# Favorite way to wear your golden out?



## mygarnetboy (Nov 3, 2008)

Other than doggie playtime w/other dogs, obedience work and fetch, of course.

It seems like it is an especially brutal winter and I hate bundling the baby up for Sherman's daily walk *almost* as much as she hates it...

His free play w/other dogs usually comes during our walks, but the neighbors and I have discussed backyard playdates for the pups (carefully supervised, of course) as the weather gets ever more bitter. Any other ideas? Sherman is 7 and a half months old now and your typical Golden bundle of energy.


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

I find that my boys get much more tired if they have time to run free. They can't do it here at my house but I've found a number of good places to take them for some off leash time. Some of these include the local cemetery, a conservation area with a beach on the ocean. I've even taken them to a fenced in ball field to play fetch.


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## Jazz & Jules (Feb 25, 2007)

Hide & Seek wih toys or yourself in the house!


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## Phillyfisher (Jan 9, 2008)

Best thing for Tucker is for him to visit his golden girlfriend up the street. He always comes home with his tongue on the ground after that! Next best is a run in the park with his human brothers.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

"Find" is a really fun game. I have them sit& stay(you could tether), while I hide a stuffed Kong or a treat. Then, release the hounds- Find! They go nuts for this game, and the degree of difficulty has increased greatly over time. We also have a silly, ridiculous game we play, but it's fun for all involved. it's Pounce instead of Fetch. They know the word "pounce" and go for style points pouncing with front paws and play bows on a rolled ball or toy. I honestly have such a ball playing that game with them, and they do get tired. It's fun to switch it up between pounce and fetch, so they don't know which command to expect. Good fun. (However, I am sure some dogs could learn bad habits ,and I hope our field trainer never reads this forum.)


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## Jersey's Mom (Nov 25, 2007)

I love the hide and seek idea... lately Jersey and I have been doing it with his metal article for obedience, working our way up to a dark room so he'll start using his nose more than his eyes. But as mentioned, you can do it with any item your dog is motivated to search for. I find that a little mental stimulation goes a long way... so I'm always looking for new little tricks to teach him. Living in an apartment I have to take him to the dog park to really run "free," so having ways to tire him out indoors is a plus. Good luck!!

Julie and Jersey


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## Abbydabbydo (Jan 31, 2007)

Off leash time at the trail will do mine in every time. There is a figure out there for how many miles they run to mine, probably 10 to one. Mine don't mind the cold, as long as they don't get foot snow balls. I'm not gong to say I love it, but dressed right it is not too painful, and I enjoy the exercise, too.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Doggie Day Care does it every time. 

Ball Chasing in a local church's front lawn. It may be cold, but that only means our guy can go longer without getting overheated. We love ball chasing season for that reason.

Inside--vertical retrieving. Throw a ball off the second floor into the family room and let our younger one locate it from upstairs, then run down and retrieve it, and then bring it upstairs as fast as he can so we will throw it again. Works on rainy days or days with ice (not many of those thankfully). 

Doggy Tug (www.doggytug.com), but...you need a willing Golden partner and our old guy is not always in the mood. 

We walk the dogs 4-5 miles every day, the only exception being ice on the ground. It doesn't tire them out too much, especially when it's cold as the cold invigorates them (not us). We have not put either dog on our treadmill but with careful teaching and constant supervision it is possible to put a dog on a treadmill.

We name each toy, and our young one knows them by name. We will think of a toy that is in another part of the house and ask him to go find it, naming it a few times and he will go look for it. It doesn't tire him out per se, but it does exercise his mind a bit while he searches for the "red ball", his Wubba, his "tree kitty" (squirrel to humans) or his rubber chicken.

We have more of a challenge during hot (100 plus) humid days when you can only walk before sun up or after sunset, while dodging the mosquitos that carry West Nile! Those are the days you have to be creative, and do things inside the air conditioned house. Otherwise you risk heat stroke, bloat, etc.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Offleash time up at the lake. We even take two walks a day, offleash. We hiked through the woods yesterday for about 45 minutes. Otherwise, the second best thing is taking them to my mom's for offleash time playing in the creek and running around in the woods.

