Exercising Your Puppy

One of my pet peeves that I see in new dog owners (and keep in mind, I am no expert, more just a conscientious owner myself) is the lack of exercise after bringing a puppy home. People bring a pup home, and after the first few days of "cute" wear off, the pup starts to nip, bite, and even exhibit destructive behavior. The owner gets frustrated and either shouts, disciplines the dog, or worse! Often times this is how pups end up in rescues. 

So, I would always encourage people to exercise their pups (and you need exercise too)! So, how much exercise is needed? It's a tricky question because every breed is different, and even within a breed, some puppies are just more energetic than others. So, there's no real fixed formula. The key is to be studious with your dog and observe their behavior. If they are whimpering a lot and seem to be getting "stir crazy", odds are they are not getting enough exercise. However, on the flip side, if you are trying to walk your pup and it seems like you're more dragging them than walking them, this could be damaging too.

A good rule of thumb, or starting point though, is about five minutes

of exercise per month of age and exercising 2 times/day. So:

1 month old = 5 minutes 2x daily (total 10 minutes)

2 months old = 10 minutes, 2x daily (total 20 minutes)

3 months old = 15 minutes, 2x daily (3o minutes)

etc.

For Labs specifically, my experience is that this is never enough. My sessions are usually longer (10 minutes/month of age, and usually 4x daily). I also vary the exercise schedule to give my pup variety and exposure to different scenarios:

1. Floor time - here it's a free for all play, give the pup 5 toys and let them chew and romp around as much or as little as they want

2. Dedicated walk - here it's training and encouraging your pup to walk beside you for up to

10 minutes

3. Training time - here, it's more about teaching them commands - you are usually holding out a bit of food or other treat and teaching things like sit, stay, down, and all the typical commands. It's still burning energy!

For Kenzie, she is getting 3 sessions of floor time a day (the sitter comes in 2x and we have one in the evening), 2 walks, and one training session. All this totals up to about 2 hours of honest to goodness exercise. If you were to measure distances, I'd say it's probably a total of 1 to 1.5 miles. 

This is, of course, just my personal experience - what do you think?  How much exercise do you give your dog?