How much exercise is enough???

Hi All,

I own a five month old male blue english staffordshire bull terrier. What I am trying to work out is how much exercise is enough and what we should and shouldn't have him do. He loves running up and down steps, even though we initially tried to stop him. He has two walks a day, about 20-30mins each and seems to have a lot of eergy left over at the end. We have recently started letting him run off his lead at the park in hope of him tiring out, but he seems to keep on going.

We are just being cautious of him over doing it and causing any long term damage to his joints.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

The general rule is 5 minutes for every month, so if 5 months old, then 25 minutes per walk, 2 or 3 times a day. Surprised if he's so little that he has so much energy, but I guess all dogs are different. My girl still sleeps a lot and when she's awake she's pretty self-contained, chews on a bone or just plays on her own, with us for a bit, and then she tuckers out again.

What are you feeding him? Does he get to run or play with other dogs?

How much training are you doing as well? Usually mental stimulation and learning new things tires them out pretty quickly too. And staffies LOVE to learn, they get so focused! Maybe try some brain games like teaching him his toys and making him pick them out, or give me your paw. There are lots of good brain games. Also feeding him with a Kong might help. Freezing his food in there and making him work for it to get it out of the Kong tires them out.

Good post above, although you can increase off lead play as they can rest if they need it. Have got anywhere you can take him swimming? Great to tire them out if they take to it.

Hiya and welcome from me and Moo, maybe you could come and introduce yourself here

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

In addition to the 5 minutes per month per walk, off leash play doesn't count against the time. They can run around in the field as well. Try to avoid any high stress activity like running on concrete or jumping with the pup though

If you can add another walk during the day it'll help, but staffs are a notoriously high energy breed - they'll take as much as you can give them so you have to limit it up until about a year old. Even after that you should avoid high impact exercise until 18 months.

Excess energy, though, can be related to what you feed. What type & brand of food does he have?