Proper Exercise for puppies

[boy.rulez16]

10 minutes walk is enugh for 9 weeks old GSD PuPz ?? or shud walk 20 or else please reply !!!

[Castlemaid]

Hi Rj

10 or 20 minutes is fine, depending on what your pup can handle. Do as much as your pup wants to do. You can gradually increase the length of the walks as he gets older.

[Alwaysaworkingdog]

I would not walk a pup at 9 weeks, that just seems too young. On top of that, until the pups joints have developed completely, I would avoid long repetitive exercise, especially if you have a pup from bad lines.

Even if your pups parents had good scores, you can ruin your pup by doing too much.

At 9 weeks, they don't need that much exercise. You should be working on engaging with your pup and socialising him. The aim of exercise should be getting him to use his full range of motion, without making it too strenuous. The only reason I would walk my pup at that age would be to get to a place nearby that I was going to socialise him at

[MichelleMc]

You know stupidly I never thought about the stairs hurting him. He was up and down the stairs pretty much from the moment we got him. He prefers spending time upstairs because of my daughter. He is nearly 6 months old now. Is this something I should be concerned about at this point?
And as far as exercise goes, we take him to my daughters school to play fetch everyday. He plays non stop for a hour and it is still not enough. We are going to start walking him as well. He loves to climb things, so eventually I would like to find something to exercise him that involves climbing. Hiking so far is the only thing I have come up with. And should I wait for that until he's older?

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[Linck]

So after reading the thread, Is this proper for 4 months old puppy?

Fetch session in the backyards several times a day. 10 minutes walk on pavement a day. I used to do flirt pole too but now that he grows so much bigger it gets harder to throw a long robe around. I don't want him to turn around too much so I change to fetch instead

[Castlemaid]

That sounds just fine for a four month old. You could do a lot more too without hurting him. Longer walks on pavement as long as it is walking. A four month old could easlily do a hike, off leash, on trails, running and playing with other dogs. Let him set the pace: if he is tired, he can slow down, or have a break and rest. You'd be surprised at how much energy he has to burn off. Longer exercise sessions at a slower pace will help the growing and development of bones and tendons more than many short sessions of maximum exhertion.

[Linck]

Originally Posted by Castlemaid

That sounds just fine for a four month old. You could do a lot more too without hurting him. Longer walks on pavement as long as it is walking. A four month old could easlily do a hike, off leash, on trails, running and playing with other dogs. Let him set the pace: if he is tired, he can slow down, or have a break and rest. You'd be surprised at how much energy he has to burn off. Longer exercise sessions at a slower pace will help the growing and development of bones and tendons more than many short sessions of maximum exhertion.

Thanks for the advice! I guess we could do more hiking. After all we live right by the second largest canyon in America. We have only been there once and he got sick after that but I don't think its because of hiking. How long is appropriate for the hiking like that though?

[Castlemaid]

Depends on your pup, but on average a 4 month old can easily do a couple of hours at his own pace. If you watched some of puppy hiking videos at the beginning of the thread, I think MaggieRoseLee's puppy was doing two, three hours at that age?

It is very rare actually that people over-exercise their pups - most pups get vastly under-exercised. The warnings about over-exercising are aimed at people wanting to take their puppies jogging and bicycling with them on a regular basis.