I walk them on leash almost every day for a couple of miles, but that doesn't tire them out at all.


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## LOVEisGOLDEN (Jan 4, 2008)

having 2 dogs! they wear each other out during their free time (when they are allowed to run & get on furniture) we also play fetch in the house & hide toys/treats under laundry baskets, boxes, etc. Layla knows to flip things over & ruins the game, but if I need time to train her, I'll leave Blush to figure out how to get the toys free. she usually gives up & takes a nap! even though she has seen Layla do it hundreds of times...


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Off leash in the woods around the lake, with a swim if it's warm enough. It's the only thing that works for two dogs. They definitely run at least three times as far as we do.

When I just had Gus, I would throw loooooong fetches with the ChuckIt because my arm wouldn't hold up as long as he did. With two dogs, though, there's nothing I can throw where I can last as long as they do.

When Gus was little, on very hot days, we resorted to having him run up and down the stairs to try to take the edge off his energy. Sort of a vertical game of mailman. He thought that was a blast.

Anything that includes mental stimulation is especially effective. When we're hiking, the sights and smells take care of that, but in the house, complicated games are best. We do a search and rescue game where Andy hides somewhere in the house and I hold the dogs in one room with me, then I let them go and say "Where's Andy?" and they charge off to find him. Love that one.


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## HovawartMom (Aug 10, 2006)

Swimming and running along my bike,off leash!.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Throwing the ball with the chuck it until the ball runners are about to drop, then taking them to the shore to swim and cool down, then back to the field for more ball playing until they are dry again and once again ready to drop. It's hot here, though- even the coldest days, which are like the temperature most people keep their houses, are warm enough that a few good runs after a ball exhausts the dogs. Our biggest problem is wearing them out in summer when it's too hot to walk or go outside at all during the day-the only exception then is playing in a pool or at the beach. I'm lucky I don't sunburn- so I can play w/them in the sun all day! I hope my new baby has my skin tone so he can go along with me to the beach to play every day and not burn the way his daddy would! It's hard living here if you're the type that burns easily (if you have any desire to go outside at all, that is).

When I was too sick to leave the house, my dogs were actually very calm- and they learned to play in the fenced in yard to burn extra energy... I just could NOT even sit up, so when they got bored enough, they learned to wrestle and race and run in the yard. It was hot hot HOT then, August through October, so I filled up a kiddie pool for them so they could cool down and keep playing, and our yard is all shaded with large oak trees.


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## Bock (Jun 23, 2008)

doggie daycare and taking him to the baseball park to run off leash and really stretch his legs out


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## tannernoodle (Mar 19, 2008)

In the winter it's hard...I take Tucker next door to the football field with the chuck it and frisbee. I stand there and freeze and throw as many balls as I can in a short time to wear him out a little. Sometimes we play chase around the house and I go down in the basement and run around and make him go up and down the stairs a lot. I'm working on training him on the treadmill as well. Then the days it does warm up to low 30s here, everything melts and he gets just filthy so I don't like walking him in that either.


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## hgatesy (Feb 14, 2007)

We do off-leash play at the baseball field or field and on really cool days during the winter (on the weekends) we rent a pool at a boarding kennel.


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## Dinsdale (Feb 26, 2008)

I was watching some "Dog Whisperer" discs, and one thing he recommends is having the dog wear a lightly weighted backpack during walks to increase the effort, as well as give the dog a sense of purpose. May not want to do it with a young pup, but interested me. Especially for taking the dogs on more sizeable hikes, the beast might as well carry its own water.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Dinsdale said:


> I was watching some "Dog Whisperer" discs, and one thing he recommends is having the dog wear a lightly weighted backpack during walks to increase the effort, as well as give the dog a sense of purpose. May not want to do it with a young pup, but interested me. Especially for taking the dogs on more sizeable hikes, the beast might as well carry its own water.


