How much exercise do you give your 6 month old labs? Up until now I've been careful to follow the 5 mins guideline, but can I loosen up a bit now? I'm starting to feel she needs a bit more exercise than she is getting and would be interested to know what other people do?
I would keep to the 5 minute rule for on lead walking, but allow for some more off lead play / sniffing / running around. They are still growing until they are around 12-18 months.
There are different versions of that guide. The one I followed said the 5 min of forced exercise (anything leashed, straight line, constant pace, hard surface, compelled to keep up) was allowed twice a day. Free play on soft surfaces unlimited. We were off leash on soft ground bush trails so our walks went a bit longer. The walk over to the bush on leash on the road only took ten minutes and we did go out twice a day. I didn't even count playing in the back yard. Oban is a pretty high energy dog but that was enough for him. We did less than the time in summer, neither of us handles heat well.
I didn't keep to the 5 minute rule at all as I could find no evidence to support the claims of its benefits ( and with previous pups I hadn't even heard of it). Having said that most of Molly's exercise at that age was off-lead ambles and play in parks, on the beach and in the forest - and we have a small garden so she didn't have a lot of space at home to run around in. By 6 months I was doing 3 outings a day of about 20-30 minutes each.
Jessie I am walking Mole twice a day for 30-40 mins - he really needs it, very high energy and if he doesn't get those walks he is hard work, and doesn't settle well in the evenings!! Those walks are 90% off lead in fields etc at his pace. We also do training in the garden! He is the complete opposite of my old yellow lab who was much more mellow and lower energy. Keeping me fit that's for sure!! Sam and Mole (7 mo)
I think a 30-45 minute walk is about right especially if you can allow your pup to free run to burn off that pent up energy. I'm fortunate to have open fields near where I live so I always start with my original (?) run-run command as I let him off leash. He'll make several big loops at full speed slowly bringing down the pace a bit. He stops, poops, and we're off for the walk. (And yes, I bag his poop) My lab is very high drive and if I didn't do this he'd be a very anxious fidgety walker. I prefer a calm walker.
Having had a dog with joint problems, and the absolutely nightmare that involves, I honestly won't be risking 'loosening up' with my new puppy. For sure, there are lots of people who don't stick to a guideline to moderate exercise and have no problems, but why risk it? If you rely on exercise to calm a dog down, or tire a dog out, then you are always going to have to do this. Maybe one day you'll still want your dog to be able to be calm if he doesn't get his walk, or perhaps you'll want to go to a training class or event where your dog has to stay on lead and is expected to behave regardless and so on. I think activity is fine - free slow sniffing, low impact games, ambling, hunting together, find its etc. which don't involve racing round, high impact, repetitive stresses. Has the added advantage of fun with you also being about being calm, not being about racing around like a hooligan. This really comes in handy later!
Bramble is now officially 6 months old..(having got her age muddled up the last few weeks!) We are quite strict on her exercise. She does have a lot of off lead time, however no more that about 40 mins( usually,,,,) and in that time there is a lot of just relaxing in the long grass, when I might be working on stay for example with other dog/s. I rarely do much on lead work, but we do a fair bit of heel work instead, where she is learning a nice cued position by my left side, only for a few mins at a time. We do lots of sniff games. I will hide a dried chicken neck and ask her to find it. We work on a lot of hand touch combined with positioning, settles, sit stay, hiding toys/treats. Clicker retrieves where I throw a toy into different areas, long grass, short grass, on a tree trunk, slightly out of sight, in a bucket, all for fun and no more than maybe 10 - 15 feet away. She is very lanky, her joints haven't fused either, so there is an element of risk with a lot of stop/start, running type of activities. So we focus on games around building bond, understanding basic cues, getting her thinking and problem solving as well as nice behaviours around meeting and greeting other dogs.
