German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[Schottlander]

Eva will be 6 months old on Saturday. She has seemingly endless amounts of energy.

I allow her 30 minutes of free running in nearby woodland or across a golf course (early morning before anyone plays) twice a day. The distances that she covers are quite astonishing but I'm used to lazy Bullmastiffs so a high-energy GWP is new to me.

I'm a bit worried in case I'm giving her too much excercise and wonder if I'm asking for joint problems later.

Alternatively, is this amount of free running OK?

Here is a pic of her after her run . I look forward to the resident expert Billy Ray Jim Bob's comments

[Schottlander]

Edit: That should have read "between 30 and 45 minutes"...twice a day

[Leadhead]

I do not believe that the free running will harm your dog. I hunt my GWP’s 4 to 5 hours at a time (running All the time) with no ill effects. I do however give them a joint supplement with a high amount of Glucosamine 900gm a day during hunting season. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Schottlander]

Thanks for the info. My only concern was that I may harm her joints with too much exercise at her young age.

[HeissDraht]

She is very cute! The biggest thing is just not to force a young puppy to do anything that they don't want to do. They will tell you when they are too tired to continue on when they are that young. However, once they learn to hunt hard they know no limits. That's why we love them.

[Dongle's Mum]

This is reassuring, I let Dongle have a similar amount of free running - much to the horror of some dog owners in the UK. We never force him to do anything, we never throw anything for him or encourage him to chase - free running is just that - free running for him at his own pace.

Very cute pic by the way!!