Exercising puppies for 5 minutes per month twice a day (x-post r/dogs)

[ethanasg48]

So I've been following this rule because I'm concerned for my 14 week old pup's joint health, but honestly, it just doesn't seem like enough for her. She is sooooo full of energy all the time and I want to take her on longer walks to burn it off.

We play all the time, she does puzzles every day and we do multiple training sessions every day, plus the 20 minute walk in the afternoon and 20 minute walk in the evening. And she's just all buzzy all the time. She does take regular naps and she sleeps like a log through the night.

I wasn't expecting too much chill from a GSD but I really think she would benefit from longer walks.

I didn't know about this rule with my last dog. She was still a puppy at 6-8 months but obviously she wasn't as young as this one. She walked for hooouuuurs a day. Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep her to old age and I don't know if this affected her joints in the end. She was a very happy dog tho.

Has anyone ignored this rule? Were there any consequences? Do you regret breaking it?

 

[james9900]

@ethanasg48 Take her somewhere where she can run off leash, and run with her to her heart's content, as long as she wants. Invite over other (vaccinated, known) dogs and have them play together. Take her new places and socialize her - new smells and sights and sounds are very tiring.

 

[ethanasg48]

@james9900 She's still too young to be out at parks I'm really looking forward to that final round of vaccinations! But we did take her to my in-laws the other day to run around their garden and she loved it. Might take her again today. We try and take her to a new place every day, pet stores, hardware stores, new area in the city. Stuff like that.

 

[james9900]

@ethanasg48 Do you have a fenced in yard available to you to use? Or get a 30-50 foot leash and find a field - that's what we did pre-fence.

 

[ethanasg48]

@james9900 Yea we can go to my inlaws to let her run around their yard. We can't go every day because they don't live close enough for that (and we need in-law space lol), but we go when we can. I'm hoping we can pop by today!

When she has her final shots we'll definitely be taking her to run around the park I can't wait!

 

[lucianx]

@ethanasg48 I went by that rule and don't regret it, better safe than sorry. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't GSD prone to having bad hips? I wouldn't risk it.

If she's taking regular naps and sleeps through the night and you're doing all the training you mention it might not be an exercise issue. I have quite a highly strung dog who I had to actively teach to relax when he was young. I followed the method in the 'capturing calmness' YouTube video by kikopup. Basically you just reward them (calmly) whenever you catch them choosing to relax. I also taught my dog a 'settle' command where I would get him to lie on a mat with intermittent rewards ( or 'earning a salary' for chilling out). If he was genuinely relaxed then he'd get a bone or something to chew on as long as he stayed lying on the mat. Doing this kind of thing helped loads with my dog.

 

[ethanasg48]

@lucianx Yes, we are definitely concerned for her hip health. Her parents had perfect hip scores but shit still happens and GSDs are prone to dysplasia.

We are working a lot on teaching calmness! I just heard about the "sitting on the dog" exercise so I've started to incorporate that into our daily routine, too. It sounds a lot like what you've been doing with your dog. Capturing calmness has been paramount to her training since day one as we have cats. Thank you!

 

[maggielee]

@ethanasg48 The "rule" as best I can understand it after trying to track down its origins is about forced repetitive movement on a hard and flat surface - pavement for example.

Let your pup off-leash on a soft surface like grass and let them play to develop their muscles, coordination, and even bone density.

I agree with the limit as it pertains to walking on pavement.

Limit going up and down stairs as well.

Plus try not to allow too many jump down from higher than shoulder height. Some suggest ankle height. I dunno. There was no way I could stop that with my puppy. He loves to jump.

I ended up putting exercise mats over the floor everywhere at my place. Not only do they provide grip they provide a certain amount of squish to help soften any falls or wipe outs.

The bit about limiting exercise that really threw me was the running part. Turns out that also assumes running on a hard flat surface while on leash. So don't do that with your pup.

Letting your pup run freely on a soft surface should be fine so long as they don't over do it. In theory your pup will stop when tired.

Overall, I think the advice can be reduced to this: do not force your pup to "get exercise." Let them pick the pace, duration, and frequency.

 

[ethanasg48]

@maggielee I do try and limit her jumping. Unfortunately there are a couple of steps to my house so that's unavoidable. She also jumps off the couch. There is literally no stopping her and I've just accepted it.

Mats are a good idea.

Thank you!

 

[jeburress]

@maggielee Agree here on the forced walking on pavement as well as too much jumping like stairs, etc.

My apt has a small 5 stair from my front door, unfortunately I can't help that. But I try to keep him from jumping too much. But...at the same time I can't micromanage everything.

 

[sensizdj1]

@ethanasg48 Your vet will be able to give you a better idea of whether longer walks would be okay for your specific dog than anyone here, but do any pet food stores or pet training places in your area have puppy play times, or do you have any friends with puppies or young dogs who are good with puppies that you might be able to arrange play dates with? Our little guy is a mix of breeds with joint issues, so extra walking is not an option for us, so we've been using play dates and the local dog park (which we got seriously lucky with, since the regulars are all well-trained dogs with very attentive humans) to let him burn off his extra energy.

 

[ethanasg48]

@sensizdj1 She goes to daycare for a couple of hours once a week and she gets to do some play at puppy class! She does have a friend across the street she's allowed to play with, but for some unrelated issues I think I'm going to have to stop her from playing with him for a little while, sadly. I will have a chat with the vet this week and get his opinion.

She's too young for the dog park and I probably wouldn't let her go anyway, we're not really dog park people.

Thank you for the suggestions!

 

[jenngries]

@ethanasg48 You've lost me. 5 minutes a month? But twice a day?

 

[lucianx]

@jenngries It's five minutes of walking per month of age. So OP's pup is 4 months old so only walks 20 minutes at a time, but 2 or 3 times a day. It's a rule some people follow to ensure their dogs don't have joint problems later in life.

 

[jenngries]

@lucianx Ah yes I follow now. Thank u!
To answer OP, I've broken it but I wouldn't say by a lot. I include day care trips where there's a lot of play too.

 

[ethanasg48]

@jenngries Yeah, so like, if the pup is three months old they can walk for 15 minutes twice a day, so a half hour total.