Bones, ligaments and joints
When you get your 8 weeks old puppy, please keep the image below in mind. His bones do not even touch yet. Your puppy will plod around like a clumsy floppy teddybear and look so cute with his big paws. But his wobbly movement is because his joints are entirely made up of muscle, tendons, ligaments with skin covering. Nothing is tightly held together or has a truly functioning socket yet. He needs you to protect him from his enthusiasm, poor judgment and immaturity.
When you run him excessively or don't restrict his exercise to stop him from overdoing it during this period, you don't give him a chance to grow properly. When you're letting your puppy jump up and down off the lounge or bed, taking them for long walks/hikes, you are damaging that forming joint. When you let the puppy scramble on tiles with no traction you are damaging the joint. When he plays with a dog that is not roughly equivalent to his own weight you also put him at risk. Every big jump or excited bouncing run causes impacts between the bones. As does rough playing with puppies or dogs bigger than him. In reasonable amounts exercise is not problematic and is the normal wear and tear that every animal will engage in.
A well built body is something that comes from good breeding and a great upbringing - BOTH, not just one. And even when both are correctly combined you could still have Mother-Nature throw a spanner in the works...
Once grown you will have the rest of his life to spend playing and engaging in higher impact exercise. In the meantime, stick to the rule of no jumping, no skidding, no climbing, no over-exercising, no walks longer than 5 minutes per month of life (2 months old = 10 minutes per walk) while they're still little puppies and young adolescents. But don't stop them from building up their strength by doing several walks a day (even 6 or 8 if you want !).
When you run him excessively or don't restrict his exercise to stop him from overdoing it during this period, you don't give him a chance to grow properly. When you're letting your puppy jump up and down off the lounge or bed, taking them for long walks/hikes, you are damaging that forming joint. When you let the puppy scramble on tiles with no traction you are damaging the joint. When he plays with a dog that is not roughly equivalent to his own weight you also put him at risk. Every big jump or excited bouncing run causes impacts between the bones. As does rough playing with puppies or dogs bigger than him. In reasonable amounts exercise is not problematic and is the normal wear and tear that every animal will engage in.
A well built body is something that comes from good breeding and a great upbringing - BOTH, not just one. And even when both are correctly combined you could still have Mother-Nature throw a spanner in the works...
Once grown you will have the rest of his life to spend playing and engaging in higher impact exercise. In the meantime, stick to the rule of no jumping, no skidding, no climbing, no over-exercising, no walks longer than 5 minutes per month of life (2 months old = 10 minutes per walk) while they're still little puppies and young adolescents. But don't stop them from building up their strength by doing several walks a day (even 6 or 8 if you want !).
3 days old puppy
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2 weeks old puppy
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8 weeks old puppy
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4 months old puppy
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By Kira Leith-Ross 2020
