Puppy walks

[Mollywobbles]

When our 14 week old springer spaniel X labradoodle arrives next week what sort of distances should we be walking her for? I don't want to hurt her growing legs but do want her to get plenty of exercise as she's understandably full of energy!
2 or 3 short walks would be fine if that's best but how short is short? A mile? Two? Any advice?

 

[Mad Murphy]

At the moment theres this whole 5 minutes per month of age thing..Puppy and dog walking tips

I have to say I take this with a pinch of salt as the original study was on a small group of dogs and not entirely scientific but short for such a young pup is much less than a mile. Little short busts of walking on lead and learning the basics will be best they cant concentrate for long. Apart from that lots of nice easy games so your pup can bond with you might be best.

 

[JudyN]

You can intersperse the walks with lots of sniffing in the verges, sitting on a park bench watching the world go by, and brief training breaks - this will tire her out much more than 'just' walking for the same amount of time would do, with no stress on her joints.

 

[pongo111]

I heard about the 5minutes per month too ... but at what age does that stop?

 

[JudyN]

I heard about the 5minutes per month too ... but at what age does that stop?

Up to a year - though you don't go straight from 1hr walks to a 3hr trek straight away after their birthday of course!

Again, that is a rule of thumb - if you have a large slow-maturing breed like a deerhound you'd have to go easy for a lot longer than a smaller dog.