George is FINALLY allowed out tomorrow (thank goodness), and I wanted to clarify the rules on exercise, because it's so confusing, and there's so much conflicting advice out there. I know that I have to be careful until he's grown as it could damage his growing bones/joints (he's currently 11 weeks old). I've heard the 5 mins per month rule, but does that apply to all exercise? Because he does more than that going crazy round the garden! And is that all the exercise he's allowed? That seems like hardly any at all. Then still other people have said that they never really worried about it and just gave the pup the exercise he seemed to need.....argh! Some advice would be great, and what do other people do?
I stuck to the 5 minute per month rule for on lead walking at that age. This didn't include all the other exercise she was getting.
We did the same with Bailey, if he was off lead going at his own pace and on grass I didn't count that, but on lead and on a hard pavement I stuck to 5 mins per month of age.
At 11 weeks I was only doing very short bursts of lead training, but I'd take her out for a 15-20 minute romp at the local field/school. Then just short plays of tuggy or fetch at home. I loosely stuck to the 5 minute rule until she was 12 months (i.e. at 6 months she'd get 35 minutes off-lead/long-line in the morning), and then a short 10-15 minute lead walk in the evening. Just be sensible and don't overdo it and you'll be fine. It seems so restrictive at first but you get used to it.
I feel it's just a matter of ensuring your puppy isn't constantly on the go, either having to keep up with you or racing around with other dogs, but the five minute rule has no scientific studies to back it up and is interpreted differently by different people. Some people have large gardens and don't seem to count that as part of their puppy's exercise. We have a smallish garden with very little grass so I took Molly out three times a day as soon as she was allowed and by 5 months of age this was 3 x 30 minutes. However I drove to off-lead areas, so hardly any time was on lead- and I felt that scampering around in the recreation ground or beach was just an alternative to being in the garden. I made sure she met other dogs for socialisation but she didn't spend most of her time playing with other dogs - we rarely met anyone on our first outing of the day for example - and I wasn't trying to actually get anywhere. Some of our outing time was just sitting together watching the world go by. When we got home she'd then sleep for an hour or so. With previous puppies I hadn't heard of the five minute rule so they had similar amounts of exercise.
This is a good article - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/ .
