Hip Dysplasia In Labrador Puppy

[espinay2]

Have to agree with PF about the on lead walking etc. Taking a pup out with a lead attached to socialise etc is a must of course, but pavement pounding and longer walks on lead for 'exercise' is a real no-no IMO. A pup needs to be able to rest when it wants to avoid over stressing growing bones and joints. Free play is a much better form of exercise for growing pups. Keeping lean is also essential. I have a page on my website which discusses my philosophy on this here.

[sandgrubber]

I disagree with no onlead walking, if the dog does not get any gentle exercise like walking they will have heaps more energy which leads to crazy zoomies and jumping around which is worse imo

Off lead exercise like play is fine. No exercise works on a growing pup like appropriate offlead playing. You can play with your dog and you can let him romp around and practice your recall. Leash training for a few minutes is fine. Just don't pavement pound for half an hour or more everyday and bear in mind that exercise on sand stresses joints even more than solid ground. The beach is not a softer option. Being pounded by larger dogs in the dog park isn't either.

A lot of puppy energy can be dissapated with training. 5 minutes of brain work is worth a lot of pavement pounding.

Your dogs, your choice. I know a lot of folk that practice the "no on lead exercise before 6 months" guideline. I know a few that haven't and can think of at least 3 OCD issues resulting. One dog was gaiting off a bike aged 5 months

If you want a veterinary back up, talk to Dr Billinghurst or Dr Zink. Growning joints don't cope well with unnatural stresses. Long periods of leash exercise are "unnatural".

They'll also tell you that the fast track to joint issues is a fat puppy. Keep them lean folks.. enough to be a wee bit ribby.

As usual, there are devils in the details. Gentle walking is different from pounding the pavement or jogging, and is not unnatural stress if you build up over time. Watch nature shows. The lion cub or fox kit stays fast by the den at first, but venture out for significantly longer walks as they get toward half grown. Free play that includes a lot of 'fetch' can be enormously destructive due to the large amount of sudden turning and the fact that many dogs are obsessive about retrieving and will go the point of exhaustion. I've seen siblings do a lot of damage to one another in free play, and some adult dogs will play 'dog tag' with pups beyond what is safe. If you can walk gently on grass or sand, make sure to provide opportunities for the pup to stop and rest if it wants (if puppy sits down, it gets carried, not walked), and build up gradually, young pups do well being walked. When I started breeding, I did the 'free play' only routine. But the pup or pups I was running on always wanted to come when the big dogs got their walks. At first, I allowed them to follow off lead, but our area got more built up and off lead became too dangerous. Talked with our vet about it, and he supported gentle walking with the advice that muscles need to develop along with bone.

Opinions differ about sand. I had a kennel in an region where there was nothing but sand, and there were many greyhound kennels. Some greyhound people set it up so the pups had very long runs (50 to 100 m), on sand, and the pups did a lot of back and forth running. This didn't seem to cause joint problems.

I don't know Dr Zink. Dr. Billinghurst has an awful habit of voicing opinions with anecdotes as evidence. Although I agree with many of his opinions about diet, I don't regard him as much of a scientist. I would, for example, never use a pile of sawdust for a whelping box, nor put raisins into a mix with oatmeal, egg, yoghurt, etc.. The vet who gave me advice about walking has seldom failed to come up with published scientific studies to support his opinions, and I take his advice seriously unless contradicted by strong evidence.

Edited September 17, 2011 by sandgrubber