H'okay, so... I am having a rough time determining just how much exercise is healthy for Baron, my 10.5 month old husky/mastiff/(dane?) muttly. He's currently weighing in at 68 pounds and still has quite some growing to do. As he is a very recent addition to the family, he is still crated while we are at work and during the night, but we intend to change his bedtime crating once he is ready to be trusted with the house.
Our routine is as follows.
Morning- Once out of the crate, it's straight outside for a potty. Then it's back inside for breakfast and we spend 30-45 minutes at the dog park playing a pretty rigorous game of fetch that is full of sprints. We have the park to ourselves 9 times out of 10 in the mornings. It's a long park, so I stand in the middle and throw a ball one direction. When he tears off after that and grabs it, I throw a ball in the other direction and he ends up running the length of the park. If I am lucky, he drops Ball #1 on the way to retrieve the second. Now, don't get me wrong-- it's not nonstop. When he's tired, he simply refuses to bring the ball back, lol. It's full of tummy rubs too. After the park, he gets 45 minutes of supervised time loose in the house before I leave for work. When I leave, it's back in the crate.
Insert 8 hours of crate time here. :c
When my husband gets home, it's out of the crate, get a drink of water, then off for a walk which typically lasts half an hour at a brisk pace. From there, he's loose but supervised in the house through roughly 8-9pm when he gets fed again.
Tonight after dinner, we tried something new. Typically we do a 45 minute to an hour walk at a brisk pace (done by usually both my husband and myself together). Tonight, I decided it was time to try running again. Now, I am a rather out of shape person. So, we did 3 miles in 3 laps around our neighborhood in a drizzly light rain. The first lap was half jog, half walk. The second was 2/3 walk, 1/3 jog. The last was mostly walk with a few short jogs here and there, but my left leg started to get super aggravated. His reward for me when we got home and dried off? The zoomies for a good 10 minutes. Now though, he is completely passed out on the couch with my husband. In another hour or so, he'll have another potty break then be crated for bed and we'll repeat the process again tomorrow (sans running).
Now, not every day is exactly the same. He for sure gets his dog park time, the half hour walk, and a 45 minute walk or better. Some days he visits my Sister-in-law's dogs in her giant fenced in yard for play time (usually 45 minutes to an hour twice or so per week). Weekends are filled with more dog park time. One night per week I try to sneak him out to Petsmart too to keep him socialized with various people/pets, though that isn't terribly exercise filled.
So now that you have a novel of information, what suggestions do you guys have for additional things we can do to keep him exercised? Is there a chance we are trying to do too much too quick while he is still growing, or are we on the right path? I'm going to talk to my husband about doing these 3 mile walk/runs 4-5 times a week (with me doing 2-3 and him doing 1-2), but I certainly do not yet run at a pace that even makes him pant. Also, my job is VERY physically demanding (I work in shipping and load boxes onto trucks & pallets all day long), so there are some days when I am too sore to do a run with him but he will still get his walkies.
TLDR: I've got a few things I'm trying with Baron, but what can I do to ensure he's getting the right amount (& type) of exercise?
