Hi,

I know this can be somewhat subjective. But, at what point do you stop forgiving the excess skin, roly poly puppy.

I have a 4 year old well toned bitch who never lost the rolly topline. Wish she had, but she did not. Her two kids who are 7 months old and live here do not roll like this.

If its any reassurance, she finished quite easily at 17 months old.

What does everyone do to condition their show dogs?

Long walks in the woods and off to the creek,fetching up and down the hills w/bumper untill their tongues hang out.
Free play time every day in large fenced play field with 10 other dogs.

Letting them be dogs with plenty of room to run and play in a large fenced field

Road work, run them at a nice pace every other day for 2 miles and swimming helps too. Make sure they are over 18 months before you run them. My dogs are rock solid.

Running is not good for these Labs and their joints, especially ones that have lots of bone. They will start breaking down earlier than dogs that are not run on pavement.

No one dog or human should run on pavement or any HARD
surface. Just talk to an Orthopedist. My dogs are
all muscle because of proper nutrition and activity.
They play, play, play!

Right now my two kids play in the yard or house and get a 2 mile walk 4-5x a week. I like to do intervals(3 min jog,5 min walk)it's a good work out for them and me. I'm preggers so I'm just sticking to the walks right now!

Swim, swim and more swimming if you have access. We also do treks around the farm with the 4 wheeler at a nice (not break-neck) pace. Martha Lee did this years ago on her farm and the dogs chased after her like she had the golden basket of biscuits! Great to watch and her dogs were in incredible shape and stayed sound.

All of this conditioning sounds great and heaven for the Labs! But, what about those who aren't fortunate to live on acres of land or have daily access to water? My dogs have half an acre fenced to run on....of course most of their time is spent lying by the door. I live in the city limits and have no water close by. I do load them up every so often for a trip swiming, but it can't be done daily.

I've heard of two handlers that use a harness that they hang light weights on. They then ask that you walk the dog several times a day with the weighted harness. This requires the dog to work a little harder and gently builds up muscles.

Nothing a good ol' tennis ball and racket can't do!!

Sounds like most do not do any road work, just play on acreage.