"Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

Hi all,

This isn't really related to training, so apologies if it's in the wrong section. I couldn't see a more appropriate one.

Having read Happy Puppy Handbook from cover to cover multiple times, it is our bible for Monty, our 12 week old English Springer.

I understand that it is recommended that walks start at around 4 months of age, and for no more than 5 minutes a day for each month of age.

Before puppy classes, which we just started this week now his vaccinations are complete, I have taken him for a stroll into the field, just to release some of his energy. 5-10 minutes or so. I just stroll and he has a sniff and a bit of a run (not far as he's only got little legs!). I want him nice and focussed at the classes so he really learns.

A nice lady at the class yesterday mentioned the 5 minute rule and that one of her Cockers has callusses on his knees, probably from over walking at a young age.

Now I'm all paranoid that I'm doing too much with him. We do basic training practice and recall in the garden daily as well.

To put my mind at rest, I'm assuming the 5 minute rule is just a rule of thumb to cover all breeds. A Springer with lots of energy will surely not be the same as a little chiwawawawa cheewaarwaar, cheuwaha, Chihuahua?

Or should I take it easier with him?

Is the 5 minute rule about tiredness or joint development? Or both?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

James

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

In my mind the 5 minute rule is about 'forced exercise', like walking on lead at a constant pace. It's just a guideline, to get puppy owners to think about whether they are asking too much of their puppies. For a pup of a few months a half hour walk on lead would be too much. But a half hour or an hour's playtime with another pup? Not a problem. They can go at their own pace and stop for a rest when they want. I don't think that running and playing off lead, usually on grass, is a problem at all, as long as it's not to the point of over excitement or exhaustion

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

There are no more details to be found about the "5 minute rule" - but lots of opinions on what it means, whether the surface is important, whether play is included in the allowed time, whether on lead or off lead "counts", and so on and so on. But no-one really knows. It's a rather random guideline that has been often repeated and interpreted very differently by different people.

I think that the main points are, don't overdo it with small pups, and the amount of exercise they need is a lot less than you might think. I also think it's fair to say the larger dogs tend to be more prone to joint problems than smaller ones.

As far as I know, the only relevant study that is available (this is on HD) is this one:

http://www.nvh.no/en/Home/News/News...ffect-the-incidence-of-hip-dysplasia-in-dogs/

The main finding is that: The opportunity to exercise daily in parks up until the age of three months reduced the risk of HD, whereas the daily use of steps during the same period increased the risk. Overall, it would appear that daily exercise out in gently undulating terrain up until the age of three months gives a good prognosis when it comes to preventing HD.

Although I'd be very interested in any others that are available, I haven't searched recently.

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

I tried to stick to the 5 minute rule with Juno as far a walks on lead went plus play and training in the garden plus a final play in the lounge after dinner in the evening. When collecting her the information provided by her breeder was the 5 minute rule up to a maximum of 30 minutes until 12 months of age.

Juno has also participated in "ballade educative" arranged by our trainer once a week (as and when limp has allowed) which is a walk with other dogs of varying ages along rural paths, lakes and forests which allow the dogs to run, play and interact with each other. These walks last for around one hour to 90 minutes and Juno has joined the walks from around 14 weeks of age. Although tiring for the young dogs, she slept well the first evening!, on a once a week basis I have regarded it as better for her overall development rather than worry over time. Also on the dog walks day I have kept other activity more restricted to allow for the extra exertion.

I suspect we all have our own views and adapt the rule for our own circumstances with a young pup. It might be worth asking your breeder for their view on walk duration as they are experienced with the breed.

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

Hi James and welcome!

As everyone else has said, you'll get lots of different interpretations of the five minute rule. Pongo is our first dog and I was completely paranoid about over-doing it - because our big garden is all one very steep hillside, and he just insisted on hurtling down the banks and leaping about like an idiot everywhere! Have a look at some of my earliest posts and you'll see the various (very helpful) replies I got. In the end my interpretation was that - in general - free play is fine and 'doesn't count' towards the five minutes, because the pup is at liberty to rest whenever they want. The issue is more with formal walks where they need to keep going to keep up with you (which applies even off-lead, if you don't stop regularly to let them rest if they want). Also I do think that splooshing through muddy fields must be less stressful on growing joints than trotting on hard pavements.

