" with 4 frisbee's, or baseball with Happy etc.. sometimes I take them for about an hour walk, sometimes I take them to a park to play off leash. mostly it depends on Rusty. Rusty can never be off the leash(he has a tie out in my fenced yard as well) when I have less time I take the girls to the local park and let them off leash to play for 30 minuts or so, but Rusty just gets the Flexi. when I have time though, Rusty will throw his leash and me and bark, so I take them for about an hours leashed walk. just in the evening if I am working, but I will do a morning and evening on non work days.

 

as for food...it depends on the dog how much I feed. Rusty is one of the smallest in my house, however he needs almost the same amount of food as my BCs to keep him at a healthy weight.

[jamesqf]

Niki will be 3 in October. Depending on how I'm feeling, anything from a mile or so up to 5-6 miles most weekday evenings, usually mountain trails with climbing. Sometimes we'll go to the local park and play fetch, chase, & frisbee with my small human buddy instead. Weekends we may take longer hikes or climb a mountain.

 

Feeding is 2 cups of dry food plus a bit of canned, in the evenings. Currently she's getting about 1/2 Pedigree Weight Maintenance, 1/2 Canidae Platinum. Her previous family was feeding regular Pedigree, so I've been gradually moving her off that.

 

She was pretty chubby when she came to live with me - 72 lbs. Haven't weighed her lately, but she does seem to be gradually slimming down. She's supposed to lose at least 12 pounds: unfortunately, trying to keep up with her has meant that I'm losing more than she is - and I was far from overweight when I started :-(

 

PS: Did her monthly weighing yesterday. Down to 65 lbs from 72 - but I'm down at least 10 lbs! (That's in about 2 1/2 months.)

[Brandon M]

In the morning Lance is with me at my work. I work at a ranch where he follows me around all day. I drive around the ranch in a John Deere Gator 6x4 and he runs along as I make my way around the ranch. When I get home he runs out into the yard for me to spray him off and then chases the hose spray around the yard, jumping around, for maybe 10 minutes. Then he hangs out in my computer room with me for a few hours while I get some work done on the computer. In the evenings I work out myself for an hour and then me and Lance go on a run/walk takes 30-45 minutes. When we get back he runs into the yard and grabs a ball or frisbee and we play for another half hour+ and about 10 minutes of training. This is our monday-friday routine. On the weekends we will go fishing or hiking or go to the lake where he gets a good run. He gets a lot of excercise. Im not sure if he has an ounce of fat on him, I think he is under-weight.

[Guest WoobiesMom]

Woobie gets a decent bit. On an average day we will spend at least an hour at the dog park. He likes to show off how fast he is and sprints around with the other dogs chasing him for at least 30 minutes of that time. And he is flying so I know he's burning calories there. Recently, I started walking more to get in shape so a trip to the dog park might include a 2 1/2 mile walk on the trails around the pond or a 4 mile walk at home on the walking trails around the lake. Even with a long walk or dog park visit in the morning, in the afternoon he is revived and looking for more. That makes my current schedule a problem (for my daughter) because I'm at school in the afternoon/evening now and even though I try to wear him out, he's still a pest at night.

[silhouettestable]

