hya,

This is my first time owning a Terrier breed, a Jack Russell. I would love to hear stories from other owners of JRT's or similar breeds.

Nugget is only 4mths old, and is very energetic and a wee bit stubborn. I walk him everyday, 50 minutes in the morning at the beach, and 45 minutes in the evening at our local reserve. I do worry this may be too much for his growing joints? He is off lead, and I walk at his pace, stop when he stops, and have little rest periods along the way. I fear he would be pinging off the walls at home if i didn't take him for these walks. What are your opinions?

He is incredibly attached to me, but not my husband unfortunately.. I'm the one who does all the walking, training and he spends most of his time with me, so I'm assuming this is why he hasn't bonded with my hubby. Are they one person dogs? I just always assumed they were family dogs and bonded with the whole pack..

I would love to hear stories about your little guys and their quirky personality traits.

> I walk him everyday, 50 minutes in the morning at the beach, and 45 minutes in the evening at our local reserve. I do worry this may be too much for his growing joints?

95 minutes a day is certainly far too much, the general rule of thumb is 5 minutes brisk walking for every month of the puppies age. So 20 minutes per walk of max twice a day is ample. There is more to tire a dog than walking ie games to exercise the mind.

> 95 minutes a day is certainly far too much, the general rule of thumb is 5 minutes brisk walking for every month of the puppies age. So 20 minutes per walk of max twice a day is ample. There is more to tire a dog than walking ie games to exercise the mind.

Absolutely!!   Jackies are very intelligent people but don't be tempted to do too much exercise, too soon.   He's plenty young to be out that much.

It's brain games you want, not physical exercise.  Chances are there will be no point in his life at which you will be able to tire him out physically!

Train tricks, general obedience, specific stuff if you've got a hobby in mind for the two of you later on.  Search games are brilliant for tiring dogs out.

being the owner of a jack russell cross and a parson russell x patterdale i can assure you that the only way to tire them out and to keep them out of trouble is to keep their minds busy. Terriers are incredibly intelligent dogs and if not kept busy they will find their own entertainment. 
you are walking a pup that age for far too long, and walking only winds the brain up even more ready to learn. a 4 month old pup should only be walked for approx 20 mins! everything else needs to be brain games.
take him to a well run puppy class where they can show you how to tire him out a bit more.
from experience, terriers are very sociable, get your hubby to feed him and he will bond more with him.

Although I don't have terriers, I would say that, like little children, it's all too easy to do too much and rather than tire them out (when puppies) they may just keep going way longer than is good for their immature bodies (bone, joints and muscles etc).    I do know that when my husband was off work, he'd go off with our lot after lunch (a third walk).  When he was able to get back to work, they were looking for me to step in which I wasn't able to do.   They quickly settled down again once things got back to 'normal' which meant two good walks a day.

Thank you all so much for your advice, I will most definitely cut down on the walking, I'll try and incorporate more brain training games with him. He is so full of energy, and his morning walks to the beach particularly is his favourite part of the day. Over the past week I've been  walking  with a group of people who do 6kms every morning, but there's no way I'd make him do that much, so we turn around early and usually do around 2kms, which takes us 50 minutes. I'm going to go later in the morning and avoid them, as they are always pressuring me to do the whole walk with them, not to mention they power walk, where as i like to let Nugget go at his own pace.

The bonding with my husband thing is going to be a bit trickier... I went out for 2 hours last night, and Nugget wouldnt settle or eat and whimpered on and off the whole time until i got home. We're both retired, so he's used to being with us both, but he sticks to me like glue.

We are also starting obedience this Sunday morning, so hopefully I'll get some good tips there.

Could your husband do some of the feeding, training, grooming and walking?

> Could your husband do some of the feeding, training, grooming and walking?

He does most of the feeding, and unfortunately has a dicky back which prevents him from doing decent walks. He has tried walking him a few times, but Nugget refused to go with him. He also took him down to the beach which is Nuggets most favourite place, and he just stood there like a stubborn goat and refused to move.. Pretty much the complete opposite of what happens when I walk him.