Hello again everyone I posted here before under a different name (long story ) Former post http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/hello-everyone-meet-molly.13180/ Molly is now almost 4 months old and growing like a weed My 2 sons both run Cross country and Track at their high school, older one is going to be running in college next season NCAA Div 3. How soon can Molly join them on runs? We understand that she won't be able to go out for a 5K or anything silly like that for quite a while but the older boy would like a new running buddy. I was thinking that somewhere after their season (May/June) Should be OK for Molly to start TRAINING with them. Something like her going with for their warmup (1/4 to 1/2 mile) for a week or two then adding some distance each week until she gets into the 2 mile range. That sound about right?
Well, if you were to apply the five minute suggestion ( five mins exercise for every month of life ) then quarter of a mile would seem just fine when Molly reaches 7 months Personally , I didn't adhere strictly to the five minute rule , I tended to take more care over the type of exercise my lad took and ensured that he wasn't allowed to jump to catch things ( I still don't let him do this ) or embarked on anything that might add stress to young developing joints . We live in a bungalow, but had we had stairs , he wouldn't have been allowed to charge up and down them as a youngster either . I guess it also depends on how fast they run , how fast Molly would have to run to keep pace ? A little care at this stage can help to save problems later so just take care that she doesn't overdo things when she starts .
Running at the same pace as a human is quite stressful on young joints, as it won't be any one of her natural paces. So I'd say err on the side of caution and keep it very short. If it's somewhere she's not on the lead, and she can run at a more natural pace for her (ie not expected to run to heel, but allowed to mooch around in the general area), then it would be a lot less stress on her joints and would be able to go longer sooner.
Your lab is "growing like a weed" is good reason NOT to over stress the joints at this age with distance running. I'd wait till after the growth spurt. Labs are 80% of size by 6 months so I say 9 months to year is when you could possibly begin the slow building endurance process. Labs are built for running but also for pleasing their owner so it's easy to overdo it too soon.
