How often to walk a Labrador puppy?

[bbcessex]

Hello all

Our gorgeous Labrador puppy is now nearly 6 months old.

I’m a bit concerned that we may be walking him too much.

We are aware of the ‘5 mins per month’ approx guideline, but for some reason I read this as ‘each walk’ , not ‘per day’.

We’ve been taking puppy out morning & evening, for around 30-40 mins each. Lots of ball chasing, off lead.

He sleeps a lot when he’s not out, and sleeps well in his crate between 10pm & 7am.

Are we walking him too much 😱

[BiteyShark]

I used the guide very loosely so if mine was offlead I would let him run about in the forest under his own steam for longer than the guide as he could always stop if he wanted.

However I generally stuck to it when on lead waking on pavements because it was harder on him and he had no choice but to keep up with me iykwim.

Do be careful about throwing balls for a prolonged period as it is very hard work especially on the joints if he skids to stop and even now at 2 years old I have to limit ball chasing for mine otherwise he would keep going until he dropped.

[Loubilou09]

I wouldn't be throwing balls for a dog at that age

[adaline]

Ours is seven months old (beagle, not lab) and gets 30-35 minutes twice a day. We don't do ball throwing though as I think it's very intensive for such a young dog.

We occasionally go for longer (days out and such) though these involve lots and lots of breaks, and more sniffing than running about!

[bbcessex]

Thanks all. Noted about ball throwing.. I didn’t realise 👍