At puppy class today, our trainer was horrified to hear that some people let their four month old dogs walk on lead for more than twenty minutes a day.

We have wheaten terriers, and our twelve week old boy gets two walks a day of around 15 minutes, plus plenty of opportunity to play with us and our older dog in the garden. We also have lots of training practice, which leads to lots of lovely naps.

My question is, how old should he be before we allow him to go for a good run, together with our other dog? Say for forty minutes. Six months old? Nine months? Twelve? We were taking our older dog out for long walks from about six months, but based on what I've been told, I'm worried that that was too young. Wheatens are medium sized dogs, about 15kg when full grown, so they're not a huge breed.

Id say 5 mins per day per month of a puppies life until he is fully grown at 2 yrs

so a 6 month old pup can have 30 mins... 7 month can have 35... etc :)..

and thats per DAY not per walk... so will have to be divided up if you do several walks..

i have a 2 1/2 month old lab and she gets about 10 minutes over the field with mum and friends and then she goes back in for a rest :)

forgot to add that the trainer was probably right for not being happy with pups getting alot of excersise... its not healthy for pups to be over exersised nor do they need it.

I would say with smaller breeds per walk would suit, but per day for the heavier breeds more prone to HD/OCD etc.

Per day would be too little for my bred by the time they are 6 months old.

Yes true it does depend on the breed, for smaller breeds they may want a bit more exersise

yes as gundoggal has allready stated 5 minutes per month of puppies life, in my breed i would keep this ongoing until they were at least 12 months when hips bones etc had time to mature, then after i would keep free runs to a max of say 20 min, and  any other walks on lead.

forgot to mention my dogs are large deep chested dogs.

Staffords need quite strict restriction on walking as they will just go and go and go until you stop them!!

Our Stafford boy is 7 months now and is still only on either a 30 mins over our local dog park or 2 x 15 brisk walks on the pavement as staffords have bones which dont set till around a year old and if walked too much constantly they can get a inward bend to their back legs so us owners have to be careful!!

Not sure of other breeds but I know Giant breeds usually dont want to walk much anyway....or is that just Mastiffs being lazy? lol ;)

> Not sure of other breeds but I know Giant breeds usually dont want to walk much anyway....or is that just Mastiffs being lazy?

lol some Mastiffs are VERY lazy, mine used to be but now he is nearing 15months old he suddenly has a bags of get up & go (well, compared to what he had). Now on his walk he wants to jog all the way untill we get to the field, but I have to stop him from doing this due to pavement pounding at a fast pace & ED not being a good mix :(

Isn't it interesting how exercise requirements vary between the different breeds and even between individual dogs within a breed. My Mastiff would have been crippled if at 5 months of age I made him walk 25mins, infact he would have laid down and refused to move. Where for Brainless's breed that probably wouldn't have been enough.

My bro's English Mastiff 'Brutus' he was the softest, most loving and devoted dog apart from a stafford I have ever met and really want one myself but our house isnt big enough :(
Brutus was so lazy lol he liked a walk round the block and that was it, he was so powerful he could have dragged me everywhere but he padded slowly next to me always and was such a pleasure to train :)

Just my opinion but I treat free running and lead walking very differently. I allowed my pups to run as long and as fast as they wanted off lead whether that was in the garden or on the open fields. As long as they can stop when tired, are moving naturally (not pulled sideways by leads) and aren't taken for miles I let them run around for 45 minutes as soon as they're shots were done (13-14 weeks). I would frequently stop, even sit, on walks but zippy puppy just flew around so wasn't very tired.

I did follow the 5 minute rule for lead walking and on pavement. So 5 minutes per month old. So typical day for pup was free running in the morning and lead walk to get used to city noise, people and learn lead manners in the afternoon.

I haven't scored my dog but my bitch's hips are half the breed average so it didn't seem to do her much harm.

http://www.showdogsupersite.com/hips.html

I think anyone questionning how much exercise to give a puppy would like to read this article.  It's on hip displaysia in Newfies but the general concept, I think, could be applied to other breeds.  Please read it and comment.  It would be interesting to see how this is taken.

I remember reading somewhere that as much free exercise and play in the garden is fine, but on a regulated walk 1 minute for every week's age of the puppy. so, 12 weeks old = 12 minutes. 6 months or 24 weeks old = 24 minutes and so on and so on until about 15 months old. Possibly older for giant breeds. then again giant breeds don't need as much exercise as we would have to believe. I've found its the smaller breeds that have the boundless energy.

You've never had a Rhodesian Ridgeback then :)

hi lori  i would not take the risk with that amount of free run exercise in my breed during there rapid growth period  especially,i dont know what breed you have but your very fortunate  that your girls hips are half the breed means, congratulations,my dogs have also come back with scores that i am more than happy with, and proud of, needless to say there free run exercises were carefully monitored until they were at least a year old,  i do often wonder if i did not monitor there exercise would they have come back with much higher scores? and could it be that your girl may have come back with even lower scores , maybe 0-0 hips for instance just a thought.

hi jetstone ummm interesting, but i am not sure about  some of these american sites a lot of what they do contradicts what we do, i read a little while ago on an american site ,changing the topic a little here regarding G.D.V and ways to try and avoid it 1 example was to lower all feeding and water bowls to  the ground where as we have always beileved to raise them off the floor to eye level  for the predisposed breeds and a few other contradictories over the past few months. still we shall all do what we beileve is the best for our dogs.