Having said all that, I'm sure that Pongo's early exploits weren't ideal, but in our terrain we can't stop him going crazy up and down the banks (and anyway he gets such a huge amount of pleasure out of it!). So we just hoped that by doing what he was doing he was also building up strong muscles to support his frame to cope. He's now 15 months, an absolutely enormous dog (38kg), solid muscle and (seems) very happy, calm, and healthy.

Have fun with your pup!

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

As the others have said, everyone has their own interpretation and there's very little solid information out there. Because I live in the mountains, so almost all our walks are on steep terrain, I was fastidious with the five-minute rule when they were very young. Now they're seven months old, I'm a little more relaxed and every now and again, we'll go on a longer walk, which may be an hour and a quarter. But this happens once a week, maximum. Nearly every day, they only have one actual "walk", which I do with them together; the other end of the day, generally mornings, I take them out separately and use it more as a training time, so there's a lot less running around, if any.

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

Maisie and I try to stick to the 5 minute rule for our walks, but we do two per day. SOmetimes the second walk is only 5 minutes to a local park or beach and then she gets off lead time and sometimes it's just two walks per day.

However, I let Maisie set the pace. Obviously we don't spend the whole walk sniffing one plant, but she does a very good job of walking at a normal/slow walking pace (today we went at a very fast clip which was interesting, I just let her go that fast as she wasn't pulling and kept up with her) and she takes pauses to sniff things, pee/poo, chew a stick, greet someone, try to greet a dog, look at birds, etc. I think it's important to let the puppy self-pace the walk and have a little break rather than trying to have a perfect heel walk. We walked so slowly in the early days that it would take us 15 minutes to cover a 5 minute stretch of ground (if you were walking normally). Now she's better but it's still a fairly gentle walk, not a race or charge.

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

I stuck to the 5 minute rule with both of mine for lead walking.

But for free-runs I just used my common sense; longer free-runs as they get older.

Gypsy is 9 months old now and has a 30 minute free-run in the morning and a 40 minute training walk on the lead in the afternoon.

There is plenty of hoolying in the garden in between!

 

Re: "Walkies" age and duration - The Five Minute Rule

I stuck to it for lead walking .....mind you there was no danger of over walking him he was so BAD at lead walking we never got anywhere for a long time ;D He got longer for off lead walking/ playing but I was conscious of not overdoing it.Dexter didn't do stairs until he was over 12 months old or jump in/out of the car ( he still isn't allowed onto a hard surface ??? ) but I do have a dinky 23kg lab who isn't too difficult to lift when necessary x

 

This is all very interesting to me, especially since I did a lot of reading about it before we got our little Maui. When we had our Maggie over 13 years ago, we had a 2 story house at the time and slept upstairs. She slept in the crate as a little puppy and until I purchased another one, I would bring down the crate every morning, keeping it in the kitchen with me during the day. She had so much energy in the morning she would be tackling me and jumping on my back when I was trying to 're-do her crate' downstairs. It was awful! We had started puppy training and I told the trainer that I dearly loved my pup, but really wasn't liking her very much in the mornings. She told me a Lab needs to get out that energy and I should walk her at that time. So, I began doing just that. We would go pretty much at her pace ... walk a little, sprint a little for maybe a half hour each morning. Sometimes in the afternoon if she was particularly energetic/restless, we'd do it again. It helped so much! Of course she loved the ball retrieving every day too. When we moved from MA to GA she had our pool to swim in. Great exercise and non weight bearing of course, but again Maggie would run around the pool and dive in over and over and over until we would stop her. As she aged, probably at about age 10 where she began to decline, she developed pretty bad arthritis. Although show her a tennis ball or go out to the pool and you would think she was age 3 again! LOL!! Some times, especially when all the kids, grandkids and other dogs were here, she would play so hard, she could barely move the next day. She slowly declined more over the next few years and by the time we had to let her go she was on a lot of pain meds, etc. Now, having said all that, my question to both the Breeder we got Maui from and my Vet was ... did I contribute to Maggie's declining joints with that kind of exercise? Although I never pushed her like running a 5K or anything, we did do a lot of exercise with her.

