Developing your puppy's muscles

I am curios how do you exercise you puppies to have great developed bodies until junior shows, how do you learn them to walk nice and not to step unorganized while moving? I am interested in daily amount of exercise, type of it, age when you start moving your dog, and if there is possible to correct some moving problems, like front and back feet moving too closely to their pair.

Do NOT do any specific exercise programs with puppies! Just let them do their own playing, and maybe take them for short walks since they need to learn to walk on lead anyway. Exercise programs (or agility!) should not be done until the growth plates in their joints have closed at around 18 months, or one can risk having the puppy break down early in its life. Here I just let my youngsters play together outside for a time, and they exercise themselves.

If a puppy/dog moves with its feet too closely together, that is a structural fault, and there is nothing one can do to change it. It should be sold as a pet (or kept as one), as it is not a show-quality prospect.

Thank you very much for your answer, I usually play witch him fetch because we don't have any other dogs and neither a place where I could let him play safely with his friends, we have no puppy parks or safely fenced dog playing corners :((

One thing you can do is to find a neighbor with a nice dog and set up what we here call "doggy play dates" so that they can play safely together in each other's yards. Good exercise for both dogs!

I *REALLY* dislike those dog parks, as dogs, particularly smaller ones, have been killed occasionally by other dogs. Things can go wrong so fast that it is impossible to do anything. Loose dogs can move a LOT faster than we can!

Hi, my dog is very young and he has good muscles. Hi don't make any special exercises, he just playing with us a lot
Best Regards
Chris
sznaucer

MsBritmor wrote:Do NOT do any specific exercise programs with puppies! Just let them do their own playing, and maybe take them for short walks since they need to learn to walk on lead anyway. Exercise programs (or agility!) should not be done until the growth plates in their joints have closed at around 18 months, or one can risk having the puppy break down early in its life. Here I just let my youngsters play together outside for a time, and they exercise themselves.

If a puppy/dog moves with its feet too closely together, that is a structural fault, and there is nothing one can do to change it. It should be sold as a pet (or kept as one), as it is not a show-quality prospect.

I totally agree with your advise, I have never had an exercise regime for my Giants or Mini's, they just play naturally and with the Giants I do like them to have rest times as well, so they don't over -exercise themselves.

If a dog is properly constructed it will grow the correct muscle for it's age and so, will move well too.

Walks are the most recommended type of exercise for puppies. Start with short walks and slowly increase their duration and intensity. You can also play a few games with your puppy or give him toys. Use exercise jumping to promote your dog’s development and coordination. The jumps should be no higher than the dog’s wrist at first, or his elbow in more advanced stages.

The puppy’s response to exercise is to increase muscle mass. Puppies may develop their muscles in the first few weeks after starting the exercise program. However, the tendons and ligaments of a puppy cannot develop so fast, and injuries may occur. To avoid these, don’t increase the intensity or duration of the workout too fast. Make progressive changes and make sure the puppy doesn’t get too tired.

The skeleton of the puppy is fully developed when the growth plates close. This should occur at the age of 6 months, but it depends on the breed.

Avoid any endurance training, if the skeleton of the dog is not fully developed. Otherwise your dog may get injured or have a deformed skeleton.

Hope this helps.

allaboutourdogs wrote:The skeleton of the puppy is fully developed when the growth plates close. This should occur at the age of 6 months, but it depends on the breed.

I don't know any breed whose growth plates close at six months... most are closer to 18 months.

Provide your puppy more protein based foods such as chicken breast, fish, cheese etc. and take him for the exercising daily to develop his muscles.