Question for those who hike with Dog(s)

What is your average mileage on a hike with the Dog?

What is the average speed/how fast do you coverr the distance?

Thanks!

My overall average hiking speed is about 1 mph, with or without dog. I'm sure that if I could go faster, my dog would! In open areas where I can let him run loose, his mileage is several times more than mine.

From observation, I'd say that dogs tend to cover more miles on a hike than their owners do, due to their restlessly walking ahead, then returning, or else circling out away from the trail and then coming back to it. I attribute this to their desire to smell their surroundings, as their preferred method of sensory input. A dog may easily walk twice as far as its owner on a hike.

As for total miles per day, dogs, like their owners, vary in their conditioning, so you should experiment with your dog by working your way up to a level the dog seems to enjoy without wearing out or getting sore paws..

Another observation is that a human in really top condition can walk much further in a day than a dog can. This doesn't apply to humans in average condition (at least, average for the USA and other urbanized countries). So, if you are an athlete and plan to walk 20 miles a day, you should probably leave the dog home.

My dog, if conditioned properly can run 20+ miles a day, pulling weight. When I was training for my marathon, I took her every time. So, she worked up to the distance with me. Of course, my dog is not like every dog, so it depends on the dog and the owner. She is also getting old, so I am starting to lessen her weight in her pack. Now she only carries her things.

If your avitar is your dog she is built to run; mine is built more for long days of bird hunting. Lab/Terrior mix.

My current dog learned pretty quick that she's better off staying behind me and pacing herself. In this mode she can do every mile I can.

If you start the dog of with smaller trips and gradually build up its endurance it should be able to cover a lot of ground over time. Treat it like an athlete with a training program and I think you will be happy with the results

Winter or summer? In winter we ski, and average is from 12 to 40 km in untracked terrain, probably about 25. It depends on the terrain and skiing conditions. My dog is a Border collie and he too pulls a pulk, in winter about 25 kilos.

In the summer he too like FinallyME's dog carries a backpack. The distance covered is also here depending on the terrain, but on typical mountain tracks without too much climbing it is about 20km. Then the pack is 25% of his total weight. The summer distances have less variation since the walking conditions does not wary as much as in the winter. I calculate 4km per hour on good flat tracks, 3km if the track has some height difference of more than 500m. This includes time for drinking water every hour and one stop for eating food. The dog is always ahead of us, he is not the slow one, we are!

My slogan is: a tour without a dog is half as fun as a tour with a dog. They enjoy the outdoors even more than we, never gets tired of it.
Otto