Now of course Maui can't be out walking yet till she's had all her shots, but I asked the Breeder and Vet if I should limit what she does, including going up and down the stairs. Although it's just my husband and myself now and we basically live on the first floor, we do have a second story. They both told me to let Maui be the guide. Not to push her, but not to hold back either. Now I'm thinking since she has so much energy in the mornings, where even now she does laps around the pool and back yard on her own, that maybe we would do the morning and afternoon walks like with Maggie when she is able. However, it confuses me and seems a hard decision with all the talk about the rules, developing joints, etc.

Just as an add on ... both her parents and grandparents are AKC with good scores. I'm interested in any and all opinions. Thanx!

 

Such a dilemma. Although my girl has HD I am no expert. I think there is a large environmental element as well as a genetic component to this issue.
I would say the 5 minute rule relates to on lead walking on hard surfaces not self directed play on soft ground.
The biggest issue is stairs.
And the stairs is where I wonder if I had not allowed free up and down access to Lilly whether she would have developed her HD. I have no idea of health testing on her parents. Who knows.....
Stairs, jumping for balls and such like, and too much hard surface walking would be my biggest concerns.

 

I do think it is very important to let your puppy run around and play, but that she doesn't need to go for long walks at this age. I'd avoid jumping down onto hard surfaces where possible, and would avoid stairs where you can. But generally speaking I think common sense is required - don't take her for five mile hikes or allow her to leap out of cars or off walls, but do allow her to run around and play in order to build up her strength and muscles ( and save your sanity!!).

 

It's pretty impossible to know about the impact of environment vs genes - although it does seem pretty clear that the overwhelming influence is genetics.

If you like maths (I do, very much) there is an extensive analysis here:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0012797

Which concludes on the environment vs genetics:

Translating this estimated decline to observed H shows genetic progress has reduced hip scores by 13% from 1996 to 2006 birth years. This can be compared to the 20% decline observed phenotypically, which includes non genetic factors such as changes in nutrition and exercise regimes, and indicates that genetics has been the dominant factor in improvement.

If you like this kind of thing, there are lots of fascinating snippets in the data - I looked at this in some detail because the data set was extensive enough to see whether there is a correlation between coat colour and hip dysplasia (I own a Chocolate Labrador and hear "Chocolate Labradors are much more prone to problems" quite a lot) - there is no such evidence.

Anyway, to your question - being careful about exercise might help a bit, but not as much as good genes in the first place.

 

With Juno her walks were based on the 5 minute rule, she has never been allowed to go up and down the stairs in the house but happily uses stairs when necessary when out and about. She has never been allowed to jump in and out of the car but was taught to use a ramp from around 5 months when she started getting a bit heavy for lifting in and out of the car. We have always played during the day and she has run around the garden with total abandon at times , chasing after balls and playing fetch. The only exception to the 5 minute rule has been our walks with our trainer once a week which has given Juno the opportunity to meet, play, exercise and walk with other dogs. Juno developed a limp at 5 months which disappeared with Metacam and restricted exercise. The limp reappeared at 7 months and was diagnosed as Elbow Dysplasia resulting in surgery at 8 months. Following the restricted exercise regime and gradually increasing her exercise we have finally reached a stage of normality and she is allowed to run, play and we even joined our first dog walk last Wednesday with no ill effects and I'm finally less neurotic about her limping.

So I guess I would say, you have to let your puppy be a puppy but have a care for growing joints and try to reduce the risk of future problems, but with some problems (like Juno's ED) they will occur whatever precautions you take. So enjoy your puppy