Puppy playing with other dogs

[Retrievemysanity]

We have a golden retriever pup who is nearly 5 months old. Been careful not to do too much walking on lead and no climbing stairs because of potential joint damage etc but at our local park there’s an enclosed area where people like to let their dogs off-lead to play together and we’ve started taking ours there for a play in the hope that this will stop her biting us in the house so much!

So my question is, in terms of potential joint damage and exhaustion should we be limiting the time she spends here? I’ve had mixed answers from people in real life. Just to clarify, it’s a short (couple of mins) on lead walk to and from the car then a mixture of running round, bitey face, a few rest stops, recall practice and treats in the area. She absolutely loves it here and because of her biting, the DC’s don’t really want to play with her much at the mo so it’s a nice opportunity for her to have fun but she is exhausted afterwards and I don’t want to do anything that might damage her in the future.

What you want to avoid is too much full extension running, and severe stresses on joints - which is why using a chuckit to hurl a tennis ball for a puppy isn't the best idea (once or twice, probably okay, over and over again, nope).

Provided the play is play, and not the puppy being body slammed and knocked flying and generally intimidated by bigger dogs, it should be fine. Our puppy has been playing daily with one of our adult dogs, and often with other dogs as well, and it's been brilliant for her social development.

The vet told us if it's under their own steam and on grass/mud, then it's fine. We were worried too @Retrievemysanity as HappyPup runs so much when we go for a walk. She also said the ball is fine as long as for a puppy you throw it yourself not using one of those hurling sticks. We mainly let HappyPup carry it around and only throw it gently running along the ground if you see what I mean.

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman she was being knocked about initially today by an older rescue but the owner took her away and a different dog came and they played much better. Mine is 18kg so not particularly small and can usually hold her own but the rescue did knock her over and was v boisterous.

@HappyThursdays thanks for that. We don’t usually throw balls for her, maybe a couple of times a week. Is yours off lead on walks a lot then? Ours tends to be on lead as still jumps up at people so no running on walks for her but on the field or this dog park, she runs lots! Good to know it’s ok!