Over-Exercising Young Dogs...

3Beasties

3Beasties

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I went up Snowdon at the weekend and was really shocked to see someone walking up there with their 5 month old Labrador puppy.

Not only is it a long walk and steep climb but there are lots of steps/rocks to be climbed up/over. Not great for a 5 month old puppy I wouldn't have thought?

What do you think?
 
Last time I went up Snowdon I met a 16 week old GSP puppy at the summit. The owners stopped briefly to admire the view (and let me ask how old he was and cuddle him!) then headed back down the mountain at a run, pup leaping and wobbling behind. :eek:

I think the general consensus is that things like hip dysplasia are as much genetic as acquired but you surely wouldn't take the risk?
 
Why would you do that ? It's crazy , our pup is weeks old and I worry about him going up and down the stair and to the garden (we love upstairs) I couldn't imagine climbing a mountain with him .....
 
I made the decision to over exercise mine at about 5 months old as his SA was soo bad I was having to give serious thought to PTS :( I exercised him off lead and "worked the legs off him" We sorted the SA with training and other things, but working him was made him calm enough to accept the behavioural training etc.

Hes a working bred, highly strung lurcher, and at nearly 3yr old seems fine, any time he sees a vet they go into raptures about how fit and healthy he is, but I do worry about it :(

He would have galloped up and then back down Snowdon ready to go again, but theres still a niggling doubt about the damage I might have done.

We would have had a much happier relationship if I'd worked him harder from earlier, but all the advice says not to?! Maybe the fact he coped is due partially to breeding and partially due to him being a very lean, naturally fit dog who is bred to do a job of work, as opposed to a chubby pet lab?

I still dont know if damage has been done, and I agonised over it, but given the options it was worth it in my mind. I really hope hes still fit and healthy as an old dog, but if not I know hes only here as I found a way for him to cope with being a pet :)
 
you have to look after a dogs brain before its body, there is no point keeping the body sound if in doing so you create a messed up brain that no-one can live with, so I think you have to look at each case individually. For me I would avoid all the dog types that would be at higher risk of permanent physical damage from a reasonable level of excersise at a young age
 
We are cautious with our lab (13 weeks) as our older lab has elbow problems I am sure were caused by us over walking her.
Pup just doesn't get long walks and gets carried up and down he stairs (She is my sons and she goes and X boxs with him in the evenings.) She still gets 4 or 5 short walks a day, long play sessions with the older dogs and lots of pottering about while I do chickens and stuff. She is a working type and a bit too confident and bright, she is much more amenable when she has done stuff.
I wouldn't worry with something like a lurcher, tbh, they are bred to be fit and healthy and have a huge (unlimited!) gene pool
 
We have labs .
It was drummed into us from childhood to be careful.
I have never had a lab who was not sound well into old age my fourteen year old is lame now too much digging in his youth .
I carry my puppies to the yard let them play a bit carry them back home my best friends a vet so I went from having my dad at me about this to my bf .
 
My terriers I was never too careful with. My dobie I was ultra careful with until she was 18 months old. No jumping etc. She is now 9 and shows no stiffness or signs of slowing down. The vet said if he didn't know better he put her at 5.
 
Given how exhausted Henry generally is after a day in the hills, I personally wouldn't take a puppy that young on such a strenuous walk, unless it was a breed small enough to ride in a rucksack for some of the day.
 
Wouldn't do that with either of mine (GSD). Both were banned from jumping at all until 2, by which time only the younger one displayed any interest in it. Indeed, he flew over a 2ft log like a bounding deer a couple of weeks ago! He is now 2.5 and can do miles and miles with no bother, but I'm still careful with him. I want him to last as long as possible, so try to minimise the risks. I wouldn't take them up Snowdon now, it's a bit too scrambly. Plus I'm not sure I'd make it :P
 
Eek big no no! My concern would be the pup's poor joints. I knew someone who took a dog at 6 months doing agility and it had arthritis by the age of 2 years old!

Guide Dogs in Holland do not allow their pups to do stairs until they are 7 months old due to the impact it can have on their joints.
 
I think it depends on the breed.

We didn't "walk" our Rottweiler until she was over a year old. There is a huge difference in walking and exercising a dog, and I do think it is very important to exercise dogs of any age.

I also have Springer Spaniels, they won't be walked as such but will be trained two or three times a day, in very short sessions.

Free running is very different to lead exercise.
 
No, I don't think this is ok at all. Poor little pup. I'd worry about the joints and the pads of a puppy doing a walk like that so young. It's much better to do short walks but better still to burn off energy playing with other dogs and people.
 
Depends on how it's bred and what problems it might cause. Terriers are very hardy and need plenty of exercise I was running three miles every other day with my westie when she was 6 months she is now 14. There is no rule but I think it's part of life for them to scamper about.
 
I like the term reasonable level of exercise, but I presume that most people walking up and down Mount Snowdon doesn't live at the bottom of the mountain, so walking with a puppy up and down Snowdon also probably includes the length of the walk to and from the mountain! I realise that puppies are individuals, and that what suits one doesn't suit all, but in general, unless the puppy is carried some part of the walk, that is really not what I would consider as a reasonable level of exercise for any puppy.

Personally, I don't think that it is good for puppies/young growing dogs with neither too much nor too little exercise, so I try to find some sort of balance or middle ground, based on what actually happens during the walk. Sometimes I've taken a puppy with me on walks with my adult bitches, that have lasted for about 45 minutes to an hour or a little more, but then I've usually either carried the puppy for at least some part of the walk or the walk wasn't actually that long, measured in distance, without we maybe had stood still talking to people, looking at things etc.

I think it is wrong when puppy exercise seems to be mainly on the owner's terms, when e.g. they give the puppy as much exercise as it needs to become physically tired (= too tired to cause trouble indoors). Or walks seems to be walked mostly in human pace, not the puppy's pace. Or the owner begins a walk with deciding that the walk will go from A to B and home to A again, without leaving any room for alternating the route, length or similar, as they go along.

I recall reading (on another forum) about someone justifying their about 2 hours long daily hikes with their Samoyed puppy, besides with that it was what was needed to make the puppy tired, with that it was a sled dog, and sled dog trainers start training their puppies in harness when they're 4 months old. I think I replied with something about that I think it is a difference between to begin sled dog training with learning the puppy how to respond to commands and that it is fun to pull something (lightweight) for short distances, and to put the puppy straight into an adult sled team and take them out for a normal exercise run.

Ideally, I wish that people exercising puppies and growing young dogs, should think not only about how long time a walk takes, without also take in account the distance, speed, temperature, on what surface and what happens along the way.
 
Absolutely, FL. With the adult dogs we walk briskly and with purpose. Walking a pup is like walking a toddler, you meander along letting them pootle about at their own pace.
 
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