My Pup will be a year old on June 30th. What’s the right age to be able to take him on runs around the neighborhood? I just want to make sure his bones are fully developed. Is that at a year or 2? Any advice appreciated. Thanks
I started taking my boy on short runs from about 13 months. He is about 16 months old now and we are upto about 4.5k Most of the run i do with him off the lead so he kinda runs back and forth a bit by the end of the run i have to slow down as he is tiring out. The misses runs with him on harness and quite a bit slower and he seems fine with this.
Living in the mountains of Austria i took my boys on little hikes quite early (around 7-8 month). We started slowly (around an half and hour to an hour of hiking with little breaks) and worked our way up to 2 hours at about 1,5 years. I think what is most important is that you put them on leash when walking downhill (because free running downhill isn't too good for young bones and joints) and slowly increase the strain. Running is a different story in my opinion. I wouldn't have taken my boys on a run before they where 1,5 years old because i think the strain on the joints is way higher when running compared to (uphill)hiking.
Must admit I did loads of hiking and running and cycling with my last dog (staffy X ?lab) from a young age through ignorance. She was 13 when she died and had no joint issues at all.
There is a difference between exercise which the dog voluntarily chooses (ie the dog is totally off leash) and exercise which is enforced (the dog is on leash and must keep up with you). There is also a difference between running on natural surfaces like grass or ground, and running on tarmac or sidewalks/pavements. (Can you see I am trying to be bilingual there?) And finally, it might also depend on whether you plan on getting your dog OFA hip and elbow scored. My understanding is that in the UK we can do BVA hip scoring from 1yo, so we all tend to be very careful about exercise until we've got the hip and elbow scores done. Whereas in the US, I believe you have to wait till 2yo to get final scores from OFA - although preliminaries can be done earlier. So - if you plan on doing hip or elbow scoring, you might want to wait till 2yo before you do daily pavement pounding. If you don't plan on doing hip and elbow scoring, then I still think 1yo is a bit young to start this. I'd wait till at least 18 months.
Thanks for the advice. I will probably wait another 6 months or so. I wasn't planning to have his hip and elbows scored, but it may be a good idea. I'm not an avid hiker or runner, but would like to get my dog's stamina up and have him exercise more. I feel like he tires fairly quickly, but I've been pretty strict about the no vigorous exercise rule until now and he's approaching one year old. Right now we pretty much stick to short walks around the park and off leash or long line training.
Unless you are a pretty serious athlete, I think your dog will have little trouble keeping up with you on a couple mile jog, or a significant hike when he is a year old. When we hike with the dog(s) off lead, they always did 2 or 3 times the distance we did.
