Hi there
I have an English Springer Spaniel pup of 11 weeks old who is now able to go out for walks.
I understand that it is important not to over walk a puppy as there bones etc are all developing and it could cause problems later on with hips etc.
Can anyone give me an indication as to how much excersise / walks I should give him at this age and for the coming months ?
Obviously I want to get him out and about as much as possible to help socialise him but I certainly don't want to risk over doing it and causing problems later on.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Marcus.

Hi Marcus,
At his age he will only be needing very short walks for the first few days, but will need to get out a lot! Which will still mean lots of carrying him about, taking him in the car to new places etc. For the first few days, 10 minutes or so several times a day will be ample. The important thing to remember is that too much muscle will distort a growing skeleton - they both have to grow at a steady, equal rate. So as the puppy grows, so does the amount of exercise. It is difficult to keep a balance between what he wants to do, and what is good for him! Too little, and he will be undersocialised and hard to train - too much and you risk physical ill-health. Be guided by his reactions, and don't let him get exhausted.

Good luck
:)

When our springers were pups it was really hard to stop them from running around, we tried to carry them about to socialise but they would always try to wriggle free, I think as long as you dont allow him to jump from great heights and stop him running up and down the stairs you will have no problems, springers are natural live wires so he will probably run everywhere anyway, mine have and they have had no problems.