Hi all We recently were able to begin walking Penny a week after her second jab. She is slowly getting used to it, a little scared by the sound of traffic and sometimes unwilling to go more than a 20-30 metres down the road so we just end up walking the same little area near the house. But it is improving and she made it all the way around the block this morning, which was a nice way to kill 10mins (sick of the garden!). Our vet advised us that due to the breed we should consider not allowing any hard exercise off of the lead until she is 18 months. So she is okay in the garden but at the park or in other open spaces to restrict her to the lead. I understand the reasoning and am more than willing to follow the advice as the vet is far wiser than me. Can you all help me out and tell me if you did anything similar? or if you didn't has there been any negative effects. Cheers Tom
Re: Exercise Question Hi - Charlie, 4.5 month old Choc lab. We didn't do "walks" at first, we took him to places where he could be off lead, run, explore and play - I think the very first place we took him was a massive beach at low tide. He stuck to us like glue, and we had no concerns about him wandering off. We just let him sniff around and do whatever he wanted - which was mainly sniffing at rocks and digging sand. Wasn't long before another puppy came along and he got to play for a while. We picked him up when he seemed a bit tired (after about 15 mins) and he had a carry back to the car. We went on like that for a while, then he got too big to carry, so he had to start walking from the car to where we could let him off his lead. Now we are doing more walks, really ambles, but still off lead. We try really hard to stick to the 5 mins per month of age rule - but we are increasingly breaking it because he bounces off the wall with such a small amount of exercise, and we want to spend more time with him out and about. We try to go at his speed - we now know the signs of him getting tired but still whizzing about, and we try never to end up with a tired puppy a long way from the car. The walks are completely about him and how far he can go, not how far we want to go. Recently changed our idea about lead walking completely, and now we are trying to get him to heel without a lead and until we've done that are trying to avoid having to walk far with a lead at all. Of course, he has to walk on a lead sometimes - to get from the car to the beach/wood, the vet's, into town to be in a busy place etc.
Re: Exercise Question Thanks, our main concern isn't her coming back to us, and she has been socialised with dogs at obedience class. The vet is concerned I think with bone development issues should she be given the opportunity to run harder in open spaces. We are also using the 5 minute rule as a guide, but at this point while she is just getting used to the concept of being on the lead she rarely wants to do more than 5 or so minutes at a time. I must be honest, keeping her on the lead seems like a bit of an alien concept to me, even if I understand the reasoning. Granted I know very little about dogs but I would imagine off the lead exercise within reason wouldn't be damaging. The vet must know what he is talking about though I suppose, it just seems a shame that she has to remain on the lead.
Re: Exercise Question I can't quite understand the vet's advise to keep your dog on the lead until she is 18 months old. ??? As long as you are careful and don't let her run on a hard surface like pavement for long periods, or up and down stairs or over jumps, I really can't see any reason why she shouldn't run off lead.
Re: Exercise Question In my humble opinion , keeping them on lead too long leads to so many problems . Yes, caution on hard surfaces for a while but on soft surfaces, they should be allowed off lead as soon as possible in safe places of course .
Re: Exercise Question Sorry, I should have clarified - despite everything we've read and researched about bone development, hip dysplasia etc. , we still try never keep Charlie on a lead. I should have said that before I explained what we did. Nothing has lead me to think that trasping round on a pavement is better than allowing him to do his own thing on soft sand and woodland floor. But if your vet has seen your puppy, and you trust him... who really knows what's best?
Re: Exercise Question Well this is my dilemma, we have only seen the vet once. We were super impressed by how thorough and helpful he was, the service was spot on. But there is no reason to believe she is at any greater risk than any other lab, no family history of bone issues, and she is in perfect health. The thing is it's not like the advice is to walk on hard ground, it is to keep her on the lead even at the park on grass during her developmental stage. I think I will talk again, maybe I misunderstood him. If not might talk to someone else.
Re: Exercise Question Totally agree with Heidrun here, can't really see why you would need lead exercise only til 18 months. I think it would cause you all sorts of training issues especially recall. My labs have all had free run off lead from puppies on grass/fields/rivers with practically no work on hard surfaces and again, no jumping in/out the car, etc etc. Current two labs both have 0/0 elbows and single digit hips with this regime. I tend to worry more about their parents health tests initially, and then keeping them on a good plane of nutrition such that their weight is under control and they don't grow too fast as puppies. And hubby and I have both been vets for over 26 years......
