so Albie is now nearly 10 months old and as a puppy we have always used the five minute rule for the length of his walks. At what age do you stop worrying about over exerciseing your Labrador and just let him walk until his heart is content?
I've always heard the 15 month rule but will be interested in hearing what others think. It may also be a bit individual depending on your pup, so a larger male, for example, would take longer to mature than a small female. The idea is that the bones and ligaments have matured completely so no stress from harsh exercise does damage during growth. However, I've also heard that this rule doesn't apply to general romping about but more to repetitive exercise (i.e. jogging or hiking with your dog). So for people who are more up to date on this than I am - what's the current thinking on this?
There is no current thinking in the sense that there is any evidence or indeed anything that backs restricting exercise for pups, it's all just opinion and people interpret this in loads of different ways. When Charlie was growing up, I asked loads of vets - including top orthopaedic vets - and they all said they had never heard of the '5 minute rule'. One vet (asked when Charlie was 10 months old) actually told me not to be so ridiculous, said Charlie was a strapping great dog, and to make sure he got enough exercise each day! For me, in discussion with Betsy's breeder, I have slowly started increasing Betsy's exercise at 7 months, and I'll continue to do this gradually until she is unrestricted at 18 months (including jumping). But with the caveat that I never let my dogs do things like play madly with other dogs, chase balls and frisbee to excess, jump on back legs for thrown objects, and so on.
When I asked the breeder about this, she said to observe how puppies play: the romp around with each other, all similar size and weight and strength, and play madly and then flop when they're tired on their own accord, no-one is forcing them to play (although it could be argued that a tired one could be enticed by an energetic one). She said to make sure my puppy didn't play with bigger dogs that could hurt him. And if he wanted to stop, to give him the opportunity to rest. I viewed it as I would a human child, and I particularly remembered an incident of a childhood friend who was playing rugby and a bigger boy fell on him and broke his collarbone. This could happen to your pup when playing with bigger dogs. And also, I wouldn't force a toddler to keep up with me on a walk. But toddlers do run around more than adults! I was reading somewhere (sorry, can't remember the source) that it's less about quantity of exercise but more about steadiness: a pup who plays madly with another pack of pups day in and day out will be less at risk of injury than a pup that doesn't have any pups to play with, is exercised very little, and then one day has a burst of play with other dogs and could get injured in that burst of exercise. But yes, I, too, have read that there is no definitive correct way to do things. And I've observed so many different ways people have raised their pups with no pattern in how they've turned out. Would be wonderful if someone said: stick to this rule and everything will be fine!
