Too much exercise = longer legs??

I don’t know if this is in the right section but…

There is a ESS who lives near me, she is about 11 or 12 months old. a while back, I noticed how her legs were huge in comparison to her body, but just thought she was going through a gangly stage. Then, after she still kept growing, I thought maybe she had something else mixed with the ESS, but have been told since that she is a purebred ESS apparently. Now, jake has 3 ESS friends. There is Zac (6 years old), Ollie (4 years old) and Ally (1 year old). Zac is the biggest, and is just fractionally smaller than jake, Ollie is maybe about 2 inches smaller and Ally is a wee titch so is quite a bit smaller. But this ESS girl, is huge compared to jake! she has a good few inches on him already and is the largest ESS I have ever seen! Then, yesterday another dog walker mentioned to me that her owner had told her, that her legs are so long because they have walked her too much when she was younger… can this happen? I have never heard of a dog growing more coz they have had too much exercise as a pup…

Never heard of that. I've seen bitches grow tall and gangly when they are spayed too early.....

Hi,

I also would suggest that maybe she's been speyed early, although maybe it's in her genetic make up that she'll have long legs and be very tall.

Having said that (re her being speyed early) my 7 month odl bitch hasn't been speyed and she has naturally long legs (with huge feet and ears to match). Also, Zane is way oversized for a GSD. He wasn't exercised too much as a puppy. So for some dogs, they may just naturally be bigger than most of the same breed.

Too much exercise when a pup can lead to problem later in life but in the early years woudl most likely build up muscle. I don't see how exercise would encourage bones to grow though tbh.

Also, if they knew they were walking her too much, why continue to do it? Some people!

Laura xx

i agree with the others early neutering can cause the growth plates not to close at the corect time

I have heard it said that over exercising can make dogs go to height, no idea if it's true though

not heard of that one, but springers do come in all shapes and sizes, i must be lucky on the early spaying front 2 of mine were done before first season and neither have particularly long legs in fact moll is a tiny 13.5kg

Nah. The legs get shorter if you walk them a lot. S`obvious innit?
Sometimes early neutering can affect the closing of the growth plates - leading to very long legs.

I would also of thought if it was any factor apart from genetics it would be a early spay, the only thing I have heard over excercise affect is the joints.

Mind you I did do a google, I have heard before someone say that if you want your dog to have straight legs not to over excercise, which made me think what, but I also come across this, but there is no scientific evidence, so at best it can be classed as a theory, until there is some evidence to prove it.

http://www.mastamariner.com/puppy_ad..._exercise.html