# when can I start to take my puppy for jogging?



## ldragon (Jan 8, 2010)

I find it is very helpful here, so I come with more questions today.

My golden is 9 months old and full of energy. I used to walk him 5 miles per day, 2 miles in the morning (35-40 minutes), 1 mile at noon and 2 miles in the evening. Now it seems not enough for him. I am thinking to give him more excerise everyday. 

but both my husband and I have full time work, so it is difficult to increase the walking time, so I am thinking if I can increase the intensity of the walking, say from walking to jogging. 

is it okay to slowly add some jogging part in our daily excersice, like 0.5 mile jogging and 1.5 mile walking and so on? 

but my concern is his hip. will this jogging hurt his joint at this age?

Thanks for your input.


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

You shouldn't do any forced jogging/running with him until he's at least 18 months old and then you can start introducing jogging slowly. The hard surfaces can have too much of an impact on his joints while he's still growing. Allowing him to run off leash on soft surfaces is totally fine.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

The contract with our breeder said we should not until over 18 months. 

You will soon be needing to jog more and more and more to be tiring him out. 

How about looking at mixing up types/duration of various exercise? Walking in a different place than your normal pattern, basic training (...half an hour of training can wear a dog out!), fetch, recall games, swimming, play with other dogs, off leash play, an agility class (....modifications made until he's full grown...but there are a growing number of beginner classes VERY good for young and growing dogs), walking in a busier location. 

We're careful to use different types....if we only do our off leash runs every day I'm very quickly having to put in a HUGE amount of exercise time to satisfy my dog! But by varying exercise we have time to do other things together.


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## ldragon (Jan 8, 2010)

jwemt81 said:


> You shouldn't do any forced jogging/running with him until he's at least 18 months old and then you can start introducing jogging slowly. The hard surfaces can have too much of an impact on his joints while he's still growing. Allowing him to run off leash on soft surfaces is totally fine.


 
I see. so do you have some kind of excercise recommendation. since if I off leash him, he will probably sniffing around and eat grass if any, he will never run outside, he only likes to run up and down inside the house.


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

ldragon said:


> I see. so do you have some kind of excercise recommendation. since if I off leash him, he will probably sniffing around and eat grass if any, he will never run outside, he only likes to run up and down inside the house.


Throwing a ball and doing some retrieving is always great exercise. Our boys love the Chuck-It. Swimming is great as well. You could even get involved in agility.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Our guy is almost 9 months, we have one of the 'chuk-its" and he loves retrieving a tennis ball in our field. Since you are able to give your guy off leash time he may like chasing a ball.


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## Lestorm (Feb 25, 2007)

All the advice given is excellent! The other thing you could do is get another golden and together they will charge around getting all the exercise they need until they are ready for jogging.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

I stopped running with Ranger since he was getting more and more energetic. If I walked 3 miles in the morning - he was calm as could be for the rest of the day. If I ran 3-4 miles in the morning - he went nuts. After a while even a 6 mile run wasn't tiring him out. So we dropped running and kept up with the walking and added hiking on weekends. 

If your dog seems like he's still bursting with energy, even with all your walking, try to do more mental exercise with him. Give him a frozen stuffed kong, put his meals in a kong "wobbler", increase the amount of obedience sessions in a day...anything to start using his brain. Mental stimuli will tire a dog faster than physical exercise and then you don't need to worry about getting your dog too conditioned that a 5 mile walk isn't enough anymore! 

When you walk him, is he allowed to go whereever/do whatever he wants? Or do you keep him at your side, making him match your pace and no sniffing around? Try to make him "think" more on your walks and he'll be a lot more tired afterwards.


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## ldragon (Jan 8, 2010)

Ranger said:


> I stopped running with Ranger since he was getting more and more energetic. If I walked 3 miles in the morning - he was calm as could be for the rest of the day. If I ran 3-4 miles in the morning - he went nuts. After a while even a 6 mile run wasn't tiring him out. So we dropped running and kept up with the walking and added hiking on weekends.
> 
> If your dog seems like he's still bursting with energy, even with all your walking, try to do more mental exercise with him. Give him a frozen stuffed kong, put his meals in a kong "wobbler", increase the amount of obedience sessions in a day...anything to start using his brain. Mental stimuli will tire a dog faster than physical exercise and then you don't need to worry about getting your dog too conditioned that a 5 mile walk isn't enough anymore!
> 
> When you walk him, is he allowed to go whereever/do whatever he wants? Or do you keep him at your side, making him match your pace and no sniffing around? Try to make him "think" more on your walks and he'll be a lot more tired afterwards.


 
Thank you for the suggestions, I started to make the basic training sessions longer now, and went hiking during the weekend.

and Yes, he did get some frozen stuffed kong and other treat/toy dispensing toy during the day. and for the walks we have, normally I asked him to keep at the heeling position for the walk, no sniffing is allowed during the walk.


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

jwemt81 said:


> Throwing a ball and doing some retrieving is always great exercise. Our boys love the Chuck-It. Swimming is great as well. You could even get involved in agility.


My question is, at what age to they get the hang of the Chuck-It? I have one for my 4 month old puppy and she really isn't into it yet.


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