# Puppy Excercise



## Huntsmansjoy (Oct 28, 2013)

Hi all

Now, I'm sure this post has probably been put up on here previously however instead of having to trawl through the website thought I’d post a new thread.
As some you may know, our V, Hunter, has a confirmed narrowing of the pulmonary valve on the RHS of his ticker. However, fortunately this does not appear to have abated his desire for exercise, nor prevent him displaying his occasional crazy demeanour! (Long may this continue!)

As a new V owner, I'm aware pups shouldn't be “run” too hard until they are more developed but how do you determine what is too hard? This is Hunters Typical regime (he’s almost 14 weeks) :

Mornings:	20 min walk with a lead around the streets.
Evenings:	1hr off lead walk / run on open fields, or the beach.

He seems content with this arrangement for now but I'm concerned by other posts this may be a tad much this young age. We have increased it to this level recently in an attempt to subside his tendency to nibble hands and toes when at home (which as we all know when endeavouring to dodge merely excites the pup exacerbating the situation!) This appears to have worked, although given any opportunity he’ll still sink his needle teeth into your hand (tail always wagging mind).

Any advice would be appreciated.

Here’s Hunter as of last night after his walk! (any excuse to post a pic....i know )


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## nict9 (Aug 15, 2013)

we did that much with Humphrey at that age, hes 6 months today!! He is fine,no ill effects if anything we probably gave him a bit longer than 20 mins in the morning. I know its important to look after puppy's health but you've got to base it on each individual puppy and not stick to rigidly to the rules, common sense will tell you and if it doesn't Hunter will, but if Humphrey is anything to go by, there is no amount of exercise he cant handle!!!


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## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

at 14 weeks, we took Lua hiking in the blue ridge mountains, and she LOVED it. She was off-lead the whole hike, and hikes were limited to 4 miles or a couple hours on fairly easy trails. Of course she was pooped for the rest of the day and the next morning, but in true V fashion, she was always ready for another hike the next day. We expected she'd get tired and we'd have to carry her down some of the trails, but she never got the "I'm tired" droopy eyelids that we know and love, so she just carried on hiking down the trail, tail wagging, like a true champ. I did worry that the hikes were a bit much for her at that age, but I think the conditions were just right --- it was only in the 60's during the day, it was dry but soft ground, and we packed lots of high-energy treats and water for her, so her behavior never said anything but "this is such a blast" and "why do you guys walk so slow?"


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## CatK (May 29, 2013)

The puppy will always be ready for more exercise, they could keep up for far longer than they should. But the important difference is between them being run, and them running around. 

You should not run them in any kind of structured fashion until around 18 months (depending on how it's done and your specific pup). However, they can run around for far long than that, by which I mean running, playing, sniffing, changing direction, stopping, starting, lots of different speeds, all decided by your puppy. 

I do think it's a massively worthwhile investment to get this balance right while they're still growing, up to 2 years old.


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## CatK (May 29, 2013)

ps. LOTS of posts on puppy exercise and running if you use the search bar on the right.


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## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

I agree that with as long as it's off leash he's fine. 

At 14 week Chase was doing a leashed morning walk for about 30 min, a lunch walk or fetch for about 30 min, then night time off leash 1 hr. 

He's 6 months now and we have started increasing his morning exercise to off leash 1 hr a few mornings a week, night time up to 90 min if his morning exercise was shorter, and on weekends he goes out for hours off leash. He also does daycare too once a week.


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## Huntsmansjoy (Oct 28, 2013)

Thanks everyone, I must say this forum is brilliant - full of genuine people happy to offer advice and support on all things vizslas - so glad I came across it.


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