The amount of exercise my dogs get can vary, but they are always out with me morning and evening to do chores. We must take the frisbee along, and Lightning spends a lot of time catching and chasing it. The other dogs run around playing and the pups like to follow Lightning out near the frisbee and then come tearing back to me. This goes on for varying lengths of time twice daily. They also do wrestle and chase each other around in the backyard when they're out there, they don't just lay around. Not all of my 6 dogs are equally active, but they do all get lots of opportunities. I also do some agility with Lightning, plus I sometimes take the 4 dogs who enjoy water for a swim. As soon as the weather is cool enough I'll be taking Thunder and Lightning out on the training rig most mornings, getting them ready for sledding in the winter. If we go to the end of our road and back it's a 2 mile run. We'll start with that and then build up their distance as they get into condition. Once the pups are old enough they'll also be introduced to sledding. In the winter, the dogs accompany me when out do doing chores, then around my dogsled trail when I'm packing it, and then onto the sled for training. Sometimes I just work with the dogs that are in harness, but other times I let the other dogs run along loose (provided that they don't get in the way and cause problems). As for feeding, Thunder (mixbreed)and Lightning (BC/lab) are both about 60 pound dogs and they get 3 cups of kibble a day. I also do mix leftovers in with their food when we have some, but that doesn't happen regularly. When they're working harder in the winter I like to add more fat and last winter I switched them onto a high fat, high protein food. Flash and Noah are both on diets right now. I'm not sure how much Noah (collie) weighs, he's too big for me to pick up, and I haven't weighed Flash (BC/cattle dog?) for a long time either. They both just look overweight and so I've cut them back to about 2 cups of kibble a day. Noah's weight used to be between 75-90 pounds but I don't know these days. Last time Flash was weighed he was 45 pounds. Flash has a very round ribcage, he's had that build since he was a little pup, but he's been starting to look way too broad across the back so he's on a diet. The pups are growing really well, don't know their current weights but they don't seem overweight. They get about 2 1/2 cups of puppy food (kibble) per day. Sometimes Rain doesn't finish hers, but Storm will. He's a much stockier dog, very thick boned so I let him clean up what she doesn't eat, figuring that he probably needs more food than her.

[Meg's mum]

Meg gets two hours of full out frisbee and break neck blue streak ball retreival a day. She gets special hikes and water adventures once a week. She goes at and all day play pace with other dogs once a week at doggie daycare and in the evenings she gets training, tug, hide the stuffed toy, indoor soccer ball annihilation and rip the soda box into shreds.

[sweet_ceana]

Ceana gets a walk every morning (1-2 miles) before we go to work + we play ball the entire time we are getting ready lol. When we get home we play inside by "learning" and playing tug & ball. (recently because it has been 110 outside & even hosing her down won't keep her cool). When it was cooler we were outside ASAP playing frisbee for about 45 minutes. Later at night we try and go on another 2-3 mile walk since it is good for all 3 of us. On Saturdays we go to the dog park in the early morning (except yesterday, she was a cranky bitch in all senses of the word and I knew we would probably set her progress back because she would be in the mood for a fight). We play all day long - weekends are Ceana days. When it is cooler we will start hiking every weekend again and we'll get in a lot more frisbee and dog park time.

 

Ceana eats 2-3 cups of Blue buffalo a day. Sometimes she eats all of it, sometimes she doesn't. She weighs between 29.5lbs & 32lbs, depending on the scale. She is a skinny girl!

[Bo Peep]

Well,

Since my Mom arrived and is now my new room- mate. Usher gets exercice every time I step out for a smoke. He's fetching a ball or Frisbee or such a lot more than usual house play. He's getting a lot more "mental" exercise and is learning how to respect his "old people" that are fragile and how to play gently. It's comforting to know how gentle he is with my mom. He treats her differently and stays out from under her feet and nuzzles her softly. He is picking things up for her also and helping her with her daily routine. Good boy, Usher!!!

[Becki's Boys]

Since both Freckleslalamom and myself have pretty active lives, our dogs level of exercise really varies these days. As for Frek, I would say about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs of exercise in the evening is typically what she gets. I would definately consider playing with other dogs exercise. Why? Because they grapple, run, jump, get knocked over, etc.... If doing that for about an hour isn't considered exercise than I don't know what truly is. The way I see it it's the equivalent of grappling for people, which is very intensive and exhausting. When she isn't grappling I love taking her on runs with my mountain bike. In fact, just a couple days ago I would say we went about three miles around the ranch, with Frek jumping into irrigation furrows.

 

I agree about the dogs fighting and playing being exercise. Star and Jack carry on for about an hour and a half to 2 hours sometimes. They run around the backyard and tackle each other. Looks exhausting to me . But Jack somehow manages to still want to play catch with me afterwards . Unlimited energy with that one.