Ask The Doc: Exercising the Pup

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I have a 6 month old female Yellow Lab. Recently I started to walk the dog about 4 or 5 miles every other day. I was just curious if this could be of any harm in future years to the dog. I keep the dog in a cage during the day and just want to make sure she gets her exercise that she needs. I guess I just want to make sure it's ok to do.

Dr. DeMichael: Your question is an important one and when we send pups to their new homes I always address this subject.

Growing pups have specific nutritional requirements that older dogs do not. In addition, the joints of growing dogs are not capable of handling the stress that their elders can endure. Many of our new owners are joggers and I specifically tell them to avoid jogging with their new pup until the dog is somewhere near one year of age.

While exercise is very important for dogs of any age, walking is certainly not as potentially damaging as jogging. My personal preference would be to let the pups swim as much as they want. This provides excellent physical conditioning and is very easy on the growing pup's joints. Where that is not available, a scheduled walking program such as yours would be the next choice. Remember though, don't start out at 5 miles. Start the young pup at perhaps a half mile and gradually work up to your desired goal.

Many joint injuries occur after the animal's system is fatigued. By gradually building an exercise program, you can prevent injuries precipitated by a fatigued musculoskeletal system.