I've never followed the 5 minute rule with any dog i've had but I don't pavement walk either if I can help it. All my pups come out with the others so are out for approx. 2 hours but obviously spend a great deal of that time sitting and watching the world go by and meeting and greeting everything we encounter. They do a bit of running about and quite a lot of pottering about and practicing some of their training with any distractions that are around. We drive to and from our walks so the only pavement walking we do is intentional for socialisation purposes only. The one thing I do enforce is no playing on the stairs and definitely no death defying leaps from half way up.

I never, ever did pavement walks either until after Zena was speyed at about 11 months I think Case of having to then!

I did stick to the rule(ish) because I have a large breed dog and it's a lot more important with these because of the joints, but it was always free exercise, never onlead anywhere, and always on soft grass out on the downs, or down the beach on the sand and in the water.

She was allowed to play with other puppies of similar age, but after a 5 or 10 min play if it was racing around playing chase, then I would finish it and come home.

She was allowed to play with my big, older dog, and my breeder would have a fit if she knew just how much they played together, but it was safe and I monitored it, but apparently, it's a big no-no with a large breed too, but I knew how gentle the big boy was and knew she would come to no harm and she didn't.

She had her evening zoomies out in the garden, but indoors, I'd catch her and stop her for fear of her knocking herself out on something rather than a fear of her getting exhausted, coz she knew when to stop, as they all do imo.

I like to build up a lot of muscle at a young age to protect those growing joints, that's my own personal belief, so she was allowed to run to her heart's content if she felt like it, but then I'd make my way back to the car.

I must have taken her out about 8 times a day to do these little short bursts, coz when I asked my vet about this, he said it didn't matter how many times she went out for short walks, it's more of a problem when they get tired during a walk, which I would never have allowed.

Anyway, we got through it, and touch wood, nothing untoward showing up, and the way she runs, stops dead, turns, leaps 6ft in the air for the blooming ball, I'm surprised she's got any ligaments left lol, but maybe, just maybe, that's because I built up her muscles to be extra strong from the start.

How do people get away with not walking on pavements??

I walk out the side entrance, the dogs get in the car and I drive to the country park or Epping forest, park in the car park and walk on grass and woodland paths. At the end of the walk we reverse the process so they don't set foot on the pavement unless we specifically set out to do so.

I guess some people are lucky enough to live in the countryside or they drive each time they take the puppy out?

I chuck my dogs in the car from the drive out the back, and within 5 mins of driving I can stop at any car park which takes me straight onto grassland, it's just the way I prefer to do it, but it's different for me, I don't live in a town, we have no pavements anyway in this village, so it would mean walking on a horrible tarmac road, avoiding cars and buses all the time, so that's what put me off I suppose.

I do it now, just to make a change sometimes, but even then, I only cross a big A-road to get on more grass!

I suppose. I certainly drove them to places more when they were pups, but I don't now -- once a week now maybe, if that? I couldn't imagine driving every walk and never walking from the house though. That would cost me a fortune in petrol, plus you loose the benefits of walking on hard surfaces (keeping claws in good condition, etc.)

I had a long convo with the guy that does our hipscoring about this. He has a huge amount of experience in hipscoring and this subject.

He was of the opionion that if a dog is going to have bad hips/joints then they will have bad joints. Ove excerise can make it worse but wont make them bad to start with.

The major reason why i've started taking advantage of local greenbelt land and parks and started practicing more lead walking. The only time I use my car is to take the dogs out, I very rarely use it for myself because I dont go anywhere. Until very recently, my dogs were never on a lead because we drove to where we wanted to go.

I am lucky I have fields and woods outside my front door. No need to get in the car but if we do we have many lovely places to walk a car ride away too. No pavements involved.