Hi Murphy is 3 months old now, all her jabs are done so she's been OK to go out by vets We've been out every day for a walk, to start with, she wouldn't even walk out the garden, just sat and didn't budge. We live in a quiet area of Wales, right opposite a mountain, so we went up the mountain off the lead, and put the lead on halfway down, and she was great. We progressed to going up the mountain off lead and round the other side and back home on lead, which is roughly an hour. We took her to a local park yesterday, she was out for 2 hours but was quite tired in the end so I carried her for last 15 mins Am I overdoing it? Or is this about right?
At 3 months old labrador puppies have lot a growing to do. Their joints are still developing, so the rule of thumb that is given is 5mins of activity, running etc...for every month of life. It is also advised to limit climbing stairs and jumping as these sort of activities put a fair amount of load onto young developing joints. Tired pups are also more prone to muscle strains and injuries. You can find some good advice here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/
It's hard, we were out for an hour yesterday with Molly exploring the stream and we are off to the coast today. I'm thinking a quiet week will even things out
I think a lot of it is about being aware when your puppy is tiring if you are off lead on soft surfaces. Personally I was more strict on pavement-walking rather than the romping and having fun somewhere "softer" and more unstructured. I guess just be prepared to scoop your pup up and carry them home Jumping and leaping and going up stairs definitely puts more strain on growing bones and joints and I would be very wary of this type of thing. Lilly has HD
yeah 5 mins per month henrys 13 going on 14 week now but i sometimes allow an extra 5 minutes if hes full of beans
I exercised Juno on the 3 minutes x months of age principle for on lead walks but allowed greater freedom off lead but still kept the exercise monitored. Juno was around 14 weeks when we joined our first group walk with our trainer and a six other dogs. The walk was around an hour, all off lead, but for a young puppy consisted of at least twice the distance we walked due to the running backwards and forwards and the play with our trainers own puppy. Juno was really tired afterwards and we kept exercise much lighter the next day or so. So overall I would say take care of puppy joints and longer off lead walks are fine, just not every day.
