The Schnauzer Forum

Hi

I have a 5 month old miniature, Mavis.I know the 5 miniature rule per 1 month of age but when does this finish?

I want to be able to take her on much longer walks and wondered when this would be advisable? At what age are miniatures bones developed enough?

Thanks

Hi Graham and welcome to the Forum

Exercise when puppies are young and still growing needs to be tailored to their need for building up muscle and bone and not repetitive or hard walking that may cause damage. If you have safe places where your mini can potter about on a stroll through a wood or park, off lead then you can extend the time but, if you are looking at lead walking on hard surfaces such as pavements then this is best to keep to a minimum.

The time is more of a factor where repetitive, hard walking is concerned rather than outside exercise as a whole. There are a couple of links here that have more information:

https://shoppuppyculture.com/pages/age- ... exercise-1

https://pawleaks.com/how-to-exercise-your-puppy/

If you want to take Mavis on long walks you could either carry her in your arms or a special puppy carrier or use a pet buggy for at least a part of the journey so that she is not overtired or suffers any adverse effects from a strenuous walk herself.

We tried to follow the 5 mins/per month thing and once he was 8 months old or so we started going on longer walks. He always had lots of room to run and play in the garden as much as he wanted. In the summer we are taking lots of breaks and sniffing when the temperature is warmer, it's more what they call forced excersise like jogging straight without breaks.

We also concentrated on taking him lots of different places when he was young and he often got a walk in a different location for more mental development.

I always thought of walks to be great training opportunities over a way to excersise, I think working on mental excersise and training such as desensitization is far more important for a puppy.