>1 example was to lower all feeding and water bowls to  the ground where as we have always beileved to raise them off the floor to eye level  for the predisposed breeds

That advice was actually shown to be wrong several years ago, Molly, when it was found to actually increase the risk. Websites and books giving the advice to raise bowls should be updated.

Molly, I was told by an orthopaedic specialist vet who bred working labs that he didn't restrict their exercise - what he was extremely careful about was diet and growth rate. He didn't take them on forced marches - the key was that they were free to stop when they got tired - but could run and play as they wished. He didn't have problems.

I agree with the above post, we have Danes, and Terriers, when they have been vaccinated, they  are aloud to free run in a 56acre field until they are tired, we have never restricted there exercise off lead, we are lucky to have a acre of garden too, but I'm a firm believer in letting them tire themselves out ,and building up there heart muscles.
They are on good quality diets and no supplements, and weve (touch wood) had no problems with growth rates.
They are very well muscled and it has been remarked in the show rings/write up about there muscle and general fitness.

i do not own labs but years ago i  puppy walked a few for the g.d.b.a, i was also told by one of there own specialists vets not to over exercise  or over feed  the puppies especially at a young age, i know labs are normallyfood and treat  motivated  so this had to be monitored carefully . i know guide dog puppies if they pass shall spend most of there working lives on lead so this was understandable at the time, they also suggested that i watch the calorie in take and were very strict with the puppies diets and the exercising, when i got my shepherds i was always taught the same ,and still do get the same everytime a new puppy comes into our household, i suppose it is different breeds and everyone knows what works for there dogs, i did monitor there execise a 5-10 minute run around i think is quite a lot for an 8 week old g.s.d then not forgetting the exercise they get thereselves in play in the house with children etc, mine just toddled off to there crates when they had enough,  we are also fortunate enough to have some acreage the sheps at a year old would get approx 1.5 to 2 hours per day, that includes 20-30 minute free run 1 walk in the  morning on lead off our property and 1 walk in the evening on lead off our property,i beileve that is sufficient we have owned quite a number of dogs over the years we have owned 9 shepherds in all  plus other breeds, and they have all come back with good test results and we have never had any problems,( touch wood) we never shall. maybe its the different areas, different breeds and some profesionals differences  of opinion. but what ever your satisfied with and works for you and your dogs thats really all that counts. p.s i did take my dogs swimming when the weather was  good this helped with muscle tone.

if the advice is wrong then a lot of things need to be updated and not just in books and  on websites, in my area they are still encouraging people to use the raised food bowl etc ii have always done this fortunately i have not had any problems with my dogs and i beileve german shepherds are more likely to get bloat than most deep bodied breeds,thats the trouble there are sometimes to many different theories.

molly, I'm with you, I used raised bowls for food & water. There is lots of different theroies, but they are all just that - theories. If there was hard facts to prove what contributes to bloat then we would be able to prevent it or substantially reduce the amount of cases that occur.
I imagine the 'evidence' that says raised feeders increase the risk of bloat were simply figures taken from bloat victims during a time when most people were using raised feeders, so the amount of cases of bloat in dogs feeding from raised bowls would have been much more than those that weren't. Bloat was around long before raised feeders and unfortunaely, as nobody knows the exact cause, will be around for much longer :(
The best defence we have against bloat is knowing the signs and getting vet care immediately, prevention sadly seems down to luck :(

im with you on that too, I have read all the theories and made my own mind up.  Irish Setters are among the top breeds to suffer from bloat, I feed raised purely  because it must be more comfortable for them than have to bend right over to get to their bowls.

hi mastifflover,thankyou for your reply this subject is quite close to my heart as it was only a couple of months ago that i had one of my old puppy owners come to visit for the day this dog is 8 now, so he is not chasing around gulping his food ,water etc ironically she never has raised her bowls why i think she just forgets sometimes this dog suddenly showed the signs of g.d.v. we rushed him to the vets and there was a few differences of opinion to the problem but i was right in the end and i knew time was off the essence, anyway thats a long story he survived to everyones surprise and relief and is getting better every day but what an awful thing to see and the op just awful £8000, plus pounds later thank heaven for insurance,  he seems fine now thank god,  and she has started to use raised feeding bowls what the specialists at the vets have said she has now got these attached to her kitchen wall so only the bowls can be removed for cleaning and refilling, i get angry about some of these websites as that is the first time in many years of owning shepherds had i ever heard of the raised food bowl theory being any different then raised.

hi claireys, thankyou for your reply, i am not comparing humans with dogs but if you think about it some times and i admit we have a t.v dinner our setee is quite low and i always end up with a stomache ache as my stomache feels bent over when we sit at the table wich is more than not i never get the pains the food obviously digests better as your not twisted and bent.

>that is the first time in many years of owning shepherds had i ever heard of the raised food bowl theory being any different then raised.

You've not heard of the Purdue Bloat Study then?

hi jeangenie no i am sorry i have not heard of the purdue bloat study, sorry if that is being ignorant, but i have never had the need to study the  american websites for information on how to avoid bloat, i have all the expertise living around me regarding my breed however my sister lives and works in several fields of the dog world in new york, she studies canine nutrition plus other aspects of dogs health there studies have shown that there are a lot of incidences of bloat in the working shepherd especially ones that are fed on complete diets of dried kibble,i beileve in what i am doing for my dogs is right unless i have concrete proof to sugest other wise i shall keep on trying to avoid any health problems in my dogs as best i know. thankyou very much for the web address  in some respect it did prove interesting going to read the other topics on it now.