How much exercise does my dog need?
It depends on the dog, and no web page can give you an exact number. What does exist is published guidance by breed. Here it is, with a calculator that turns it into one daily figure you can adjust.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. These figures describe breeds, not your dog. Ask your vet what is right for your dog, especially for puppies, seniors, flat-faced breeds and dogs with health conditions.
The published exercise bands
The Royal Kennel Club (UK) gives each of the 227 breeds in its Breeds A to Z one of four exercise labels. The vet charity PDSA publishes a daily figure on its breed pages. The two mostly agree.
| Label | Breeds | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 30 minutes per day | 19 | Chihuahua, Yorkshire Terrier, Pekingese |
| Up to 1 hour per day | 122 | Pug, French Bulldog, all 27 terrier breeds, St. Bernard, Mastiff |
| Between 1–2 hours per day | 1 | A single medium breed |
| More than 2 hours per day | 85 | Border Collie, German Shepherd, Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound |
PDSA's breed pages line up with that: a minimum of half an hour a day for a Chihuahua; up to an hour for a Pug or French Bulldog; a minimum of an hour for a Jack Russell or Cocker Spaniel; at least an hour and a half for a Beagle; and a minimum of two hours for a Border Collie, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd or Great Dane. Note that "exercise" in the Kennel Club's labels includes play, not only walks.
By size
- Toy: 18 of the 24 Toy-group breeds are "up to 30 minutes"; the other 6 are "up to 1 hour".
- Small: 47 of 49 small breeds outside the Toy group are "up to 1 hour".
- Medium: 37 of 55 are "up to 1 hour" and 17 are "more than 2 hours". Breed type matters most here.
- Large: 56 of 79 are "more than 2 hours"; 23 are "up to 1 hour".
- Giant: split. St. Bernard, Mastiff, Newfoundland and Bernese Mountain Dog are "up to 1 hour"; Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound and Leonberger are "more than 2 hours".
The Kennel Club's size labels are its own and are not weight classes, so treat the size pattern as a rough map.
Daily walk target calculator
This is the exact formula the Good Walk app uses: base minutes for size × a breed-type factor × an age factor, rounded to the nearest 5 and kept between 15 and 120 minutes.
| Size | Base | Breed type | Factor | Age | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toy | 30 | Flat-faced | 0.6 | Puppy | 0.6 |
| Small | 40 | Companion, terrier, hound, mixed | 1.0 | Adult | 1.0 |
| Medium | 60 | Working | 1.15 | Senior | 0.7 |
| Large | 90 | Sporting | 1.35 | ||
| Giant | 60 | Herding | 1.5 |
What is theirs and what is ours
The bands are the Kennel Club's and PDSA's. Turning bands into one number per dog is our interpolation, and neither organisation endorses or is connected with Good Walk. Two honest caveats. First, the puppy and senior factors are our judgment: PDSA says to keep puppy sessions short and to pick shorter, flatter routes for older dogs, and the RSPCA suggests shorter walks, little and often, but none of them gives a ratio. Second, the giant base of 60 is below what both sources give for Great Danes, so raise it if that is your dog.
How that compares with what dogs get
A review of 29 studies found that owners who walk their dog do so for a median of 160 minutes a week (Christian et al., 2013). That is about 23 minutes a day, and only about 60% of the owners in those studies walked their dog at all. Set against the bands above, many dogs are built for more than they get.
Good Walk does this for you
Tell Good Walk your dog's size, breed type and age once. It suggests this daily target, reminds you at the time you pick, and fills a ring around your dog's photo as the minutes add up. More on turning the total into walks: how long should I walk my dog?
Get early accessSources
- Royal Kennel Club, Breeds A to Z (all 227 breed cards).
- PDSA, puppies and dogs advice and breed pages; PDSA, how much exercise does your dog need.
- RSPCA, caring for senior dogs.
- Christian HE, Westgarth C, Bauman A, et al. Dog ownership and physical activity: a review of the evidence. J Phys Act Health 2013;10(5):750-9. PubMed 23006510.