|
ABC's of Irish Wolfhounds Puppy Tales: Find a person in your area for help and information
|
Do's and Don'ts of Irish Wolfhound Puppy Exercise
DOs - Do allow the puppy to exercise as much as he wants. Do encourage running. Do, if at all possible, allow the puppy to freely play with other puppies. This can be a challenge unless they are very large breed pups. Generally puppies of smaller breeds need to be older and larger to play safely with an IW, and at this point they are far more coordinated, which can lead to injury of the IW. Do avoid allowing the pup to jump down off of heights over 8 inches, particularly until after the age of 7-8 months due to the risk of growth plate injury in the front legs.  Do use caution on stairs. Going up is easier than going down and they can slip and tumble. Having said that I also avoid not giving them ANY experience on stairs as I travel with my dogs frequently and don't want them to have their first experience at a full grown size going to a second floor hotel room. Carefully select the first stairs you introduce them to - good footing with no slick surfaces, wider than normal treads if possible, and lots of supervision. DON'Ts - Don't enforce exercise. While you can go for long walks if the pup can wander freely off lead and set the pace, you should not leash walk pups long distances. Don't allow fence fighting, and avoid jogging with owners until the growth plates have closed at about 14 months of age. Avoid other repetitive exercises, like excessive retrieving/fetching. Don't allow the puppy unsupervised play with adults. Serious injuries can occur when left unwatched with even one adult IW (and a pack situation may be even worse), either through accidental injury or the puppy overexerting himself to try to keep up with them |
