i have just bought an akita puppy and am looking for some opinions on exercising.i have read that you should not walk them on the footpath untill they are about 6-8 months old,does this mean that they should not be walked on the road at all untill that age or is it o.k to walk them short distances to enable them to get used to the collar and leash.

Hi guest,
I think the point people are trying to make is that a pup of a large breed shouldn't be given lots of exercise on hard surfaces till they are about that age, and they just haven't explained it clearly.
They certainly need to be taken out and about on the lead for socialisation and learning, rather than for exercise. They need to be taken around town to get used to crowds, to the railway station to look at the trains, to the bus station, to the fields to get used to livestock - in fact everywhere you can possibly think of, and probably more besides!

You are right to query this - as you suspect, if you didn't take a puppy out on the lead on the pavement when it was young, you'd stand no chance of getting it to walk nicely in places like that when it was grown up! Just don't overtire the pup - take it slowly. After all, Guide Dog pups all go out every day on the pavement as soon as their jabs are complete.

Good luck.
:)