Puppies and walking

Hey just read another thread that refers to pup's only being allowed to walk for a certain length of time! I read before that it should be 5 minutes for each month of their life or something like that, especially in bigger dogs due to health risks!?
I have a 4 month old Husky when she was 3 months we would go out for an hour, yesterday we went out for bout an hour or so, we both walk really fast and so go quite a way, we have been out longer (but walked slower). Also she stops and sniffs at a lot of things etc. and everywalk since her first she has done a lot of sprinting.
If she does get tired then she will make me stop and I will carry her a bit and then when she is back down shes off like a rocket again.
As she is a Husky I feel that this is ok as she is a working dog, and she enjoys it, and I read something from Burns the other day that the 'short walk/5 minutes a month' thing is a myth and that the more exercise the better!
What do I believe? What does everyone else that has a pup/big breed/Artic/working breed dog do, or done?

Sorry its so long,build up from two weeks off studying lol

I have Malamutes. slightly larger than huskies, it is recommended up to about a mile in our breed for the first 9 or so months then increase slowly, I have been doing this with my pups they are now 17 weeks old, reason I am sticking to this is I used to have a samoyed that I did walk further than taht at an early age and yes he eventually did have joint problems. I would have thought that your husky a smaller breed to malamutes could be walked a little further, but on lead, as if the dog is off lead you could walk 1 mile but the pup could in fact end un walking 3 miles running back and forth while you walk.

MO

Well I didnt follow those guidelines (I didnt knw them), so I walked Luna as far as she could.... So she got 45-60 minutes walk in the afternoon, from a very early age.... No problem.. She's a labrador btw.

As we were 5 or 6 families getting puppies at roughly the same time, we all met every evening and let the pups play.. That could be a couple of hours easy....

cool cheers peeps. I don't let her off the lead though (which means when she runs I run lol, good job I'm a footballer and its good for me), but I would like to as she would love it. Are Malamutes 'allowed' off the lead then? as Husky's aren't really meant to because of the strong mind to run!

I have read about 5 mins per month of age too .When I first had dogs there was little if no H/D, and no one ever mentioned restrictions on exercise, people just used their common sense and moderation. If you have puppies in a large dog run they run around until tired and then sleep, so they are limiting their own exercise as their bodies dictate. Again I think you have to look at the breed of dog and a dogs particular circumstances and how much 'free' access to exercise it has, the puppy in a tiny house with no garden will have different needs to the puppy in a house with access to a large garden, also I think it depends on what type of exercise on what type of ground, if dogs are running free on soft ground it is not putting so much stress on the joints as walking on roads . I think the dogs well being and boredom comes into it too, this should also be taken into account. So to sum up for me this rule is a rough rule of thumb to be applied to 'formal on the lead exercise' but that does not mean I would stick rigidly to it every single day and never take a five month old pup for a 45 min walk.

i was just told by quite a few peeps to walk max at five mins per month so i have stuck to it and he seems fine but one of his sisters is always limping and is not in as good condition at all and they follow no rules!

I do believe that the five min. rule is a good guideline for on-lead exercise. As Mini says, breed, circumstances, environment, may dictate otherwise. Unlimited off-lead exercise running around in the house/garden where the pup can stop & rest at will is excellent. I find the statement: "the more exercise the better" may be very misleading as on-lead, forced exercise can do more damage to delicate, growing bones & joints than under-exercise. (It is recommended that Boxers are not subjected to long walks until 12 months+).

I tend to think that patience & caution during the growth period may save a lot of pain & heartache in the long run.

I've read in lots of places about the five minute rule too, and I think it makes a lot of sense. But I agree with Mini and SB, cos when Archie's in the garden he runs around like a lunatic until he gets tired, on the couple of days that it rained last week he was really hyper cos he couldn't run in the garden, and started chasing me round the dining room table!!

I also agree that it's basically just common sense, ie when your pup shows tiredness don't force him to keep walking. When our last dog, a cavalier was a pup, we used to walk him round the block at first and he would sit down and refuse to move when he'd had enough! . Having said that, I know there are some breeds that don't realise their limits, and would keep running till the end of the world, so i suppose it's those who need the exercise restrictions...

I think for any working breed that has not been drastically altered by humans that by the age of six months it will out walk any human, pups need to strengthen their joints and muscles, sometimes the softly softly approach does more harm than good.

So many different answers lol!!! the thing is I don't walk my pup long every day for example I will walk down town to pick my mum up (20 mins there and back) then on a Tuesday I will walk for max bout an hour (unless down country park) then on a Wednesday we won't walk at all and just play in the garden. Bearing in mind when we got Sam we didn't know the 'guideline' thing and we used to walk for ages with him on and off lead running playing and everything and he will still run a little and walk for miles now and hes 17!?