am I walking my puppy too much

hi all I take my 18 week old staffie for a walk across fields for about 45 minutes each night is this too long or is it ok, I do this every night because she just seems to love it so much (we have big fields where we live so she is let off her lead as much as she can) am I putting her at risk of hip problems and things I hope not she looks so happy when she is out

There are various thoughts on this. Tonks has been having 40 minutes since she was 5 months old.

Some people say 5 minutes per month of their life but my vet said that they felt this was more for larger heavier breeds and they were happy for Tonks to have that much exercise.

I don't think young dogs should do a lot of ball chasing as the sudden stopping and starting can cause problems.

I suppose the best thing would be to talk to you vet.

If she is off lead running and she can stop when she wants to then it dosent sound excessive
I only followed the 5 min rule when doing 'forced' exercise like walking on the lead, playing ball or running with a bike
a puppy playing in fields should be fine
But of course if you are unsure then talk to a vet

Yep exactly. when you think how much sniffing, pausing, standing etc they do on walks it reduces the amount of time they are actually walking or running.

On the staffy site i used to be on some people seem obsessed with the five minute rule. But when you think of the need for socialisation you couldn't get much done if you only went out the house for 5 minutes per month of the pups life once a day.

yes thats true she looks so happy while she is out and never seems to want to come back then when we do she has her mad 10 minutes when she is bombing through the house we cant help but laugh when she does it so she cant be that tired from walking can she

Trouble is, puppies don't know what "tired" means, hence the 5 minute rule. Personally, I would stick to the rule.

The 5 minute rule usually refers to pavement walking. Puppies need as much socialisation as possible and we always go out for around 90 mins. We walk mainly on fairly soft ground and obviously the majority of that is spent standing around, meeting other dogs, bikes, pushchairs, horses etc. or just sitting on a bench watching the world go by. We also build some training into our walks which breaks up the mad dashing about. Running around the field will be no more harmful than running around the garden at home.

I have always given my dogs about that amount of exercise at that age but I have never had large heavy breeds . I'm sure she would charge around the house for that amount of time or longer if she is anything like my puppy so I don't think there will be any difference if she in a field doing it . If you have any doubts the best person to ask will be the vet

Before we got our pup we'd read the 5 mins per month rule and all the dire warnings about overdoing it. On our first visit to the vet the day we got her (she's a Beagle BTW) we told our vet our plans and she told us that our pup needed much more exercise than that. She told us never to force a pup to do more than it wants, but to give it the opportunity to do as much as it wants to do.

The first couple of weeks we had her she wasn't capable of much and we often carried her back to the car. But she got fit VERY quick and at three months old she was running the older dogs in the park into the ground. By six months old she'd be running flat out up and down hills and chasing one fit dog after another for over an hour at a time. Now at 10 months she's INCREADIBLY fit and will keep going for hours. She really is in superb shape and people comment on it all the time (everyone except Beagle owners that is - they all think she's too thin!).

There is no doubt in my mind that my pup would have suffered terribly with regards to both emotional and physical development had we restricted her exercise the way we originally planned. She's positively thrived on her long park outings.

Now of course, we've had lots of people (mainly people with fat, unfit dogs I should add) that tell us we exercise our pup too much. I went to a different vet for more info on this and was told that it is absolutely fine to exercise a healthy pup. There is a small risk associated with really overdoing it with a pup who's growth plates are still open, but that risk is no different from children. Children are encouraged to exercise MORE than they want to - not less. Mainly because an overweight, unfit kid rarely turns into a fit, healthy adult.

The big myth surrounding not exercising pups is (according to the vet) perpetuated by breeders of dogs with genetic problems. Apparantly, if a dog inherits hip dysplacia, the wrong kind of exercise at a young age will make it worse. In some breeds (particularly large breeds) that suffer frequently from hip dysplasia it's generally considered to be worth the risk of raising an unfit dog in order to lessen it's chances of disabling hip problems in later life. But for dogs that are unlikely to have inherited hip dysplasia (and *I think* perhaps small dogs that tend to not develop such sever symptoms) the damage you do to it's health and development by not exercising it enough is just not justified.

I would strongly urge you to take your pup to someone that specialises in this kind of thing and ask their opinion on what's best for your pup. For example, we take our pup for swimming lessons at our local pet therapy centre and the vet there is highly specialised in joint problems and how they are best avoided.

thanks for all your advice I dont know what I would do without it I'd probably be a hysterical dog owner that was at the vets every other day but I will ask the vets when I take her to be wormed and flead next weekend