Greetings to all! My name is Paula and I live in Plano, TX. This is my first post, although I have read many things on the forums. I have a 3 month old sable Sheltie named Finley. He is my second. I lost my first Sheltie, Devlin, after 13.5 years on January 4th and my husband and I said “no more dogs. We don’t want to be tied down”. That lasted six weeks and then came Finley
I apologize for not getting straight to the point. Devlin was a very large Sheltie and weighed between 42 to 45 pounds. Not fat, just tall and large. He was often mistaken for a small Collie.
Finley is a much smaller puppy and will fit within breed standard height and weight. He currently weighs 7.5 pounds.
I have never heard of the 5 minute/month walk/play guideline and I’ve had/owned dogs for all of my 61 years! My last two walks with Finley have been about 30 minutes. Now much of that time is spent sniffing, trying to pick up sticks, leaves, etc. and is not consistent walking for 30 minutes. I let him set the pace and take cues from him on energy level.
Have I done damage to his joints, muscles or tendons?! Should our walks at this time be limited to fifteen minutes only? Same with play time in the yard? If so, he would have to be crated much more often to stop his playing and running around. As I sit outside typing this, he is a blur zooming past me doing his best Daytona 500 impression. Fifteen minutes barely takes the edge off of Finley’s zooms, playing and antics. I’ve always heard a tired dog is a good dog, but I certainly don’t want to do any damage to Finley!
All of my childhood and adult dogs lived long lives, with two making it to sixteen years and the others to at least eleven. However, only one of those was a Sheltie and he made it to 13.5 and I mentioned above.
I apologize for the lengthy post and thank you in advance for any clarification on the 5 minute/month rule!
I apologize for not getting straight to the point. Devlin was a very large Sheltie and weighed between 42 to 45 pounds. Not fat, just tall and large. He was often mistaken for a small Collie.
Finley is a much smaller puppy and will fit within breed standard height and weight. He currently weighs 7.5 pounds.
I have never heard of the 5 minute/month walk/play guideline and I’ve had/owned dogs for all of my 61 years! My last two walks with Finley have been about 30 minutes. Now much of that time is spent sniffing, trying to pick up sticks, leaves, etc. and is not consistent walking for 30 minutes. I let him set the pace and take cues from him on energy level.
Have I done damage to his joints, muscles or tendons?! Should our walks at this time be limited to fifteen minutes only? Same with play time in the yard? If so, he would have to be crated much more often to stop his playing and running around. As I sit outside typing this, he is a blur zooming past me doing his best Daytona 500 impression. Fifteen minutes barely takes the edge off of Finley’s zooms, playing and antics. I’ve always heard a tired dog is a good dog, but I certainly don’t want to do any damage to Finley!
All of my childhood and adult dogs lived long lives, with two making it to sixteen years and the others to at least eleven. However, only one of those was a Sheltie and he made it to 13.5 and I mentioned above.
I apologize for the lengthy post and thank you in advance for any clarification on the 5 minute/month rule!
