Jamie

Comment by Ljudmila Popovic on October 12, 2011 at 6:01am

It's adorable!:-)

 

Comment by Bettina Heddes on October 17, 2011 at 11:01am

Hi Henriette,

First of all, what a wonderful photo!

In your introduction you say you like jogging with the dogs. So perhaps you have got experience about how long you can run with a puppy and how to built it up. Akai (our setter) is 6 month. We started with about 1 km, stopping regularly. Recently we have run 6,5 km at 10,2 km/u. Of course he is enjoying it and we don’t have the impression it’s too much for him. On the other hand we don’t want to force things. So I am curious to your experiences. Friendly greetings, Bettina.

Comment by Henriette van der Zwan on October 17, 2011 at 12:42pm

Dear Bettina,

The most important thing is not to over do it until they are are about 1 year old. Their hips are still developing and it could lead to hip displaysia if they are run too hard to quickly. However I found it is impossible to keep a Setter from running and they were bred to do just that! Just keep in mind they were not made to run on tar that can be hard on their hips. You don't have to avoid it, but I think try to limit it to a max of 10km until they are 1. 

With our male (Fiddich) we started when he was about 8 months old and started with running 1 -2 km and walking the same distance (luckily we were also very unfit!) and build from there. We followed a programme where you walk a lot inbetween and that helped him to get stronger as well. He got fit with me and we were doing 10km (in about an hour) at the end of the summer. Winter was just lazy :-) Jamie is a year younger than Fiddich and we also started with her when she was around 7 month. However she was not interested in building up slowly and would cry if we left her at home after a short run because she wanted to do what Fiddich did! She will be one year old in December and we can do 4km easily now and she gets very frustrated with me if I have to walk (I'm still getting there...winter was not my friend :-)). Hopefully within the next couple of months we will be back at 10km soon! I found that they are much more fit than we are and they help me to carry on. However just keep their hips in mind until he is 1 year old.

Good luck and enjoy your partner! Best personal trainer you will ever have...they never say no!

Comment by Bettina Heddes on October 18, 2011 at 9:53am

Dear Henriette, Thanks for your fast and detailed reaction. It’s reassuring for me. Coincidently we went today for a puppy check and the veterinarian had the same opinion. Last weekend we ran the marathon in Amsterdam. I am really looking out for the snow this winter, since we ran last winter in the snow and loved every minute of it. It’s wonderful! So don’t let the weather stop you . . .

I would like to invite you as ‘a friend’, but don’t know how to do that anymore. Perhaps you can send me an invitation!?

Comment by Henriette van der Zwan on October 18, 2011 at 12:59pm

We here in South Africa are just spoiled and lazy! We don't really have winter, the days just gets shorter and, well for me it is cold! Days are around 20C and the nights can go as low as -9C but generally around -1C. It hardly ever snow (especially where we stay) and the sun shines so really I don't have any excuses not to train! It's becoming summer now and we basically skiped spring...its hot! But it is nice to be able to go for a run a bit later now (around 6pm when it starts to cool down). But there is nothing worst than being so tierd after a run and the dogs are still playing as if they didn't train at all :-)

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