Gus has a backpack, and before I ever put it on him, I did tons and tons of research about safety, joints, etc. One stat I read was that dogs could carry up to 25% of their body weight with no trouble. I took that with some serious skepticism, since some dogs are lighter than others. An overweight dog can barely take his own weight, and 25% of him is a HUGE load.

Gus is 55 lbs (slightly under standard and slim to boot), but he easily carries two 1 liter bottles of water for himself. That works out to about 4.4 lbs of water (approximately 8% of his body weight). That seems really safe to me and a great way to get two water bottles out of my backpack.

We built up to the backpack slowly, a few minutes at a time once he had done his initial sprinting up and back on the trail, and now he doesn't seem to notice it. Plus, it makes him bright red in the woods, which makes me feel better about hunters.

For a dog in decent shape, I'd recommend it. For a dog with any joint trouble or too many extra pounds, I'd be very careful and conservative. Heat is also a concern because the backpack is preventing air from circulating through the fur in the places its touching the dog. You also have to adjust straps painstakingly and check them regularly to avoid chafing.


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## mygarnetboy (Nov 3, 2008)

Do you have a link where I could get a backpack? That sounds like the perfect Christmas present for Sherman!


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## CindyZ (Nov 29, 2008)

JerseysMom- I love that pic of Jersey with 2 tennis balls in the mouth. How cute. Reminds me of Bailey. Can't believe all the stuff (toys) she can cram into her mouth. Bacardi is too little yet to get much in her mouth, but she is working on it.


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## GRZ (Dec 4, 2008)

Oh my gosh when I first read the title to this thread I thought, "wear your Golden out" as in how you would proudly wear your best hat out! I was gonna say, well I make sure he's brushed, his eyes clean and bright and his nails neatly clipped. LOL! 

But nevermind on that!

Our pup gets 2 walks a day, morning and evening. Lucky to live in a climate to be able to do this comfortably, he loves it and really looks forward to it. We mostly walk to the park to play ball in the morning and just around the neighborhood in the evening. We can always find something new to sniff. He's still learning, but he's such a great walker!


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2008)

Either an 8-mile walk or running around a 10-acre fenced in field with all their friends...especially when there's deep snow in the field.


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## Fractal (Jun 26, 2008)

For Rocky and Honey it has to be taking them to one huge field and just letting them do their zoomies, he chases her for a while then will lay down with a stick and chew it, she'll trot over and take it from him, running away, he'll get up, run after her, growling and barking.

When he gets the stick back she repeats the process a few times, then finds one of her own, he'll see and want hers as well and so it goes on and on.

Another way for me to tire them out is a good long jog or some sprinting exercises.

Oh how fun they are ^_^


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## Goldensyrup (Jan 28, 2016)

reading this thread with interest. 

I'm trying to find ways to wear out my 9 month old Golden. I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant - still with awful morning sickness and our long forest walks have been off the list for a while now. 
She isn't really interested in toys and fetch only lasts for 3 throws and then she doesn't bother. I also have my 2 year old and 6 yr old so I'm struggling to find something I can do with all 3 that means she isn't too boisterous for them. Feeling like a total failure at the moment!


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

At 9 months goldens can benefit with lots of training. Training is mentally tiring so it would help. A good solid down and sit with duration both beside you and at a distance can be very valuable to you. Lots of impulse control games and teaching the pup dozens of tricks.
Different variations of recall games would give the pup more running exercise and hide and seek can be incorporated into those downs and sits. 

What is she interested in doing? Once you know what she does like then you can think up fun games that she would like to do.

You could hire someone qualified to walk her also.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

solinvictus said:


> At 9 months goldens can benefit with lots of training. Training is mentally tiring so it would help. A good solid down and sit with duration both beside you and at a distance can be very valuable to you. Lots of impulse control games and teaching the pup dozens of tricks.
> Different variations of recall games would give the pup more running exercise and hide and seek can be incorporated into those downs and sits.
> 
> What is she interested in doing? Once you know what she does like then you can think up fun games that she would like to do.
> ...


