Am i doing it all wrong??

[lucy123]

Hiya,

I was walking my puppy yesterday and a lady with a  dog wallked past me asking how old mine was, to which i replied 3 months. She then said ''and you are taking him for a long walk like that'' as if to say that i had walked  him too far for his age 

He has two walks a day, one  in the morning, lasting between 1 and 2 hours and again at night time for upto an hour.

Is this too much, i accept it if it is, it just would have been nice for the lady to give advice and not criticism 

[Jeanette]

Yes that is far too long  the rule of thumb is 5 minutes per month so at 3 months your puppy should be getting 15 minutes or you are at risk of damaging joints.   It would have been nice for her explain that too much exercise for a growing puppy can be damaging.   

[Uli]

Hi,

walks of 1-2 hours are really far too long for a 3 months old puppy. As a rule of thumb you can calculate 15 minutes for every month of his age. Your puppy's musculoskeletal system needs almost a year until it is fully developed. Long walks can be very harmful to its soft bones and lead to grievous complaints later.

[lucy123]

thanks for your comments  i feel really bad now, my puppy has so much energy and i was advised to take him for long walks, you can tell its my first puppy, i didnt think it was much different than him running around in the garden for a while, on the hour walks its not constant walking it is also training, eg when  crossiing a road getting him to sit and stopping him from jumping up at people

[Nicola]

That lady didn't put it across very well but she is right, that's way too much exercise for a young puppy. As Jeanette says the 'rule' is 5 minutes per month of age 2-3 times per day so at 3 months he can have up to 45 minutes per day broken into 2 or 3 walks. Lead walking on pavements/roads is also harder on their joints than running around on grass where they're likely to stop and go and pooter around sniffing rather than walking for extended periods. Things like clicker training and activity toys can help to keep pups stimulated and tire them out mentally without risking physical damage.

[Jeanette]

Don't feel bad - thats more exercise than some adult dogs get     Just be aware of the damage on joints than can be done.   It really is a rule of thumb and mine used to get taken over the local field - more for socialisation and sometimes she exceeded the limit if she was having a good old romp with another puppy but I never took her for actual proper walks that young. - more like than get out of house down the field if that makes sense.   

Definitely consider clicker training and if you are planning to go to puppy training they may use this method there, 5 minutes of clicker training wore mine out mentally far more than going for a walk.   

[Londonwriter]

Is there anywhere he can race around? Or maybe hide food in packing boxes, containers and under things and let him find them?

I'm amazed your puppy can carry on going for two hours at three months!   Toq wouldn't have been able to. When Toq was that age, we'd go on two hour walks, but carry him for most of it. Does your pup ever sit down and you have to carry him on the walks? If so, he's walking way more than he can cope with. Imagine walking a child until they sat down, unable to go any further!

If you do want to over-walk him, can you do it off-lead? Practice 'comes' in the living room or garden until you're confident he'll recall and then let the pup off-lead in a field, park or forest away from the road or bike trails. The puppy is then running on soft ground and setting its own pace. It's easier to tell when he is tired and soft ground does less damage to joints!

[Pip895]

I’m sure different puppies can cope with different amounts but its worth bearing the 5min/month rule in mind even if you exceed it a bit from time to time - 3 hrs a day is a lot!   

I generally try and keep Saffi’s main walk to around 30min and she is 4months now - having said that I went to a new area to walk the other day, took a wrong turn and was still trying to find the car after 1.5 hrs!! I was tired but Saffi was going strong and had plenty of energy for a mad game of chase with a pair of Springer’s she met in the car park – when we eventually found it.

[Marina and Saartje]

Two walks a day is not enough but the time you spend on the walks id far to much as many sad before me. You better go for 6 or 7 walks just of 15 minutes. Al longer walk a couple of times a week isn't a problem but 1 or 2 hours walks.. much to much. But don't be ashamed, you did the best you could, you didn't know better.

[Karma]

Sorry, but the guidance is 5 mins per month 2 or 3 times a day... so 2 walks IS enough. 

Honey only ever got 2 walks a day.... we added training and play to that, but there is no way we could have done 6-7 walks in a day!!!

Lucy - don't worry too much about it - what's done is done, and everyone makes mistakes.  The woman you met could so easily have said what she said in a much nicer way, so that you learned where you were going wrong, rather than felt bullied and criticised... 

[Marina and Saartje]

It depends of what you mean with al walk. A walk for a pee or poo is a walk in my opion. My pupster can't do with 2 or walks a day. My wooden floor would be a big mess

[Sarah.H]

It depends of what you mean with al walk. A walk for a pee or poo is a walk in my opion. My pupster can't do with 2 or walks a day. My wooden floor would be a big mess

Perhaps other people take their dog into the garden to go to the toilet  . Lucy you sound like a really active person I bet you can't wait for your boy to grow up now  .

[Ian Wright]

i would find it hard to walk for 2 hours  twice a day