Hi there

I know this applies and I follow it for my lab puppy.  I wonder if you could answer though if it still applies after 12 months or can they have as long as you/they want after that age?

Thanks

Nicola

It still aplies, when my pup was 12 months I very grandully increased it over a few months up to 2 hours in one go.

I have always taken that rule to about 18 months with my Lab girls.

They are still growing upto about that age so have always thought it wise to do that.

I'd say restrict up to about 18 months but don't keep applying the one minute per week of age because that will build up to too much. (Maths someone? I make it 1 hour 10 mins?) The max for a lab size dog up to 18 mths should be 40 minutes a day.

Don't forget agility. 1 year on average and more for larger breeds, at least for jumping.

I didn't realise that - I thought at a year they could have an hours walk? 

40 mins a day - should that not be each walk rather than a total amount of time for the whole day?

He is currently having two walks of about 25 mins.

Hope that is correct and I am not doing too much!

It is a guide but I take mine to the forest where they get a free run and 40 mins each day of that sort of exercise is plenty for a Golden. Smaller breeds could probably take more with no ill effect. If you have made it to a year without joint problems and with careful exercise, well done and you only have 6 months to go.

> I wonder if you could answer though if it still applies after 12 months or can they have as long as you/they want after that age?
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I think it's safest to apply the rule until the bones actually stop growing, and certainly not too much uphill walking either.

I have an 8 month old Viz and she is walked off the lead twice daily for about 30 minutes at a time (she races like a loon for most of it). However at the moment I am house sitting for some friends with a small holding so she is just doing what she wants around the yard each morning and evening.

The rule I followed was a bit different though I'm sure I got it on this forum.

5 minutes of forced exercise/per month of age, allowed twice a day.  Forced being anything on leash or where pup is obliged to keep up a straight line of movement or is on a hard surface.

Free time off leash on ground or grass unlimited as pup can stop, change direction and rest as he needs. 

I followed this loosely.  My Lab was mostly off leash but had to go with me along the trail in one direction due to deep snow off the trail.  And I never took him out on leash on a hard road for as much as one hour in the morning and then another hour at night, which is what would have been allowed with this rule by 12 months.  We did go off leash and by the time he was 12 months deep snow was not a concern.  I would not have allowed a total of two hours a day, divided, if he was playing with other dogs either. 

But if all he got was 40 minutes a day by 12 months I really believe he would have gone nuts and so would I.  I kept an eye on the time till around 18 months old too.  Also an eye on the terrain.  And the cold since he was a winter puppy.  Oh, and better add, deep snow was a concern at 14 months; tons and tons of it, and the breeder specifically warned against too much bounding through deep snow.  We didn't get into serious snowshoeing till his third winter.  Snow over his back meant I cut that outing shorter too.