# Looking for advice on how much to walk our pup



## oj_jose (Jan 26, 2017)

Hello,

We have a 17 week old male cockapoo and are struggling a little with how much to walk him. We have seen the general advice of 5 minutes (or sometimes 15 depending on the source!) for every month but I was hoping for more specific advice for a cockapoo. Being a cockapoo, of course ours is very energetic and longer walks seem the only way to keep the energy levels (and general behaviour) to an acceptable level for the rest of the day in the house.

At the moment, we walk him 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning, around 20-30 minutes at lunch and 20 minutes in the evening. Is this too much, bearing in mind the warnings about over exercising in the first year? We also occasionally take him for a longer walk at the weekend, sometimes up to an hour in the morning but of course would then scale back the other walks for the rest of the day.

Finally I should add that he very rarely legs behind or seems tired on our walks but I'm not sure how much this is an indicator (again, especially on the over-excerising year 1 warnings). If anyone has any advice on this subject, we would really appreciate it.

Thank you


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## Jobe75 (Nov 8, 2016)

Hi, we took Buddy to his first puppy class last week, the instructor there said the guidelines are 5 mins for every month of age, so he can have 20 mins, as he's 4 months now. But she also said that can be 20 mins 2 or 3 times a day. It's to do with their bones developing so I've stuck to the 20mins since then for 2 or 3 a day. I was taking him out for 30+ mins at a time so I felt a little guilty that I may have caused damage. Hope this helps ?


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## arlo (Mar 11, 2013)

Try and spend 20 minutes or so when you get chance, getting him to use his brain, there are ideas online for things to do and even dog puzzles you can buy, but as a puppy, low impact training, searching for things etc really does wear them out as much as physical excersize. These puppy times soon pass  and for many years to come you will be able to walk wherever. Love the name Walter, we once had a rat called that


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

I do think that the 5 minute rule needs to be applied with a bit of sense. Young pups should not be taken for 'forced marches' - lead walking at a dictated pace for a prolonged period of time is not good - thus is repetitive exercising, however if your pup is having a jolly gamble off lead along a woodland path, sometimes running, sometimes pausing and sniffing, chasing a friend (or squirrel) flopping and rolling is something smelly etc then you may go over the 5 minute rule a bit.... 
And as Arlo wisely says you can tire a pup out doing a bit of training or playing with a pup. By the time your pup is 5 or 6 months old they will happily tolerate more exercise - with giant breeds you need to be much more dare file for much longer.
Word of caution do not let young pups jump down from the boot of the car or off the sofa. If you want to do agility with your dog they do not start training over jumps until they are a year old and do not compete until they are 18 months.
I would also say young pups should be restricted from accessing stairs.


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