# Playing on hardwood?



## shortcake23 (Aug 15, 2008)

We read in the papers that the breeder gave us with Mia that the puppy should not play on slippery floors because of the risk of hip displaysia. 

Problem is that three quarters of our house is hardwood floors. Is it bad for her to be playing on that? Not sure what to do, especially with winter coming, and most of the backyard being filled with waist-high snow (if it was like last year)?

:uhoh:


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

Get some inexpensive rubber-backed throw rugs to put down in key locations on your floors. That way, if she's running (she's a puppy, she's doing to run), she has a place to regain her balance and stop the sliding. Get quite a few until she learns to negotiate the floors without slipping and sliding.


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## shortcake23 (Aug 15, 2008)

So it is bad? 

I'd probably need to get quite a few since my house is open concept and only the bedrooms are carpet. The common areas are hardwood at 90% and vynil in kitchen.


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## hgatesy (Feb 14, 2007)

I found this on the Encyclopedia of Canine Veterinary Medical Information:



> Dogs with hip dysplasia appear to be born with normal hips and then to develop the disease later. This has led to a lot of speculation as to the contributing factors which may be involved with this disease. This is an inherited condition, but not all dogs with the genetic tendency will develop clinical signs and the degree of hip dysplasia which develops does not always seem to correlate well with expectations based on the parent's condition. Multiple genetic factors are involved and environmental factors also play a role in determining the degree of hip dysplasia. Dogs with no genetic predisposition do not develop hip dysplasia. At present, the strongest link to contributing factors other than genetic predisposition appears to be to rapid growth and weight gain.


So basically.... running on the floors isn't going to "cause" hip dysplasia. It's genetic. Environmental influences can exacerbate the issue if your dog is predispositioned to dysplasia. Our house is all hardwood except for one bedroom. Our dogs play inside all the time. I'm all for taking precautions with my dogs (we keep them lean, no hard exercise as pups, etc) but if I were to even try to enforce a no playing on the hardwood floors because it might cause hip dysplasia it would be a losing battle. I would just use your best judgement.... my dogs are full grown and although they did run and play on our hardwood as pups we didn't go overboard with it.

While I was reading about this I also read that dogs shouldn't be permitted to walk in snow or sand over 1/2 an inch, no frisbee playing, and no playing in wet grass. I guess my dogs are doomed...


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## arcane (Sep 18, 2007)

hgatesy said:


> So basically.... running on the floors isn't going to "cause" hip dysplasia. It's genetic. Environmental influences can exacerbate the issue if your dog is predispositioned to dysplasia. Our house is all hardwood except for one bedroom. Our dogs play inside all the time. I'm all for taking precautions with my dogs (we keep them lean, no hard exercise as pups, etc) but if I were to even try to enforce a no playing on the hardwood floors because it might cause hip dysplasia it would be a losing battle. I would just use your best judgement.... my dogs are full grown and although they did run and play on our hardwood as pups we didn't go overboard with it.
> 
> While I was reading about this I also read that dogs shouldn't be permitted to walk in snow or sand over 1/2 an inch, no frisbee playing, and no playing in wet grass. I guess my dogs are doomed...


what I find really interesting is in 14 yrs of actively breeding NONE of the pups/dogs I have bred and grown out have had any issues with hips/elbows/limping ...I do restrict exercise in the first few months, I do have laminate floors (which I hate), my dogs do the walkout basement stairs many times per day after about 5 mos of age, I don't have fat dogs, they play and roughhouse, I dont let them jump off decks etc ...I think it really is common sense, if you see your dogs running and splaying all over the place, would you not restrict activity or change something?  I know I would feel pretty sore if my legs were being stretched every which way.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

hgatesy said:


> While I was reading about this I also read that dogs shouldn't be permitted to walk in snow or sand over 1/2 an inch, no frisbee playing, and no playing in wet grass. I guess my dogs are doomed...


MY dogs also must be doomed.... I have ceramic tile and hardwood floors, I dont let them go hog wild, but they do wrestle and play in the house, a few times they have slipped, but they also have slipped walking in the kitchen on the tile...As a matter of fact Cruisers new thing is to go down the hall way and runs to the family room..half where there he plops down and slides into the family room.:bowl::bowl::bowl::bowl: And if stairs are a NO NO... then Im in big trouble... I live in a split level and the only way in or out is by stairs


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## shortcake23 (Aug 15, 2008)

Thanks for the advice.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

Mary you need to get a video of Cruiser doing the Tom Cruise Risky Business slide into the room. LOL That just cracks me up


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