Mokaroa falls New Zealand

[samwb]

Our hike to Mokaroa Falls with Olly this morning. 1 of 3 in the last 3 weeks, he absolutely loves the hiking and we get upto about 11km done and he still wants to keep at it.

[Tucker McBeagle]

Wow! What beautiful country! I bet you had a tired, happy beagle after that :-)

[brandypup]

WOW great pictures so pretty and relaxing.
I love that harness.
Thanks for sharing.

[btomlin75]

Nice dog and nice area to take a walk.

[mote55]

its amazing photos and you are so lucky the atmosphere there was amazing

[kutyuska]

Big-big like as ever

[Dawna]

Great pictures. How old was he when you started taking him on long walks or hikes? My neighbor has Pit Bulls and she used to walk them for an hour or more at a time on a regular basis before they were a year old. Two of them have orthopedic issues, one has had 2 surgeries for ruptured crucible ligament. We have been reading lately that it is not good to take long walks or hikes with a dog until it is fully grown(at least one year.) what are your thoughts? I have been limiting my 6 month old Beagle to 30 minutes due to what she has told me.

[brandypup]

Originally Posted by Dawna

Great pictures. How old was he when you started taking him on long walks or hikes? My neighbor has Pit Bulls and she used to walk them for an hour or more at a time on a regular basis before they were a year old. Two of them have orthopedic issues, one has had 2 surgeries for ruptured crucible ligament. We have been reading lately that it is not good to take long walks or hikes with a dog until it is fully grown(at least one year.) what are your thoughts? I have been limiting my 6 month old Beagle to 30 minutes due to what she has told me.

Wow that is a tough one. I know jogging can cause issues but never heard off long walks. And it's mostly in the larger breeds that I hear the joint issues from. Could have a lot to do with genetics. I took my 60lb dog on 2-4 hour or more walks (unemployeed) daily from the time I found her (around 4-6 months old)to almost 5 years old. (not unemployed that long but was still able to walk her over an hour daily most of her life-around 5 I started working 2 jobs so it was morre like an hour a day) and she never had any joint/bone issues.

Diet also has some effects on it. Not the best stats I can locate as only the responsible breeders are probably using this. Trying to locate the prevelance ranking of the breeds.

Orthopedic Foundation for Animals

Orthopedic Foundation for Animals

[Dawna]

My neighbor has Pitbulls and this does probably apply more to the larger breeds, but I wasn't sure if the little guys would be affected also. She had just moved here from Italy at the time(married an American guy.) She wasn't working and didn't drive at the time so she just walked her dogs all day long. It was usually 2 or more hours at a time. She now is a vet tech, drives, etc and doesn't have the time for all those walks. Anyway, she and I started reading that if a dog is exercized excessively before their bodies are completely finished growing that it can cause orthopedic problems. They included really long walks in with the exercise. So I've been leary about walking Dillon for more than30 -45 minutes at a time, since he's only 6 months old. But he's a little guy-barely 16 pounds, and he seems like he could walk much longer with no problems.

[samwb]

Originally Posted by Dawna

Great pictures. How old was he when you started taking him on long walks or hikes? My neighbor has Pit Bulls and she used to walk them for an hour or more at a time on a regular basis before they were a year old. Two of them have orthopedic issues, one has had 2 surgeries for ruptured crucible ligament. We have been reading lately that it is not good to take long walks or hikes with a dog until it is fully grown(at least one year.) what are your thoughts? I have been limiting my 6 month old Beagle to 30 minutes due to what she has told me.

We waited until he was a year old to do any thing major, he went in for the big snip at 12 months so the vet had a good look at him at the same time and said he should be ready to start into some bigger things. However i have heard people who don't believe in it at all i was just on the cautious side i guess. When he was young we used to just play inside games of fetch and things like that to tire hime and did the 30min walks like you said. He is now almost 2 and is a training trail dog who chases my mountain bike at full speed through the forest for 10-15 km and is happy and healthy (touch wood) so i will probably keep doing the conservative excersice thing if i get more dogs. Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions?