Length of walks?

[russ-g]

Hey,

The general guidance for walking puppies seems to be 5 minutes per month of age. Any more they say can cause joint domage; no idea if that's true. Stanley's almost 6 months and we take a 30 minute walk every day.

Does this guidance apply to a working cocker (not actually working)? Can I or should I be walking him for longer? 1 year seems an awful long time to wait before I can do a 1 hour walk!

Cheers
Russ

[vixen]

i have an 8 month old and i have tried to follow the 5 minute rule but i have gone over on several occasions but not excessively.  I try to be sensible and not do too much.  Yes, it is tempting to go further as my boy would go for as long as I do but I don’t want to risk causing injury.
There is a lurcher I occasionally see who is younger than Ned, his owner boasts that he goes out for 2 hours plus to tire the dog out.  I have advised him to go easy on the exercise but you can only advise people and he has obviously ignored what I have told him.
I have been told that taking  a young dog out for too long doesn’t always  tire them out, it just makes them fitter and fitter so they need a longer walk next time.
Anyway, i saw the lurcher the other day and his owner had him on an extended lead.  I asked why and apparently he has got problems with his back legs and joints so he has to go easy on the exercise.
When i get a bit frustrated about the 5 minute rule, I remind myself that better to be careful during the first year than risk injury.  A year being careful isn’t that long compared to hopefully the life of the dog.

[bizzylizzy]

I think a lot depends on how and where you’re walking to be honest. You can throw a ball constantly for 10 minutes on tarmac, dog races, brakes hard and races back and I think that‘d be far more harmful to joints etc than a half hour walk on soft grass for example. I also don’t think it‘d harm to do an extra 15 minutes or so occasionally as long as its not twice a day every day and its not full on bounding and jumping around for the whole duration.
Mental exercise is a good way to tire an energetic dog though, - nose work, searching for hidden objects or following a trail of treats for 15 minutes for  example  is exhausting and as good as an hour long treck.