The right amount of excercise?

[Devon 26]

Was hoping someone may be able to offer an opinion on the correct amount of excercise that a JRT pup (4 month old) should be receiveing?

 

Currently the dog will have perhaps a short 5 - 10 minute walk early and late for his business followed by a longer (anywhere between) 1 - 3 hour walk in the afternoon. The longer walks can consist of constant walking or shorter distances allowing the dog to run around the woods on his own generally mooching his surroundings. He also gets to run around with the kids etc in the house/garden.

 

The reason I ask is the pup will 9/10 always be tired after his longer walk and tends to sleep straight after (normal). While out though he just wants to keep going and going. Is there a point where he could become over excercised being so young? My previous dog did this, but was a large breed dog.

 

Any advice on this or other people excercise schedules for their pups would be greatly received.

[Mac 30]

4 month old pup doing 1-3 hour walks ? way too much in my personal opinion. Let a growing pup be a pup, about your yard and/or short bursts in the field mooching about. I know adult dogs that dont get 1-3 hours exercise, and working ones at that. I have a 7 month old whippet pup and is progressing very well on rough and tumble in the yard with other dogs and this past month lead walking with retrieval training which seems to tire her out without over doing it. Have to be careful on growing joints etc not to over do it.

[Devon 26]

If we are out that long it's not constant walking. I'll just stop and let him play around smelling his surroundings etc so he's not overly stressing or putting much effort in necesarily. We can cover hardly any ground in that time sometimes.

Seems though that this may be too much so I'll look to reduce this down a bit.

Cheers for the info and the pm's.

[Casso 1,264]

Was hoping someone may be able to offer an opinion on the correct amount of excercise that a JRT pup (4 month old) should be receiveing?

 

Currently the dog will have perhaps a short 5 - 10 minute walk early and late for his business followed by a longer (anywhere between) 1 - 3 hour walk in the afternoon. The longer walks can consist of constant walking or shorter distances allowing the dog to run around the woods on his own generally mooching his surroundings. He also gets to run around with the kids etc in the house/garden.

 

The reason I ask is the pup will 9/10 always be tired after his longer walk and tends to sleep straight after (normal). While out though he just wants to keep going and going. Is there a point where he could become over excercised being so young? My previous dog did this, but was a large breed dog.

 

Any advice on this or other people excercise schedules for their pups would be greatly received.

thats heaps of exercise for a pup,,i would throw in more play and less walking, playing with something like a tug toy

,tugging is tailor made for a terriers temperament, great for interacting and bonding with a pup

,also gets his prey drive going ,with the added bonus that the toy can be then used to cement recall ,and as a treat for training purposes,

a dog distresses orally,,thats why when he's stressed he'll start chewing ,ripping and biting something ,anything to relieve a stressful situation,

you become part of that with a tug toy ,

also he'll see you as his best buddy,,best of luck ,,

[skycat 6,174]

Terriers are bred to keep going and going, and a pup will do far too much if you let him. I wouldn't be out more than half an hour at a time at this age, and make sure that the pup gets quiet time on his own to sleep when at home as well. It is easy for a pup to become over excited, especially when there are kids to play with. Not only can this encourage them to do more than is good for them, it can also hype them up to the extent that they become over tired and can 't settle: just like little children. Pups really do grow when they're sleeping, and it is good for them mentally as well to have quiet time without being over stimulated by children. Pups which get into the habit of tearing about all the time are more difficult to train as their heads are all over the place and it can be hard to get them to focus on what you want them to do.

[Devon 26]

Cheers, appreciate the input.