Hi All! there is a lot of guidance and information on walking puppies and minimum exercise levels for adults, but I am struggling to find anything about maximum limits (appreciate it's not a precise science!) for adult Labradors. I regularly go on 20 mile walks and was wondering if this would be too much? My Labrador Bob has just turned 6 months, so obviously I would not consider this until he is at least a year old and I stop observing the puppy walking guidelines. I would also build him up to this level (if considered ok), not just drop it on him one morning, lol! Any advise would be very gratefully received, thank you in advance!
Welcome. I don't have an answer for you as I'm not much of an outdoor girl. I'm sure there are people on here that do regular exercise with their dogs. Maybe try posting in the Training section.
When my dog was younger 18 kilometers + swimming + games of fetch was something we did on a regular basis. We walked 30 kilometers once. If you build up his shape I don't think he will have any issues. With that said, take the temperature into consideration too. My Lab has issues with the heat so I planned to walk by a body of water (river, pond) or in the shade of the forest during the warmer months.
Hi, I am no expert for sure but after reading most of pippa's books we read about the " 5 minute rule ". As I understand it, it's roughly 5 minutes walk for every month the dog is old. So in your case it works out to be roughly 30 minute walk for a 6 month old dog, not unless you can cover 20 miles in 30 minutes !, i would suggest that it is too much for a 6 month old dog. Please take this with a pinch of salt. Cheers Dan
I used to do very long walks with my last dog (not a lab but a fairly big dog 23kg). She would do double the distance at least that I did. We didn't do 20 miles very often but 10 - 15 was not unusual. She died aged 13 of cancer but acted and looked like a 3 year old- no arthritis or joint problems.
Hi Dan like I said, I would not consider him doing anywhere like these distances until he's at least 1 year old, and will be observing the guidelines until then! P.S. I'm BAD Mum and take him for about 40 minutes at the moment!
Thank you Ruth, really reassuring! I'm sorry about your beautiful girl...my gorgeous boy also went at 13 last March, but he DID have huge joint problems and I never walked the poor old thing any more than 5 miles (and rarely!), hence my concern with Bob! I guess, that like with people, it all comes down to genetics....
Hi Berna! Thank you so much for your reply, that is really reassuring! I will see how he gets on when he's ready (can't wait for summer!)....really looking forward to him seeing amazing places with me! Thanks again!
You Maverick ! , yes I'm sorry for my post and i'l tell you the truth . I am a really new forum member and as you know the first 2 posts are vetted here for spam/adverts and can take a while for the post to show. So when reading your OP I stopped after seeing is 20 miles to far? and glanced see the 6months and wanting to fire off my first 2 post I jumped into action (idiot). My bad for not reading the whole post before I turned into "quick draw mcgraw" and again sorry.
Hey Dan! No worries, I figured that you can't have read the whole thing, lol!! See that sort of thing on Facebook all the time! Other replies sound very promising though, can't wait until he's old enough...think the little boy is quite frustrated at the moment!
My puppy is three months old. Usually, my son takes him in the car, they go to a lake we have in the city and they walk for some minutes. When I tray to walk my puppy in the afternoon, my puppy walks for one minute and he is lying in the road, he walks again and he is lying again and I give him treats he walks three steps more and then he do it again. We have five minutes walks in a road with people up to arrive in a park for a more quiet walking. But even there he does this again. When we are returning he is better but I am not understanding what is happening with him, I say to him go on, use the leash to do it but am really concerned about this. Perhaps I have not to give him treats to walk, perhaps he does this only to have treats. What do you suggest?
