What is the logic Behind Not Exercising your puppy until Growth Plates are Closed?

Beanwood

Beanwood

Administrator
Yes, definitely interesting, particularly for those a bit conflicted about the " 5 min per month" rule. Sensible exercise, running, playing is all fine, but hold on the twisty, high impact exercise.
 
JES72

JES72

Location
SW London UK
I lived on a game reserve in Botswana for a while where there were healthy packs of African wild dogs. The pups would stay close to the den until they were strong enough to follow the pack on a hunt, a hunt could mean travelling at speed for quite a long way. I don't know at what age they would start to venture further. If the young dogs followed and got tired they would be left at certain places but were often very exposed to hyenas.
 
Joy

Joy

Location
East Sussex
Thanks for this. I think I've seen all the research referred to before but It's good to have it in one place. I have long felt that the five-minute rule is ridiculous (and almost impossible to enforce as puppies will move around a lot of the time unless crated.)

I do (intellectually if not emotionally) agree that it is better for dogs not to be overweight, but the ten-year treadmill experiment in which the dogs wore jackets so that they were carrying 130% of their (presumably ideal) weight does seem to indicate that a certain amount of excess weight does not harm joints (in Beagles I think this was.)
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
The thought of those research dogs being hooked up to constant pace treadmills all day makes me sad. I suppose it's better than having bleach pipetted into their eyes, but it still seems wrong. Maybe they get the pleasure of that once this project is finished...

But, on topic: yes, freedom of movement and common sense is key. Squidge played on the beach for ages when she was a pup, and came on hour-long walks with us and the other two when we were back in Andorra. The difference to nowadays is that we didn't walk for all that time - we maybe only went half a kilometre out, and the same back, but she had loads of snuffling about in the woods, importantly learning how to move her body.
 
kateincornwall

kateincornwall

Location
Cornwall , UK
Selina27 said:
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Yes, I thought the same thing.

I also agree that freedom of movement and common sense is the key. Those African wild dogs wouldn't be going on lengthy repetitive lead walks, which is what I always thought the 5 minute rule refers to.
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Absolutely , common sense ! I actually know someone who timed the five minutes on her stop watch , but she also allowed her very young pupster to run up and down stairs , for fun .
We never took a great deal of notice of the five minute rule x
 
Charlie

Charlie

Location
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Oh crikey I took the 5 minute rule pretty seriously with Hattie as she was my first dog and I wanted to do everything right. I built her exercise up very slowly over a year to 18 months. I would like to think I did the right thing as she has only just been diagnosed with arthritis at over 12 years old. Better safe than sorry in my book. xx
 
Natalie

Natalie

It's a difficult one. Having a dog diagnosed with both HD and ED so young was awful and I now question everything we did. No doubt he had some walks (pretty much all off lead ) that were a bit too long occasionally ( he never slept at night, we were niavely attempting to wear him out) however, with HD at 6 months the damage was no doubt guaranteed ( and limping even before that). Though he never went up and downstairs until he was two.
I think it's also likely genetics were the strongest factor with us. A very reputable orthopedic surgeon told me that whatever exercise he had at a young age, it would have happened anyway, the worse that we could have done was brought the onset forward to a bit.

Reading this study, I don't think we did anything that bad, but if I had another puppy, I would probably be more like @Charlie was with Hattie. If I thought I could reduce the risk of joint problems even by 10%, I would do it.
 
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Joy

Joy

Location
East Sussex
@Natalie But some of the studies referred to above indicate that exercise didn't just not cause harm but was beneficial.

"Young beagle dogs jogging 4 km/d (2.5 miles), at a speed of 4 km/h (2.5 mph) at a 15-degree incline on a treadmill for 15 weeks had no damage to cartilage and a 6% increase in cartilage stiffness and an 11% increase in cartilage thickness, all positive changes."
 
Boogie

Boogie

Moderator
Location
Manchester UK
We are very, very careful with our pups. The five minute rule plus no stairs. If we get to a train station, for example, and they are too heavy to carry we do the steps then - but not very often.
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Jen

Jen

I have to admit I was never that strict with Stanley.

He didn’t do stairs, and still doesn’t really, as he’s not allowed upstairs.

He definitely had longer walks though, not huge but over the 5 minute rule. And he went to daycare at 15 weeks, so I know he was over exercised there.

Touch wood he’s always been fine so far!
 
Jen

Jen

I have to admit I was never that strict with Stanley.

He didn’t do stairs, and still doesn’t really, as he’s not allowed upstairs.

He definitely had longer walks though, not huge but over the 5 minute rule. And he went to daycare at 15 weeks, so I know he was over exercised there.

Touch wood he’s always been fine so far!
 
M

M.F.

The breeder who owned Snowie’s dad said that the best exercise for a Labrador puppy was to spend all its time with other Lab puppies. Lots of playing with dogs of the same weight and energy, then flop down to rest when needed. She cautioned against Snowie playing with bigger dogs cos he’d want to run more to keep up with them, and their heavy weight on him was not good.

We were pretty strict about the 5-min forced walking on a leash—not to overdo it. But Snowie played a lot with small dogs. I don’t know where we went wrong—is his arthritic spine genetic or caused by us?

As for human children and exercise: do you know the quickest growing age group for knee operations? I think it’s in either Aus or US. Teenage girls. Caused by twisting when landing from playing netball and basketball. I tried to find the article, but no luck yet.

This is an interesting interview about humans and osteoarthritis. Same advice: keep weight down and exercise moderately but often. Osteoarthritis
 
Natalie

Natalie

Joy said:
@Natalie But some of the studies referred to above indicate that exercise didn't just not cause harm but was beneficial.

"Young beagle dogs jogging 4 km/d (2.5 miles), at a speed of 4 km/h (2.5 mph) at a 15-degree incline on a treadmill for 15 weeks had no damage to cartilage and a 6% increase in cartilage stiffness and an 11% increase in cartilage thickness, all positive changes."
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Yes, agreed, but there's nothing that stands out so much in this study that would make me drastically change my mind, it doesn't say how many beagles were tested, how old they were when they started the study- young could mean 3 months or 9 months- , and also what health tests their parents had - it mentions the breeds involved had lower risks of joint issues, however, would the results be the same if they were labs or other larger breeds.
It's probably a case of once bitten twice shy, if I ever had another puppy I would thoroughly investigate studies like this to be as informed as possible. But always go for the health tests first and foremost.
 
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