Hi Everyone! I have a 13-week-old chocolate lab, and up to now, I had been exercising her according to the guidelines I see everywhere on the Internet (i.e. 5 minutes per month of age, twice a day). However, the reality is that a 15-minute walk doesn’t tire her out at all. I keep reading “a tired puppy is a good puppy”, but there’s no way for me to tire her out with so little exercise and so short a walk. We also do puzzle games and obedience training multiple times throughout the day; she is fed using snuffle mats and frozen lick mats; she has tons of puzzle toys and chew toys; I have one of those “tease poles”, which she adores, but to get her “tired”, I basically need to walk her for 30 to 40 minutes, twice a day, at a moderate pace (which is what we did over the weekend). She was much better behaved after those longer walks. When I asked my vet about the 15-minute rule last Friday, she practically rolled her eyes and said I could walk my pup for a fair bit more than that without risk. So my question to everyone is: “Did you really respect the “five minutes per month of age” rule? And if so, how did you manage to get your lab puppy tired?” Thank you!
My lab is coming up to 13 weeks so we haven’t been for a walk yet (Wednesday is the magic day when she can go out after her second vaccine). I will be sticking to the 5 minute rule. I listened to a really interesting talk on exercise in puppies to reduce the risk of arthritis in layer life and I think it’s really important not to over-exercise them. Currently we do lots of training at home and, among other things, I’m teaching her to self-settle and to be bored / calm. Generally it’s hard to tire a dog out with walks alone, you just end up with an ever fitter dog that has more and more energy.
Thank you so much Roheryn for your feedback/advice. I had been wondering about the likelihood of creating an “ever fitter dog” if I keep exercising her more and more. I’ll try asking our trainer about self-settling techniques. She just doesn’t settle unless she’s in her crate. No matter how tired she is. Our trainer has told us that she is a particularly high energy, curious and confident dog, even by chocolate lab standards. (She was running zoomies around the house and yard within 20 minutes of bringing her home at 8 weeks.)
