i have be following the 5 min per month of life rule so storm now gets approximately 25- 30 mins a day. This doesn't seem very much. She also gets some games in the garden and some training but wondered if up I should take her for another walk. If I do her walk first thing then I can't take her out again. What do you all do or have you done?
Are you using the 5 min rule for on lead or off lead? At 6 months we averaged 15 minutes on lead and about 30-45 mins off lead, then 15 mins to walk back home on lead. When they are off lead they are able to stop and start when they want so it's not constant walking. Hope that helps a bit.
I'll be interested to hear what answers you get here. I had no idea about the five minute rule when my dogs were puppies, only that for jogging or such they needed to be at least a year old. Not an issue for me as I'm not much of a jogger. But for general exercise, my boys would have gone off their little rockers if all they got was 25 minutes a day at five months old. I took mine to the beach and let them have at it for over an hour at least four times a week. But my understanding of the exercise restriction is that it doesn't apply to off-leash meandering and romping. Not sure if that is correct though?
Stanleys nearly 9 months and he gets between 1 - 2 hours exercise a day. Usually cover about 3/4 miles. I'd say 75% of his walks are off lead so he just bimbles about. If OH takes him they walk less but they go to a big field and play fetch for ages
I haven't followed the 5 minute rule at all but most of our walks are almost entirely off lead, just get to the fields from home on lead and that's 2 minutes. Libby has had two 45 minutes(ish) off lead walks since 14 weeks and sometimes longer walks at the weekend. She'd be bonkers indoors without it!
I loosely followed the 5 mins per month recommendation for Jura, but followed the Kennel Club guidelines which suggests 5 mins per month up to twice a day so she got two walks per day. Also because the majority of the time was off lead they did tend to be slightly longer, with training and games mixed in to vary the exercise.
I've searched high and low for scientific evidence to support the five minute rule and haven't found any. If you consider that some people have huge gardens whereas others have small patches or even no garden, then to me it makes sense to take your puppy out more frequently if they don't have much outside space at home. With Molly, by 6 months of age i was taking her out 3 times a day for about 20 - 30 minutes each time. However this wasn't lead walking. I used to drive to the beach or recreation ground (both just a few minutes drive from home) and just potter about and play with her, plus short bursts of lead walking training.
I was very strict with both my pups. I interpreted this rule as 5 mins per month of age for running around, more physical exercise, so bimbling alongside me off lead, within reason, was OK. My pups had lots of quick training sessions though, which I think they found just as tiring as racing around!
I was strict with Hattie and followed the 5 minuite per month rule, she was off lead practising recall and little bits of training, we also went to training classes too so lots was learned. I very slowly built up her walks until she was well over a year. I also have 4 children that would play and tire her out too. She is 9 years old now and as fit as a fiddle. I don't think it does any harm to be on the cautious side as they are still growing, their bones are too
I followed my interpretation of the "five minute rule" with Willow and Shadow. My interpretation being 5 minutes per month of age, twice a day. Because our terrain is quite challenging, even for the most basic of walks, I kept to this whether on or off lead. When we had deep snow, it was less if they looked in danger of getting cold or if they were having to bounce too much. With Luna, I'm just going to go for the common sense approach. Restricting higher impact activities - including running up and down hills, through deep snow etc - and forced-speed activities to an amount appropriate to age. Here is a thorough article on it: https://www.puppyculture.com/appropriate-exercise.html And the TL;DR, an opinion chart of age-appropriate exercise: https://www.puppyculture.com/exercise-chart.html
After all this confusion, it sounds like it's as nuanced as the plethora of "sleep training" advice you encounter when you have a baby! Since that seemed unbased in hard science and more on opinion (sure, there were a few "science" and research backed studies but nothing convincing: I mean, really, who's actually funding that type of thing, ha ha), I finally shut out the noise and used common sense. Example: My kid slept through the night by three months using no newfangled sleep training techniques! Luckily, he's not emotionally damaged or not attached to me or anything - at least not yet, he's not old enough to blame me for his problems! So, I've been unable to get consistent advice on this whole exercise thing. When did this theory 5-minute rule originate? What formal study was done, using tests and controls to say, "Yes, this is a guideline we saw in XYZ breeds at XYZ ages using XYZ time limits, finding that joint health in senior dogs occurs when this happens?" What we have is anecdotal evidence ("I raised my dogs without the 5 minute rule and they're fine," "I raised my dogs with the five minute rule and they're fine," or the inverse of each). I know, I know, this is my cross to bear as an academically trained researcher and information science person. So, with my 15 week puppy, I've decided to go with common sense. No excessively rough play, no five-mile hikes or jogs, etc. Just good ol' fashioned no-strings-attached fun. Because of my confusion I'm terrified I'm damaging my dog!! Same thing when I was getting my kid to sleep. I draw this parallel because in both instances, the root of each theory was to avoid "damage" in any way. I'm not being inflammatory at all, just it's my response to the conflicting advice I've been hearing. I also know if that's all Mindy got, she'd be miserable! I did read Pippa's book and love the site - this is just my response to it all. I also wonder how many people are truly adhering or even aware of this guideline and still have healthy dogs, or the reverse. Causation can't always be correlation. Any thoughts? -Sunny
Here is a good article - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/ Mollie is six months old and I do 45 minutes off lead or 30 minutes on lead (not both in the same day)
As I mentioned in another post, I'm really giving this a lot of thought as I gear up for my next puppy. For my dog Brogan, I was very overweight and inactive up until he was about a year old so all his exercise was free romping about - lots of trips to the beach, dog park, etc., but no jogging and limited walks. So even though I didn't know about the five minute rule, I guess I just happened to follow it more or less anyway! Then right about at a year old, I lost nearly 100lbs and then we started going together like mad - so by the time he was 1.5 years we were doing very long off leash hikes and probably 1 hour long slow jogs (for him a walk) 2-3 times a week. We jogged together 3-4 times a week throughout his life up until only five months before he passed at 13 years old. Brogan did have two torn cruciates at five years old. The jogging could have contributed to that. On the other hand, his orthopaedic surgeon consistently complimented me on what good shape he was in and was impressed with how nicely he recovered. He also was amazed that Brogan never had any arthritis in the operated joints. There are so many factors that it is hard to know what is causation and correlation, as you say. For my next puppy, I'm honestly thinking about getting one of those baby jogger things adapted for a dog and then suffering the scornful looks of my neighbours as I push a perfectly healthy six month old dog around instead of risking his joints. On the other hand, I can see the likely conclusion of that scenario - said six month old puppy leaps out of baby jogger, runs circles around it, has a wee on it, and everyone has a good laugh at my weird American ways!
Oh @Emily_BabbelHund that image will stay with me all day With Bailey apart from lead training all his early walks were off lead and we gradually increased the distance - from walking around a rugby training area, to round a full sized pitch to now at least twice around the ground. Still his favourite place to walk! When we go to local parks because they are all surrounded by busy roads on all sides we keep Bailey Butterfly Brain on the lead and it takes us around 45 mins to walk completely around it - longer if we have to sniff every blade of grass on the way! In other words we amble along with Bailey setting the pace and direction for most of the walk. So far, apart from his attack of limber tail all has been well and according to the vet his condition and shape are excellent.
