smitte21

Ok so your breeder recommends not walking dogs at a young age. If we want to play that game my breeder has been in the breed for around 40 years and has produced over 120 champions and title holders to her credit and she recommends switching the puppies to adult formula at 4-5 months old. It will not stunt their growth but help with pano and help give the bones time to catch up... otherwise the puppies grow so fast that their dense bones (the densest in regards to size of any dog breed) a chance to fully grow. So if you are not sure about the statement then don't discount my breeder's knowledge either. We obviously both have decent breeders who have different ways of dealing with things.

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SophieB

Like you say, breeders are different and probably changes depend on the individual puppy too. My breeder feeds his pupsand adults that tripe stuff (the dark version) but I didn't like the look of it so I mix in some Butcher's tripe from a tin and sometimes sardines or tuna just to vary the taste and they also love carrots and cauli as well, so that's another texture they enjoy.

Soundtrack

FWIW, I've taken young pups on fairly long walks without issues, however it's generally recommended that *hard*, *structured* exercise (like roadwork) be avoided in growing bassets in favor of free play where the puppy is following its own cues as to whether to exercise or not - although I think this concept assumes more than one puppy/dog so that they are playing with each other, or playing with the owner. Just sticking him out in a yard or field is not "free play".

At any rate, I doubt that a 45 minute stroll around the neighborhood would cause a problem.

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Mikey T

Percisely there is a big difference from a liesurely stroll vs jogging etc. The concept of free play is the dog will not engage in activity that cause it pain. But anyone that has watch puppy play is sure to witness activity that is far more stressfull and traumatic on the joints, tendon, muscle and ligiments, than walking is.

Which was sound avice 10-15 years ago. It is not so clear there is benefit to doing so with the advant of Large breed puppy food, that is lower in caloric content and calcium and phosphorous than traditional puppy food and on the calcium and phosphorous font lower than adult food as well. A strong argument can be made for keep a puppy on large breed puppy food until the growth plates close. However there is vast difference between brand of commercial dog food so making a sweeping generalization is not appropriate.

Not a vet but when it comes to putting forth an argument it is important to substantiate it. So any link Is provided to Either substaintiate and argument or and more likely to provide more detail and elaboration than can be done in this type of forum. Since I know many or most are unlikely to ready said link I include a quote for the purpose of substaination.