Puppy excercise

[mortimer]

We have a 3 year old pit mix (mainly Pit) Boken, and have a new 4 month old staffy/border collie mix (Camper). Boken runs about 5 miles every other day with me or my wife, its also a hell of a climb, about 1000 feet in 2.5 miles, then back down the hill.

I am trying to figure out when we can take Camper with us. He went on a 5 mile hike the other day, seemed to hold up well. Just dont want to over work him. We are in Nor Cal, and the temp at the time we run them is about 70. At the top of the run is a spring and water.

thoughts?

btw, that pic is old, the Camper almost weighs as much as Boken now (boy, how they grow)

[mindonmatter]

I'm no expert, but I'll just relay what I've read. From my reading, pups that young shouldn't be exercised hard, and 5 miles is one hell of a work out. I've heard that at 10-12 months is when you can really start giving them good work outs. It can have long term effects on their joints and bones if you work them hard too young.. Right now their bones are growing very fast and shouldn't be subjected to heavy work. The same way you wouldn't put a 5 year old kid in the gym lifting weights.

Also, IMO you shouldn't be starting him out at 5 miles. Slowly work your way up to it when he's old enough.

I have a 3 1/2 month pup and I just let him get exercise by normal puppy play.

Like I said, I'm no expert so don't take this as gospel.

[mnp13]

There is a big difference between a 'run' and a 'walk' until your puppy is done growing I would not take him for a 5 mile 'run'. You need to wait until his body has had a chance to grow and mature a bit before you put it under that kind of stress.

He's gonna be ticked that he's left behind though, so put your shoes away!

Michelle

[pitbullforever]

being so young you should wait to take him for long walks.

[SKoth]

Border Collies and mixes of can be very high energy dogs that have been bred for endurance. I would let her exercise as much as she wants to. My mal pup would choose to walk 3mi with us when she was a baby. If I tried to carry her to give her some rest she would throw a tantrum. Even when we got home she was still running circles around the other dogs. Different breeds have different activity levels. I don't think that a 5mi walk is too strenuous especailly at 70degrees. As long as the puppy is out at the front of the leash, not falling behind, I'd let her go. Maybe that's just cause I have crazy dogs! :roll:

[mortimer]

Thanks much for the info all. I apprecaite it

[mala's daddy]

I agree with above, leash indicator and tongue lenght are the best ways to tell if they had enough

[PittyLuvers]

Our pit Rudy, gets alot of exercise running figure 8's with our pit mix in our odd shaped grass yard. His nails were sharp and we couldn't cut his nails at home, so I went to Petsmart and the three of us got his nail's done. He didn't freak out totally like the last time (wouldn't go back into the store, fear of shiny slick institutional floors, bathroom toilets and stalls still scary). Getting to the subject we were told to run him on asphalt to smooth his nails because he still has some sharp corners. How long? Leash, idea? My husband will need to do this because one of my legs has a piece of metal and I could fall flat. We have a neighbood without much traffic to use and a lake with an asphalt trail 15 miles away. Rudy is testing to be a nursing home therapy dog so his nails need to be smooth and any jitters need to be calmed. He passed the test once, then somebody wanted to put him next to a big dog - dum - so we put him thru eight additional classes where he sat rock solid in between a bunch of crazy idot dogs - he passed but now he has to retest.