That's what I was going to suggest, too. Nothing beats a good run and play to tire your pup out. I would hate for her to start getting antsy in the house and driving you nutty while you're not feeling so great yourself. A good dogwalker might have a group she could join for a good solid hour in the park running, playing, fetching.


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## Otter (Feb 23, 2011)

A long pole with a string attached to it. At the end of the string a piece of rag or something. Wave it around, drag it on the ground and so on. My guys go nuts trying to get it. Kinda like one of those cat toys with a feather at the end.

Works like a charm.


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## alphadude (Jan 15, 2010)

http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/golden-retriever-videos/404042-new-drone-video.html


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## Lise123 (Jan 1, 2014)

If you have little kids and the weather is cold, it's tough to wear out a young golden. Here are some of the tricks I use with my kids around:

1. Crate games. My dog went to a crate games class with me and would flop over exhausted at the end. You can find Youtube videos online that describe how to do them. The mental work really wears them out.

2. We did as many backyard playdates with other dogs as we could. I could supervise from inside the door if my kids needed me, too. I know my dog's friends very well, and they are lovely, well-trained dogs.

3. Indoor swimming at a dog pool, if you have one available. My kids loved to throw the retrieve toys for Bailey.

4. A fenced-in basketball court. If you have a little snow on the ground to protect your dog's feet, this is perfect. The fence keeps the dog inside, but they can run around and go bananas. We have one next to a fenced-in park, so my kids can play in their space while I keep Bailey busy in his. 

Have fun!


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## bixx (Sep 8, 2015)

Off leash play time with other dogs even for just 10 minutes is enough to knock out Amber. I have made a mental note to ESPECIALLY not allow her to do that just before pre agility training, because as soon as we started, she laid down in the middle of the field completely on her side and refused to budge. Nosework games and my 10 year old daughter are also a good way to wind her down.


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## Goldensyrup (Jan 28, 2016)

Thank you all. Great suggestions! Today I wasn't feeling too bad, so I took her for a walk, but she has to be on the lead. I took her to a new spot though and there was an ad for a dog walker on the gate! I live in the hills in South Australia and there aren't really any dog walkers around, so this was brilliant! I will give her a call tomorrow. 
She goes to training classes and we do training with her each day. We are still having trouble with her nipping, so playtime quickly escalates into her being too rough. Still working on that one! 

She likes food... and she likes playing with things like water bottles and soft toys. The kids hand puppet seems to be a favourite. Its just that the novelty seems to wear off pretty quick. She has never been interested in toys like the kongs where you hide food. She just stops trying if nothing comes out easily. She is a funny girl. 
I don't really know anyone with a dog she can play with, but yesterday I found a place not too far that does doggy daycare. They are on a fully fenced 7 acre property with a dam to swim in. Its frustrating because we are in the country surrounded by acres of orchard and dams, but she won't come back to us to yet so I don't want to let her run free. Plus our road is busy with apple trucks and tractors. There are so many orchard dogs that cross our property I am paranoid if I let her off she will just run off with them if they come down. (which she will still at this stage.) Ahhh well, thanks for letting me vent as well as all the suggestions! 

Another suggestion I thought of is blowing bubbles. She absolutely loves chasing and trying to catch bubbles. So its something I can do with them all. 
Thanks all!


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## aesthetic (Apr 23, 2015)

You could try recall games, it gets them to run and teaches them recall too. Put her on a long line, wait until she's distracted, then disappear from her sight. Wait until she notices that you're gone and then call her enthusiastically. The idea is that she'll run right to you, but if she doesn't, reel her in with the long line. Kaizer's lower energy, but he does love this game and it burns him out. He ends up having zoomies because he gets excited.


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## Harleysmum (Aug 19, 2014)

I am amazed at how tiring digging is for Harley. Ten minutes of digging at the beach, burying his ball, digging it up again and so on and he is exhausted.


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