Growth Plates

[Tofuloaf]

Ok, I've just had a bit of a scare and I'm hoping someone can put me at ease. I have a 6 month old staffy boy, and have been looking into a second staffy for a while. I was just speaking to a breeder about a possible second puppy, and she was one of the more responsible breeders who wanted to ask me a few questions to make sure that I was going to be a responsible owner. One of the things she told me was that the puppy should not be walked too much until 12 months due to possible issues with growth plates.

This has scared the crap out of me because my 6 month old boy is down at the dog park at the crack of dawn every morning tearing it up with the other morning regulars, and has been since he had his 16 week booster vaccine. Neither his vet nor the breeder mentioned anything about growth plates, and I always thought that it was something you only had to worry about with the larger breeds.

Please tell me I haven't done any lasting damage to my staffy!

EDIT: Obviously I'm aware that all vertebrates have growth plates. I just meant that they only tend to be problematic for the larger breeds

Edited September 18, 2007 by Tofuloaf

[Scales of Justice]

Don't worry, normal play exercise will be very unlikely to damage the growth plates, provided that the dog/pup is not being roughly knocked about over a long period of time by heavier larger dogs on a regular basis. What they mean by not too much exercise is taking the dog for a run for quite a few kms on hard surfaces regularly.

A shortish walk on the lead or a quick romp around running free is not detrimental.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Scales of Justice

[Poodle wrangler]

I thought it was more of a concern for large breed dogs, too?

I'm not sure how much evidence there is for this, either? Regular 5km runs, I can understand, but ?? I'm going to go with it and stay on the safe side because it's what the breeder recommended. She also said no regular jumping in-out of cars, no racing up & down down flights of stairs etc.- same idea that it's hard on growing joints.

[Scales of Justice]

I think within reason most breeds whether large or small should not necessarily be treated as "fragile". A certain amount of "normal" exercise would be beneficial, after all, the muscles and ligaments need to support the joints while they grow and if you do not exercise a growing puppy enough with the correct muscle tone that cannot be beneficial either. Everything in moderation!

[Tofuloaf]

Thanks for the replies, gang. I spoke to the breeder yesterday when I went over to have a look at the puppy and she clarified that running around of his own free will at the dog park is probably fine, it's more things like the owner pushing the dog beyond its comfort zone for long jogs on hard surfaces and things like that you need to watch out for.

Phew!