How much walking is too much?

[duplodancer]

I know it's 5 mins per month of their age twice a day so that's 20 mins twice a day for my pup.
However today for example we did 20 mins in the morning. Then in the afternoon I was in the rec for nearly an hour with my kids. I was mainly standing around whilst he wandered back and forth sniffing. We walked once round the field (5 mins) and did some recall practice but otherwise he was just entertaining himself. Is this ok? I figured if you had a big garden this would happen anyway but I'm really conscious of causing problems later on.
Thanks for your thoughts.

[BiteyShark]

I only stuck to the rule when online walking on the pavements. Most of our walking was off lead at his own pace through forests and because of that I did more than the 5 min rule as he could stop if he wanted.

[missbattenburg]

I also only stuck to the rule when I was enforcing walking at a certain pace and/or on a hard surface (i.e. having to walk at my pace on a pavement). Even then we occasionally did longer walks where I thought the experience would be beneficial, e.g. I took him into the town centre for the experience and just kept an eye on him for fatigue as well as took a couple short breaks.

Off lead running about at his own pace, on grass - we did this much more than the rule. Probably about an hour a day by the time he was 4 months old.

If he were a bigger breed (springer) with higher risk of joint issues and/or from parents with no or poor hip and elbow scores, I might have been more cautious.

[BiteyShark]

When I said online I meant on lead

[PuppyMonkey]

Running around off the lead or sniffing around somewhere is fine as they can set their own pace and have a rest when they need to

[tabulahrasa]

It’s only for proper exercise, anything they can’t or won’t stop if they need to... so if you’re setting the pace on lead or it’s something really exciting where they wouldn’t choose to stop running about for a break.

Mooching about at their own pace doing nothing much they can do as much as you like really, especially in that sort of situation where they’re likely to get a bit bored and have a bit of a lie down if they want anyway.

[anniehm]

I ignored it - I have a border collie, if he was still on the farm he would be following his mother all day like his brother does, taking a nap as he wants. We walked offlead once a day for 30-40 mins plus has access to an acre or so of gardens. He isn't keen on leads funny enough, but likes to roam around many back gardens (none are sealed) and guard the neighbours chickens - today however he's snoozing indoors as he hates noisy windy weather

[WitcheryNights]

If he bombs around, limit it but if he mooches around sniffing, longer is fine. It's generally not the walking that affects their joints but the running around and turning at speed that puts pressure on joints and their backs.

[AlpacaLypse]

YY wandering about sniffing isn't putting stress on the joints in anything like the way trotting on hard surfaces or hurtling about after a ball would be.