Playing on Hills - Page 1

Hi, just recently I have found a park which has quite a few small sized hills. I just wanted to know at what age can a dog start runnning up/down hills (if ever).

There is a very steep hill which is very short and also a not so steep hill which is very long, which one would be best to run on?   I have been told that running on hills can cause elbow/knee problems, is this true?

Strictly speeking, dogs aren't actually aloud in this park but I'll try to find a way in

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Henry,

Let the puppy decide.  

Moon's.

Hi Henry

I disagree with Moons, I would not let my puppy run down steep hills.  Varied terrain and free exercise I think is good to build strength, but repeated downhill impact, I would lay off until 1 or 1.5 years.  My male now is about a year and I still lift him off the tailgate.  Not that he's too fragile, I let him run on his own at home, but why risk it before they have fully develped?  Plenty of chances to hurt himself coming over the A-frame later!  A puppy, especially a workingline gsd, does not have the knowledge to stop before he's hurt.  They will go until they drop, it's your responsibility to stop him before that point.

Emily   

And I will disagree with EmilyC and agree with Moon let the dog decide.

You will find that a lot of owners don't let the dog be dog, they pumper them, I am not going to make a statement weather that approach is right or wrong, but I'll tell you that, decide on your own. My pup is 16 weeks old I started her training at 8 weeks, same week I got her. She is doing  A frame already, she goes nuts if you would to show her a sleeve, as much as some people will tell you that is a mistake to put her through that at that age, I will choose to disagree, and I'll tell you one thing. I learned mostly everything I know about dogs and GSD's from my grandfather, he always let his dogs be dogs, he pushed them at times they all died of an old age :). I believe that conditioning at an early age is very important, I believe that keeping the weight of your dog at a lower end is even more important, as long you keep everything in balance you and your dog will be fine. Good luck.

I let the pup decide how much hill running he wants. Gentle rolling hills are good for their conditioning. Just take it easy at first and if you are playing fetch, don't overdo it. Some pups will work until they drop but this isn't good for them.

What I don't do is let him decide to jump down anything more than a few feet. I won't let my young pups or young dogs jump down a 5 or 6 foot creek bank or wall. They don't have the good judgment yet to know about things like that and besides, it's rocky where I live. They learn the good judgment by doing smaller, puppy sized jumps at first.