Hi all. I'm sure you all understand our situation. We have this gorgeous Lab puppy and we have family and friends coming from all over to see her and this inevitably ends up with us taking her out on walks. Last Saturday and Sunday we took her too far and she slowed right down and her back legs seemed stiff. Once this started happening, I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. Yesterday, she was with my parents and had a lot of exercise in the garden. When she got home, I took her out and again she seemed stiff towards the end of the walk. Stupidly, I took her out again this morning and by the end of the walk she seemed stiff and so I carried her home. We've decided that we're going to cut down on the amount of walks we give her and make them shorter. We're also going to keep her largely indoors for the next 3 days and just let her into the garden to blow off a little steam. I guess I just wanted to know if we've done any permenant damage, whether or not she will be able to recover from this and what steps can we take to help her? Thanks guys!
How old is your pup? We take ours on lead walks for 5 minutes per every month of age. So Keir (19 weeks) is on 20 minutes a day. He either has a lead walk or a free run, not both, his free runs are 30 mins. We don’t restrict his play unless he gets overexcited/over tired. Now that you have realised it was too much hopefully things will be OK. I’d keep her quiet for a day or two then just do short ten minute walks for another day or two. My friend did this and her pup started limping, he’d overdone it and his muscles were sore. She realised and cut back - he’s four years old now and fine. Touch wood all will be well xx .
I am no expert and I don't know how old your puppy is but what I found on line by checking what some breeders said was that at 8wks to keep the pup close to home like the back yard because they get tired easily
Just give her a decent rest of a few days. If she's overdone it then allowing for sufficient recovery time should do the trick. The real problems arise when people do too much, too often, day after day, without any recovery time in between. The odd one-off of 'a bit too much' is not likely to be a problem. Try not to worry - I'm sure she'll be fine
Here is an excellent article - https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/ .
Sorry, I should have mentioned in the OP but I can't edit it now. She's 21 weeks old. Thank you for the re-assurance couldn't live with myself if we'd seriously hurt her! Yes, thank you. I have read the article previously, I was more inquiring about any long term damage that can occur from the occasional over walk.
