exercise -- it's not just for athletes!

Hi everyone! I'm over here, in the bushes by the frog pond, see me??

Today I want to talk with you all about what my Mom says is the most important thing to do while raising a puppy -- getting plenty of age-appropriate exercise! Like Mom says "A tired puppy is a good puppy." (By that measure, I guess I'm the best puppy on the planet....)





What exactly IS "age-appropriate" exercise? Well, it's things that exercise puppies' bodies in a way that gives them a good work out and tires us out, but doesn't put too much stress on our growing bones and developing joints. Running around off-leash is perfect for puppies, because we can move around the way we naturally do in play -- running in spurts, lying down, dashing about, sniffing at stuff, scrambling over logs, flopping down in mud puddles. What you wouldn't want to do is to strap a leash on a puppy and take it jogging with you -- that's too much constant wear-and-tear on our little bodies. Dogs make GREAT jogging companions when they are adults and finished growing. For most breeds, that's around 18 months to 2 years of age. By then our soft cartilage has all firmed up and our bones and joints are the size they will be for the rest of our lives. Until then, that type of exercise can really cause problems with our growth plates and damage our cartilage, leading to all sorts of problems.


When we're really little, we don't really need all that much exercise to keep us tired and happy. But as we pups grow, our need for exercise starts to explode. I just turned 4 months old this week, and I have to tell you, I suddenly have SO MUCH energy! I used to take a quick spin around the horse pasture with Mom and be set for the morning, but now I need to go for a good long romp in the forest with the Things every morning, otherwise I would bug them all during their lessons and everyone would get really grouchy with me. But they take me out, no matter what the weather is like, so that I just sleep in the kitchen (or out in my yard on really nice days) while they do whatever it is they do at the dining room table. (There's pencils and paper and crayons and singing and a lot of laughing....who knows, humans are strange....)

Sometimes we bring friends along, too. This is my half-sister Lucy (she's the one that looks like me), and my friend Tessie (who you met in my last post). They are two years old and are just now at the point that, if they didn't get to go for a nice long outing every day, they'd probably be OK and not drive their Moms nuts. But dogs between my age and their age -- whoa. TONS of energy, and that energy needs an outlet, otherwise us dogs will find our own way to use it. And we're very creative. And potentially destructive. Most dogs that wind up at the pound arrive when they are adolescents and have done something atrocious like eating the linoleum in the kitchen. Or jumping through a glass window. Or shredding the furniture. Most of those dogs would have never done such awful stuff if only they'd had enough exercise! It's really hard to be bad if you're sleeping.

Swimming is another great exercise for dogs. Here I am swimming with Tessie and Pip, another Labrador friend. We labs sure do enjoy the water!! My sheep-moving sisters think we're all nuts -- they say water is for drinking, and that's it. I say, no way!! They are SO missing out!!! We can swim after things that are thrown for us in the water, or we can just enjoy swimming around. I like it both ways!

Ah, wrestling! Another perennial favorite of dogs. You can get some good, exhausting wrestling in even in a backyard. This is my friend Solana, and she's about 10 months old and is FULL of energy. Good thing her Mom knows about getting her plenty of exercise!

Ok, so now a note about safety. If you're not the kind of dog that's going to come back when your Mom calls you, you're going to have to stick to areas that are fenced in, like my horse pasture. (If Mom threw me enough tennis balls and sticks in the pasture, I could probably get enough exercise that way, too.) Or you can visit a "dog park" where you can play with other dogs and get tired that way, or find some other friends who have a fenced in yard where you can all wrestle and play. Or your Mom can tie a long piece of rope onto your collar and hold the other end of it while you go out and about into the world -- that way you can't get so far from her that you get yourself in trouble in a road or something.

Even I sometimes drag my leash -- this picture shows that very situation. The leash gives Mom something to step on if a mountain biker or a jeep suddenly comes rushing down the forest road when we're hanging out at the frog pond, now that the winter gates have been opened and cars are allowed on the road there again. It also makes it super-duper easy for her to catch me up when it's time to go. Mom never calls me to her and puts me in my crate in the van -- if I knew she was going to end my fun, I'd never come to her!! Whenever she calls me to come, it's always for petting or treats or to give me something fun to play with, and then she tells me to go right back on playing again. When she's going to put me in the car, she just picks up the leash and then I go nice as can be with her and jump in when she tells me to. (See, it's REALLY easy to be a good dog!)

Here's a couple of other suggestions for good ways to get exercise: play ball with someone! This is my special red tennis ball, isn't it awesome?? And that's Thing 2 playing with me. I have to tell you, I wasn't so sure about these Things when I first moved in with Mom, but they've sure worked out to be good playmates. So rent yourself a couple of Things if you don't have any of your own. I'd be happy to lend you mine for awhile, so long as you return them undamaged.

And here's a really fun game a little girl played with me at a party recently -- popping bubbles!!! She was making these really big ones with this wand thingy, and I chased them all over trying to catch them and pop them myself before they landed and popped on their own. Fun, fun, FUN! And very good exercise even in a really small area.

No matter how you do it, get your humans to get you some exercise! They'll love you much more if they do. And then you too can look like this.

'Til next time, see ya!