I have a very active 7-month-old puppy. I enjoy taking my older dog for walks through the woods 4 to 5 days a week. We cover anywhere from one to two and a half miles. I would like to start taking the puppy, but I don't want to overdo. Is a mile on a dirt trail 3 or 4 times a week too much for his joints? What about an occasional longer hike, say a couple times per month?

Don't take the pup, just be patient and wait until he's at least 2 to start that "forced" exercise. You won't be sorry :}
Aloha,
Jackie

I would wait until the puppy was more mature, at least 18 months of age...preferably two years of age.

What can happen to a puppy around 1 year old if he excercise?, running and walking is one thing, swiming is another?

Swimming is fine, gives the dog exercise without putting weight on the joints and no impact on the joints. However swimming is one thing, running to a wet dock and then sliding 20 feet into the water is not swimming.

Exercising a puppy too young puts stress on the joints that are not fully formed. Let the dog be a puppy and play. Training to run several times a week/several miles each time is a different story. Even an athlete works its way up to doing these things, they just don't wake up one day and do them.

Say you start showing your puppy in 6-9 class and you need muscle on him, how do you go about that without overdoing it?

So what, you wait until a pup is 18 mo+ to begin any kind of field training?

Any serious field training, yes....short retrieves, basic obedience can all be done prior to 18 months. WC and JH work can be done as those retrievers only go up to 100 yards. You can certainly lay the foundation, and it would take you while to put that foundation in place anyway. By the time you are ready to do some serious field training, the dog should be mature enough physically and emotionally.

You can actually cause the dog to get joint problems if you exercise too early. If given a choice would you rather have a nicely muscled dog for the ring or a sound dog that passes all his/her clearances? My choice is the clearances and sound dog so no exercise besides swimming for any of my dogs under 2.
Aloha,
Jackie

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Replying to:

What can happen to a puppy around 1 year old if he excercise?, running and walking is one thing, swiming is another?

Can you clarify this? You don't allow ANY exercise (besides swimming) on a dog younger than two? Do you crate your dogs at all other times? They don't get any yard time? I'm not trying to be argumentative in any way, I'm just making sure I have this correct.

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Replying to:

You can actually cause the dog to get joint problems if you exercise too early. If given a choice would you rather have a nicely muscled dog for the ring or a sound dog that passes all his/her clearances? My choice is the clearances and sound dog so no exercise besides swimming for any of my dogs under 2.
Aloha,
Jackie

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Replying to:

What can happen to a puppy around 1 year old if he excercise?, running and walking is one thing, swiming is another?

Surely a 7 month old puppy could go for a forty five minute to hour walk?
Are we doing any favours to the breed long term if we keep them in plastic bubbles until they pass clearances? There is definitely too much of a good thing, but I'm not sure that a mile or two is beyond the capabilities of a 7 month old. If he breaks down from that, I'm not sure I would want him as a part of my breeding program although it would be a bit ridiculous to take him out for a couple of hours or longer. Much better to know what you have at a young age than have him pass clearances or prelims, breed him and then have him break down.
JMO

The problem is that Labradors will do anything for you even if it hurts them. If they get tired or are getting sore, they have no way to communicate this to you and they want to be with you.

Would you start walking a mile or two a day without any way of working up to it? I say let them be puppies, let them play, do some training with them at the level they can handle. But when you start talking about a mile or two walk, I start asking questions, is the dog walking or is it trotting, what is the pace? Is it in a sidewalk or grass? My idea of a slow leisurely walk around the block and someone else's idea of a walk could be like night and day.

Good Lord I can't believe what I am reading, this is a SPORTING breed, if the dog needs to be wrapped in cotten wool for the first 18 months then it really isn't able to the job it was bred to do. I walk my dogs every day and they range in age from 10 weeks to 8 years, it is generally a 2 hour walk HOWEVER we don't go too far or too fast, it is a bit like walking with a toddler, we have to stop and investigate everything, plenty of little water holes to paddle in and drink from, no one gets stressed at all, when we get home the young ones are left at home and the older ones ( aged from 7 months to 8 years) are given a harder run. I have come to the conclusion that joint problems for the main part is inherited and no amount of correct diet or exercise will stop a problem developing. I would expect a dog to be hunting full time by the time they are a year old, I do not bred fieldtrial lines but show lines, so these are not small finely bred dogs, in fact my eldest boy is 110 pounds , I have a 5 month old who is going to be every bit as big and he walks with us every day. The one thing I am VERY carefull about is the dogs jumping on and off the backs of pick ups etc now that puts huge stress on joints. JMO

We walk on dirt roads and trails. The dogs are on Flexis; the pace is relatively slow. I occasionally will let them go off lead for a romp. My puppy gets far more exercise playing with the older dog in the yard and house than he does on a walk. I sometimes use the walks as a training opportunity as well. We work on the Hold and we work on gaiting and free baiting in short sessions as we walk.
To be on the safe side, I think I will limit his walks to under a half mile and no more than 4 times per week until he's older. I too believe that HD and ED are largely genetic. I don't let him jump out of the van however because I don't want to take a chance of injury.

Right along the vein of this thread, I just had an email from someone looking for a "teenage" lab to adopt. That, in itself, is not unusual. But, she wanted a dog that could join her and her ONE year old lab on their early morning 5-MILE JOGS.

So, yes, exercise CAN be overdone on young dogs, regardless of their purpose. I gently shared with her that she MIGHT be causing irreparable harm to her boy by "forcing" such long jogs on such a young boy; I hope she listens!

The original poster asked if one or two miles was too much for a young puppy. Although too much exercise can cause injury (but not HD or ED) I should hardly think that excessive really.

You can walk a mile or two at that age, just let the pup pick the pace. Keeping pups that age wrapped in bubble wrap does them no good either. What does the dog whisperer say? "A tired puppy is a happy puppy"

(flame retardant suit on)