Ok so after all the problems with Leo on his lead he has now got as far as the park and thinks leads are cool lol poor little thing is knackered now lol.

He's 14 weeks and we took him for a walk for about 20 mins......what i want to know is how long should we be walking him and how many times a day? He's a sheltie so not a huge breed that needs to run all day long.

Cheers

I seem to remember that it is 5 minutes per month of age :)

My GSD pup is 13 weeks tomorrow and I wouldn't walk him for 20 minutes yet :-)  He has about 10/15 minutes and only goes round the block so far (about 300/400 yards) most of the 10/15 minutes are spent meeting and greeting other dogs, people, kids etc :-D  He still has a decent sleep when he gets back in too :-)

Stacey x x x 

Why don't you check with the breeder or a vet? I don't know about Shelties, but with large boned breeds, I know you have to be careful not to do long, repetative, forced exercise, like the same gait the whole walk. So, more of the free romping and galloping about that they do as play, is better. I don't think that 20 minutes is too long probably. But you might check with your breeder.

My Dobe is 8 months old now and we go for an hour off leash so he can run, trot, stop and sniff....do whatever he feels like, but we basically keep going, sometimes I'll stop for about 5 or 10 minutes while my Lab swims and then the other dogs just mill around. We've actually been doing that for some time.  I told the vet that's what we were doing and he said that is not too much. And I mentioned it to the breeder and she seemed to think it was OK....sure hope so. But my dog is a little over 8 months. And there may be a difference in large boned breeds and smaller.

They sure love their walks though, don't they.

Carrie

Leo seems ok after 20mins, he was sleepy when he came in but that was the idea as we had 2 leave him for a bit but now hes back to his usual charging round the house, playing with toys and looking for food.
To be honest 5-10 mins of our walk was probably spent meeting people as the sun has come out and the neighbours have finally noticed we have a dog and wanted to come see him :)