We have a lovely 9wk lab. She enjoys playing in the garden & sleeping lots. Have just read about not letting labs jump too much when young. Should I let her jump up the back door step into the house or carry her? She has been jumping it but it is a bit of an effort. Step is just above average height and she has got quite short legs. She doesn't seem to mind jumping in, but I don't want to put strain on hips. Some advice please!!!

we have a lab bitch the same age, what colour is yours and what's her name?ours is choc and called amber.the vet advised us not to exercise her much until after 15 months, the stairs and any steps aren't good for their hips, but being realistic you can't be there all the time to lift them in and out.amber just flies off the back door step, and can run up and down the stairs now as well but she is quite a big girl.aren't they just fantastic dogs though.:)

Advised not to exercise her until after 15 months!!! Your dog will be going stir crazy by that time I would have thought.

was this what i said?NO!!the word "much" was used.don't be so quick to jump on people for comments YOU have misread!!there has been too much of this on this forum lately resulting in several people getting very misinterpreted.

notto exercise her much until 15 months!!!!!!!

good luck!! cos your puppy is going to be like a tornado in your house trying to get rid of all that energy.

If you manage it please let me know how.

We have to exercise Darcy a fair bit, even at 6 months. She has at least half an hour a day

Otherwise she jsut goes mentallist on me!!!!!!!

Miloos, at 15 months she should be ready to start more serious exercise (John will know more about that) but from 6 months she will need to be slowly building up stamina to be able to cope with it.
Don't let them run up and down a flight of stairs, that's just begging for trouble!

A normal back door step is not a problem. We do need to restrict all puppies exercise and particularly large, quick growing puppies such as Labradors but at the same time we need to gradually give them an expanding amount of work to do. A step is fine, stairs definitely not! Once the inoculations are finished and you are able to go out then 5 minutes is more than enough for the first week progressing to 10 minutes in the second week gradually extending to half an hour by six months and working up to an hour or more at a year.

I work my Labs and so they need to jump but I never start jumping until a year old and preferably not until I have had their hips scored and I know them to be good. In Gundog Working tests a puppy, (up to 2 years old) would not be expected to jump.

Regards, John

I don't think this one step should be a problem, however if you are really worried you could try putting a small 'ramp' for your pup to walk up. Good luck with her, we have a 7wk old pup, they are balls of fur at this age!:-)
Bridget

i think the word "much" was the key. my pup is my 4th lab and i'm pretty experienced with how much exercise they need and at what ages!!i admit it didn't come across like that on my original post, the point is they shouldn't be over exercised eg walked for miles every day until they are over 1.all my dogs go out for a run at least twice a day on the local park, as well as having an enormous garden to romp about in, so lack of exercise will never be a problem for them, thanks Rachael.xx

I'm afraid one persons idea of work is totally different to another's! The average pet dog possibly gets around 1 hours exercise a day. compare that to a gamekeepers dog which is out for anything up to 10 to 12 hours every day!

By 15 months I would expect a Labrador to be able to cope with just about anything I throw at it. I know of a lot of Labs doing a day's work in the field by a year old but personally I would not give too much work to a dog under 18 months. I start serious training once the adult teeth are through and aim at competing in the first puppy working test by around a year old. (As I said in an earlier post, there is no jumping in puppy working tests)

No dog will be able to do a days work if it is kept on restrictive exercise roght up to the day. So many people sit at a desk for eleven and a half months then for the two weeks summer holiday decide to go on a walking holiday. They soon realise the error of their ways, and so with dogs. In all things and whatever your aims the amount of exercise should be gradually increased.

Regards, John