I know puppies sleep an awful lot, but I am worried about whether my puppy is overtiring herself or not. She is only 7 weeks and bombs around the garden, jumping, running, play bowing, paddling about (in her little paddle pool) and generally getting herself so zonked she collapses and needs to sleep for 2 hours at a time. I am worried for her joints as I know shepherds are prone to problems with their hips and I don't want her to overdo things while she is still at a delicate stage in her growth. I have made ramps and very shallow steps everywhere I can so she doesn;t end up dragging her back legs and scrabbling up large steps, but she insists on runing down the ramp etc, even when we try and teach her to go slow. Do you think I should try and calm her down, or let her burn out her energy as she does?

I bet I sound totally over-protective now, don't I?!

How long is she 'bombing' around for, at one time ??

Daisy

If shes jumping and running about a lot she will do damage to her construction, how long is she doing this for at a time?

Fiona

Dogs sleep a loit, anf pups even more.  the general pattern is eat play a littel and sleep.  After all thyey are doing a lot of growing.  Human babies sleep a lot too.

Eat sleep and play , 100 to zero and vice versa in an instant! Romping around is fine if she looks comfortable and has alot of water outside. She should have a limit but at this point its eat sleep and play!

I don't think running on her own will lead to damage her structure. A 3 mile run will but romping around the garden won't.

Yes i'd have thought that she'll be okay she'll know when she's tired and sleep even more.

Warmest regards Susan

It varies. Around 10 minutes usually. We don't have a huge garden, but she will run up and down (occasionally falls over because her attention goes elsewhere), but I am worried now about the comment on ruining her conformation. Usually though around 10 minutes, and then she seems to know her limit and will plonk down with a chew toy. If I run to get her ball, she will chase after me, or if she has wandered to the front of the garden, and I am still sitting at the bottom, she will bound really fast to get back to me. She does tend to 'bound' a bit when she runs though (like little jumps) and this does worry me for the sake of her joints as such a young pup, but it is very hard to stop her as I don;t want to inhibit her playso she will not associate 'fun' with me, as this will be essential for her future training.

10 mins is fine.  I wouldn't worry too much.  Do you use a crate with her?  If so maybe you could put her in there once she has decided she is tired to make sure she doesn't get distracted while she has some rest.

I'm sure she will be fine but I would say teach her to calm down abit on command.  When mine get too bouncy I can tell them to "calm" and sometimes they do listen.  Works wonders when you have 4 setters jumping about because you have something they want.  Is always useful in a dogs life to stop them getting to bouncy around anything (especially if your holding a great toy!!!)

Her conformation will not be ruined by her activity! Not unless she does anything stupid! :)

Haha , 10 minutes is nothing don't worry! I have a 17 week old puppy that runs around with 3 other goldens for hours!

Sounds like a typical GSD puppy to me & no damage will be done to her hips by free running in your garden as she is able to stop when she gets tired.

I put my puppy to bed so my other dogs can get some peace & he can be fed & rest after eating

Running around like this on her own shouldn't cause any problems. It's when they're trying to keep up with other older dogs (or children!) that they can force themselves to do too much and overstress themselves.

I love it when they zonk out for a couple of hours! That's the only time to try to start to catch up with the housework!
:)

Jeangenie, don't I know it! At the moment she is sleeping in her crate after tearing a cardboard box to pieces this morning, and kissing my partner to death! I have finally had the chance to get a load of washing on, do the dishes and take the bins out!

I am glad her bombing around seems to be ok. She does seem to know her limit, as she does plonk herself down when she has had enough and starts gently ripping the grass out...! I do worry though that when we run to get her ball, she tries to hard to keep up with us, so I am going to calm this right down so she only goes at her own pace. I was just worried as she will choose to leap down things (like, we have built her ramps, and she will maybe go half way down and then leap off them). We have started using the ramps ourself (well, I have, my partner is 14 stone and not that confident the ramps will hold him!) and sometimes she will follow close to my heals and go all the way down without making a flying leap for garden freedom!

Thanks for the comments. I was just very concerned as to her potentially dmaging her joints. She goes out for poos and wees every hour (and in addition whenever she seems to indicate she wants to go (whining and standing by back door) and she will not play everytime (most of the time she will explore as she is still settling in to seeing the space as her territory), but she has these 10 minute mad sessions probably about 4 times a day.

Well, I am going to enjoy this tranquility of her sleeping to have a cup of tea and enjoy the silence!

But I wouldn't have it any other way!

Give it a few more weeks and you will be wishing she would sleep for two hours :D :D

Hi Nannyogg, glad to see your lovely Missy is now with you and everything is going well :)

Just regarding Missy's running down the ramp, it wouldn't do her any harm that you teach her to walk down it while she's at the impressionable age of learning - if you teach her to walk instead of run so that when the times comes when she is old enough and the bones are formed properly for her to be allowed on the stairs, it'll be easier to reinforce the walk command.

She's fine in her wee garden to run and play for sure :)

Glad to see you are being so caring and responsible for your little one, it'll stand you in good stead as she grows :)

xi