How much exercise for a puppy?

I have heard that also about not letting a large breed do agility until full grown or at least a year old. Full grown for my breed is at around 2 years old for mental maturity and bone formation. But I have seen large breed dogs way under one year old doing agility on T.V.

Bailey will jump beautifully when prompted but Chloe is just a born jumper. Chloe is almost 8 months old and has been jumping over Bailey for a while now and he's tall. If he's in her way and she's got the "zoomies" (not often) she will jump him like a hurdle and not touch one hair on his back and she's QUITE a bit shorter than Bailey is. There's not a thing I can do about this. ;)

Rule of thumb with a large breed puppy- as much as the puppy starts- but its not forced until the growth plates are set.. ( forced meaning you make the pup walk for a long time..)

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Originally Posted by bckrazy

I would consider long walks forced exercise... especially on a hard, concrete surface in a repetitive motion. I would cut back on those & encourage more natural play exercise, until she's done growing.

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This is what I was trying to say, only I was having trouble explaining it :o

Okay, no, I wouldn't consider her a large breed. Actually I consider all my dogs to be medium sized dogs. But Huskies are a breed that can have joint issues and because of that and also because she didn't come from a great breeder it would be best to be careful. I have never taken Buck for a walk and he is almost 13 months old. He does get lots and lots and lots of exercise every day (he has way too much energy!) but none of it is forced. I do take him places where he is on leash (to the store, to the park where he is eventually off leash, etc.) so he does have to walk but it is not like taking him on long walks. I just recently started walking Nova on long walks and she will be 2 next week. But she also has hip and elbow dysplasia, and if she didn't I probably would have started walking her younger, around 12-18 months. I just think that that time period (up to 18 months or so, 12 at the earliest) is a crucial time to let the joints grow and not put stress on them, and the best way is to let the dog decide when it's had enough.

Just my opinion based on research I've done. :)

30-45 minutes is considered a long walk? If thats a long walk I should be skinny by now. ;) Thanks for the info everyone. She's a bit hard to exercise at home because she's not interested in fetching, the only exercise she'll really do at home is play with Nebo.

For a puppy, yes, I'd say that's a long walk. What about swimming? Parks? Maybe you could get involved in an activity with her, like obedience or obedience classes, that will tire her without much exercise?

Buck plays with the other dogs a lot in the backyard, then I'll run around with him (and the other dogs) some in the house, and he swims almost every day, and we practice for our shows pretty often as well. It doesn't tire him out completely, he could go much longer, but he's also well behaved in the house so he doesn't go crazy with bottled up energy. I think the only time I saw him totally and completely pooped was at the end of our trip from camping and visiting Kay. That is the first time I've ever seen him fall asleep standing. Like ... he wanted to keep going, but he just couldn't. Haha

She's in puppy classes but its only once a week. I don't have a pool for her to swim in, its too cold in any lakes right now...plus I don't think she'd swim anyway, it took Nebo until last year to decide he was brave enough lol. She'd have to be on a leash in the park so wouldn't that be a walk anyway?

She's not crazy or anything, actually she's fairly calm for a husky pup. She just looooooooooves to go on the walks, if she sees the leash she starts howling. I'm going on the walks mostly for myself, making the dogs happy is just my motivation, heh, I guess I'll have to just bring Nebo (hopefully the neighbors won't call AC from hearing her husky screams at being left home :o J/K)

Honestly, if you feel it's fine, take her. Maybe just start her on a glucosamine/chondroitin supplements to support her joints. When I got Nova my vet told me that it's important not to stress their joints when they are young (I had asked about doing agility), and I saw the same things when I researched it. Low impact exercise and letting the dog deciding when they've had enough were what was reccomended most often by the people I talked to and articles I'd read.

It's my opinion that joint problems in young dogs is mostly genetic related, but if the dog's joints are already bad, forced exercise will make it worse. It might be a good idea to x-ray her hips when you spay her. If I hadn't done that I wouldn't know that Nova was dysplastic, because she doesn't show any signs right now.

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Originally Posted by wolf_Q

Would you really consider her a large breed? She'll most likely be 40-50 lbs full grown.

I called the vets office and she said that was perfectly fine, I didn't talk to the actual vet though, just the receptionist.



Are you meaning when the dog was 2 months--8 weeks? I can't imagine getting a pup to walk that far, neither Keva or Nebo would even walk all the way down the street on a leash at that age.

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Walk? Try running as in constant motion. Or jumping off the dock into the water at about 10 weeks. ;)

Really VIGOROUS exercise is not recommended for growing pups. Leisurely walks, or even brisk walks, aren't exactly vigorous. Now, if you were running with her for a couple of miles a day, that might be tough on growing joints. :) I think an hour long walk would be fine, especially since she's not acting tired out by it.

I agree. I walk as long as its easy- ie not forced. Several short walks would be better than a long one. Remembering you have to walk back home again- .. Puppies have alot of exercise in the house, especially if you have other dogs. And not only is that play fun, it uses alot of different muscles without repetition.