A walk too far?

[Neil Todd]

Hi All,
          We have been hoping to take Shea on some walks, up to 5-6 miles and wanted to know if it was ok at 7 months or is it too much for his joints?

Thanks

[Dawn Riddell]

Hi Neil, yeah I agree with Susan it's much too far.

I've always tried to work by ''the five minute rule''. That is five minutes of formal exercise per month of age. Of course there is also alot of playing in the garden where the puppy can flop and rest whenever he wants to.

Pounding the pavement is very tough on baby joints though, so best left until he's much older

Dawn R.

[Neil Todd]

The problem we have is we have a tiny garden that is no use for Shea to run round in . We don't do allot of pavement walking, mostly he is in the countryside on grass or soil, sometimes off lead but when he is on it's an extendible one we have. This is not an everyday walk for him either. If we stuck to 15minutes free running, and/or 10minutes max walking, Shea would no doubt be climbing up the walls with unspent energy.

[Sue and Cash]

I think we have broken all the rules! Mine does free run, gallop, walk and romping with others for a good hour and a half a day. He can lay down if he wants but never seems to do that. He will stand still often but rarely wants to sit or lay. He makes up for that the rest of the day where he is relaxing and chewing on his toys. I don't think he could do 6 miles of lead walking though at one time like that.

[Neil Todd]

We have built Shea up gradually to this and not just thrown him in, we took him 5 miles yesterday, stopping to rest a fair few times and he absolutely loved it, tiring only when we got him home. It's a mixed walk for him really with time to heel, time on lead but extended and time off lead. We are conscious of not giving him too much stimulation also. The five miles yesterday took us 2 hours including time to stop and rest, also chatting with a free range chicken farmer who had good knowledge of gun dogs and gave us some free eggs that Shea took great interest in.

I would love for him to swim but at the moment his encounters with water are with trepidation, he will run through water up to his tummy at the deepest but hasn't taken that plunge yet, preferring still river/stream water to the ocean that comes towards him.

The 5 mile walks are not an everyday thing, at most they will be 2-3 times weekly, left up to Shea it definitely would be an everyday walk :o)

[Neil Todd]

No hydro pool Sue. Have a friend who owns a Newfoundland, naturally Huggy adores water and hopefully will get them together asap, maybe Shea will follow lead

[Sue and Cash]

My other three setters in years past would only wade at the shoreline. Which was fine by me since that still cooled them off. Cash went right in and has been swimming for about a month now. We keep it short since it is new for him but it sure does tire them quickly.