Today on the Good Dog Pod Laura is joined by a very special guest: Dr. Chris Zink, DVM! Dr. Zink is a sports medicine specialist and many times author. Dr. Zink and Laura will talk about how to exercise your young dogs - a relevant topic given that many people have gotten dogs in the past year. 

Dogs are so incredibly varied in their shapes and sizes: all the way from a 3lb Chihuahua to a 150lb Great Dane. So, as our dogs grow, we have to be cognizant of their growth rate. Ultimately, we need to find the appropriate balance of exercise for our dogs that suits the dog’s size - which is a little bit different from humans, given that humans end up a lot more similar in size compared to canines. 

There are various exercises that dogs can engage in. The most common exercise that we think of for dogs are walks, but there are other forms of exercise to consider. These include balancing exercises, flexibility exercises, strength and endurance training. And lastly, there are the good for the soul exercises: getting out in nature, paddling through a creek, going through grass, or stepping through rocks. 

Let’s look at the appropriate exercise for an 8 week old puppy, as well as a 6 month old dog. 

8 week old puppy: Baby puppies are running, tumbling, playing with their owners. They are stretching and flexing their muscles. They are working both on their balance and flexibility. If a baby puppy is going on a walk, that walk should be a saunter. They should be on a long line (20 feet), it should be loose, and you should be following around as they smell their surroundings. The puppy should be walking you. 

6 month old: At around 6 months of age is the appropriate time to add any kind of strength training to puppies. Dr. Zink made the comparison that puppies, up until the age of 6 months old, are as similar to children up until the age of 10-12 years old. At 6 months of age, that starts to diverge, and larger dogs tend to mature more slowly than smaller dogs. 

Something that Dr. Zink noted which is important to consider is the difference in puberty between dogs who are neutered/spayed and those who aren’t. Any heavy exercise can be introduced to a dog who isn’t spayed/neutered after the age of 14 months, once the growth plates have closed. Now if the dog is spayed/neutered, that age is now shifted to 20 months, as growth plates now close at 20 months since puberty is delayed. 

When, why and how you should exercise your dogs? Listen to this week’s episodes for answers!