I have a lab puppy who I've just started taking for one short walk a day. I just wondered if there was a general rule to let me know how far to take him or how long for. I know you have to be careful with labs' joints and too much excercise could be harmful. I don't want to be taking him too far too soon.
thanks
Vicki

There was a similar question to this recently and I remember someone putting as a response that as a rule you should do 5 mins walk for every month of life, so a 12 week pup gets 15 mins, 16 weeks gets 20 mins etc. This was only meant as a guide though I think.

Hi guest,

We don't get our puppy till next week he's a lab. I have read about 10 books since we left our deposit a couple of weeks ago. All seem to say until a lab is 6 months the excersize it gets from running about the house and garden is plenty.At 6months a quarter of a mile walk(this should take about 10-15mins).Only at 18months is he old enough and strong enough for really good runs then as much as 2 hours twice a day is fine. Hope this helps a little. xx

hi

don't know how you can measure a walk in the amount of time your on it ,you come go on a 20 min full on non stop walk ,or a slow wander for an hour which does the puppie more good than harm spending lots of time meeting lots of new people etc

Paul and Julie Knutson have trained and raised many field champion Labs and they recommend walking the puppy everyday. You'll start to notice when he or she is getting tired as they start to lag a little behind especially if in a strange area to them. They recommend walking the puppy in differents spots everyday and increasing distance as the pup gets better conditioned. They wrote a book called the pointing lab which takes you from the new puppy all the way to the trained dog. Great book especially if you hunt. But even if not the obedience training and the matter in which it is done is impreesive. They educate you from the pups perspective and it really works. You can find the book at www.pointinglabs.com I highly recommend it. Hope this helps.
terryt