walking your German sheperd

[worder]

how long would it be safe for a 7 year-old sheperd to be walked? a friend of mine took his for a 2 hour walk, and i thought that was a bit much for the poor dog. of course the 7 month old puppy, who also went along, could have easily walked for another hour and still had energy to burn. any ideas anyone? thank you in advance.

[Solarjunkie]

As far as I know, a dog of that size and age can be happily walked for hours - HOWEVER - large dog puppies should have their exercise restricted until their bones have fully formed, so 2 hours for a pup is much too long.

[shalforette]

THink about where the dog originates. A German Shepard is a working breed and so is bread to be out for long periods 2 hours a day is minimum to keep a dog like that fit. Under a year old though one hour is enough as they are prone to hip problems.

[saffstar]

There is a school of thought that says that puppies shouldn't be walked at all - just taken out in the car for drives for their 'psychological wellbeing' - sounds like tosh to me.  You should be careful with puppies though, a friend of mine took hers on very long walks when it was little and it's ended up with severe knee problems.  If the older dog is used to long walks then I wouldn't imagine it's a problem - a seven year old dog is of about equivalent age to a 49 year old human and most able-bodied people of this age could probably cope quite easily with this level of exercise.