How Much is Too Much?

[StillandSilent]

For a puppy, that is. Glitch is now almost 15 weeks old and weighs about 15lbs. He gets lots of exercise at daycare and going on outings with me. I never push him to keep going when he's tired, and he is still small enough that he's been carried through downtown after he craps out.

But he wants to do things that I'm not sure if he's ready for. For example, he can now easily clear the baby gate or jump into a first story windowsill before jumping down. I don't think that that is good for his joints, so I took the baby gate down.

I do not do any sort of work that requires sharp/fast turns or repetitive jumping. But he watches Gimmick do things with me, then tries to mimic them himself.

Gimmick knows how to leap into my arms. Glitch also wants to do this, so I've been letting him jump up onto my slightly bent knees, then scooping him up before can hit the ground. Is this ok? Or should I be discouraging jumping at all? I don't want him to lose his enthusiasm, but I want to look at his long term health as well.

Gimmick was such an easy little slug of a puppy that leaping/climbing/banzai jumping would have never occurred to him. Glitch is more of a Tasmanian Devil/Mountain Goat hybrid.

 

[Elrohwen]

I don't really have a good answer for this, but I've been wondering the same thing. At 8 weeks Hazel is taking steps that Watson didn't tackle for weeks (like the two big steps leading from our garage out to the yard). She's like a little mountain goat and very much has a "Don't carry me! I can do it myself!" attitude. As she gets bigger I'm sure I'll be cringing as she leaps off of things.

 

[Beanie]

Everyone will have their own answer on this and some people feel verrrry strongly. Personally my approach and what I tell my students is no structured jumping exercises with jumps higher than elbows until a year old (or older for giant breeds.) Jumping in play I do not worry about, jumping on or off furniture I do not worry about, stairs so long as they are being successful at negotiating them - basically normal puppy "living" behaviours are not causes for concern. Where I draw the line is structured work like teaching tricks or agility foundation work, et cetera. Endurance is a more tricky question because I feel like it's very individual rather than having an easy generalization to put on it...

Specifically for jumping in your arms. I would personally let him do it so long as you set him down or close to all the way down before letting him go, and like you said trying to catch him low so there's no sad misses and drops hah aAnd I definitely wouldn't be discouraging jumping so long as he is able to do it safely! I too have taken the gate down like you did. It's obviously not serving the barrier function anymore LOL so no reason to invite extra impact from jumping it.