# Running/Exercising



## cmdukes (Jan 2, 2009)

Hello all!!!

In about 8 weeks, I will be the proud owner of a vizsla puppy. This will be my first and I have been doing a lot of research on raising and caring for my new puppy. Reading some of the topics and answers in this forum have been very helpful and I can tell that there is a wealth of knowledge about raising the breed in these posts. 

I plan on running with my vizsla and I was wondering if anyone could help me out on the protocol of how to work your puppy up to running. I will be receiving my puppy at around 8 weeks old. Does anyone here run with their vizslas? What distance? Age? Etc. 

If anyone could help I would greatly appreciate the information.


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## madaboutvizslas (Nov 12, 2008)

My first question would be how old are you and how far can you run!

Seriously you can't really run the dog to far or hard until their joints are fully grown. Most of the stuff I have read suggests you wait until 8-12 months before the serious exercise begins.

I did about a 10 km walk the other day with my 9 month old in the forest and she probably did about 14 km. No problem.

I find that if I am running with her (and its not hot) and she is trotting or cantering she can go for ages and not even start to pant. If you make her gallop, like chasing after a tennis ball, then this works her pretty hard.

I try to keep her off hard surfaces like concrete as much as possible.

I bumped into a guy who has a cousin to my dog. His V dog is 12 months old. He does a lot of triathalon training and he can't wear his out! ???


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## cmdukes (Jan 2, 2009)

Thanks for the response. I am 31 and right now I run anywhere from 3-6 miles. I am also training for a triathlon as the owner that you bumped into.

I did not plan to run with my puppy right from 8 weeks old as I know the early development of the puppy is extremely important both physically and behaviorally, I was just looking for some insight on the process of building the dog up to a run (I am not fast at all) and at around what age to start. It seems like I have read in the past that many people start well earlier then 8-12 months and I was not sure if that was health. 

Thanks for your input, It sounds that if you working them up the right way they can go forever.


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## smitty (Sep 3, 2008)

We are lucky to live across street from a state forest. We started walking/hiking with our V around 3-4 months. At about 4 months we let her off leash while we still hiked. Of course she ends up probably doing double are distance being off leash. Around 6 months I started jogging about 2-3 miles. I have slowly increased that and we are up to 4-6 miles at 11 months. Now, this is all in the woods off leash, so most her running is off the trail on ground covered with leaves. So it's pretty soft. I do not run on the road, so she has never ran on pavement. She is crazy fast, we run into other dogs and so far their hasn't been one that can catch her !!! This spring we plan to start her Mountain biking with us.


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## cmdukes (Jan 2, 2009)

Smitty...thank you for the post...that information is very helpful.


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## Blaze (Aug 6, 2008)

My boy is just over 10 months old now and I started running trail with him off lead when he was 5 months old. As he got older it became increasingly harder to get him to come when time to get back in the truck. I had a couple bad experiences whereby he went up to the main road . Thus iI had to temporarily give up the off lead runs. A runner myself, I started taking him for easy runs tethered to my waist. Most of the time on soft shoulder but some, admittedely, on pavement. The runs did not exceed 35 min and at a relatively slow pace. I started researching and read that they should not be running on harder surfaces until 18 months of age. I was dismayed and felt like a bad mom! Plus I have 3 boys, all in hockey no less, so time to exercise Blaze is an issue. A 35 - 40 min run with me satisfies him but a longer walk is not as much fun for him (or me) plus he still pulls a bit. So I'm still running with him. I rationalize it is mostly a trotting pace for him and I try to keep him off the pavement. When I have more time I take him to the trail. Hope I'm doing the right thing.


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