5 minutes walk for every month of life?

Hi all,

My two new puppies are 12 weeks old and have been with us for a week now. Over the weekend we started taking them out for some excercise after they completely destroyed the house on Friday afternoon.

I've read in a great many places this advice on walking puppies for an equivalent of 5 minutes for each month of life. Our puppies walked for over an hour on Saturday and Sunday morning with another trip of 30 minutes in the evenings. It's walking on soft ground all of the way and they didn't flag at all and were up for another walk at 05:30 this morning. To be fair they slept all day both days and then woke up full of energy in the evening (hence taking them out again)

Clearly I don't want to overwalk them but, despite having read the 5 minute rule now, I think that 15 mins of excercise isn't even going to dent their energy levels and they seem to love being out and about.

Am I just causing them problems?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Matt

I no it seems mad when u have these little engergetic bundles of teeth and claws and u just wanna nacker them! The 5 minute rule is only a guideline on hard ground so soft ground u can obviously play longer. Its just important u dont over exercice pups as they can develop bad joints etc in later life through this. Also the 5 minute rule is means the amount u exercice in one go so ur pup can be exercised for 15mins at a time but u could go out 4 times in one day.....do u see what i mean. But realistically play in the garden and 2 15 min walks a day is plenty for a 12 week old then u can gradullu biuld it up!
Hope this helps x

u dont want over excercise a pups you could do damage to their legs i would stick with a 25mins/30mins walk first and when they get older increase it to 2 walk and longer.

Hiya,

I read a post on here the other day about the legendary speedy response and you've definitely lived up to that.

Thanks very much for the advice. It's going to be so incredibly hard to stick to it but if it's a case of a risk to their health then that's absolutely something that I'll listen to.

Cheers

Matt

I've found that lead excercise of more than about 10/15 minutes for a pup the age of yours would be enough, although free running they can cope with a lot longer. Either way, if you over excercise you'll damage their growth plates & tendons & could possibly cause health problems at a later date.

Use this time to do clicker training etc with them - wears their little minds out and it's positive as they need training anyway.

x

When Taz and Cassie where pups it used to be a quick walk every hour say for 10 minutes, house breaking as well mind. and one long walk and play for a good hour this was when they were about 20 weeks, now their older its more four/five walks for half hour and one very long 1/2 hours run and play.

At 20 weeks, an hour's walk is way too long.

They had rests back then i couldn't even go a full hour.

A pup of that age only needs about 2 sessions of lead walking of around 10/15 minutes each. Any more than that can damage their growth plates & weaken tendons. The rest of their exercise can be got from free play in the garden/house.

There's no need for really long walks till they're 6-9 months old, and even then it should be a gradual build up to about a mile by the time they are 12 months.

so does that mean you got to take a 12year old out for 12 hours lol poor bugger lol

I've never agreed with this '5 minutes for each month' thing. It's another new fangled idea with little or no proof that it's right. It's ok as a guideline, but each dog's different & I think you just have to be sensible about it. I mean, you wouldn't expect a 3 year old child to walk for an hour would you?

Hiya,
Instead of just doing walking try the basic training we them, aperently learning commands will tire there minds out more than just walking, and will also put them in good stead for the future. x

janey what you doin home your not sacked already are you lol

bigwazza wrote:janey what you doin home your not sacked already are you lol

Ha ha ha. First day yesterday and I have a day off today already!!! Back in tomorrow, then another day off Thursday, working Fri and Sat and possiably not sun cause they dont want to overdo me in my first week!

I hate being away, theres so much to catch up. Steve may have to put me into retirement

day off and not on here till 1oclock you lazy lazy girl lol
was it good at work

Yer not bad, a lot to learn though! Felt a bit odd handling paintings that cost 15000, and even wierder getting my around how people actually buy them!! As not being on till 1, I was spending quaility time with Moo!!!!!!!

15000 quid iv got better ones in my shed lol

I know its crazy, It will be just my luck to put my finger through one or something!!

Janey wrote: Steve may have to put me into retirement

On a show dog online game I go on, if you put a dog into retirement they automatically get neutered - hope Steve doesn't do that!!!

Caryll