Hi,

I'd like to bring Nixie, my 14 week old, on runs (short, like 2-3 miles at first) with me but I wasn't sure when is an appropriate age for this? I take her on walks but would like to introduce her to my running. Should I start slow and just see how she does like a mile at first? I don't want to push/hurt her unintentionally.

Cheers.

(This is the last of my questions for now! I don't plan to overrun the forum with posts, I promise!) 

Pictures for fun.

I would recommend NOT running with her just yet. Its my understanding that they need to be quite a bit older before asking them to do a steady pace. I personally wouldn't try it until she was 8 mos old or so.

Others may differ on this but having a dog that has had knee issues I will always err on the conservative side on this debate.

If you are walking that cutie now, add in some jogging, then walk sprint a bit, mis it up. She's only 3.5 mos old, so many new things to smell and see while out walking

Like I said others may say otherwise (although I don't think many would recommend jogging with her at this age) but I would absolutely wait.

Don't rush the running as the others have said you should wait until their growth plates are closed.  But once your pup is older, they do make great running partners.  I have two GSPs and my older one has retired from running with me due to a shoulder injury she had.  The pounding of running is just too much for her now, so she just comes out to retrieve the bumper from the water . . . which is by far one of her favorite things to do.  She is a retrieving machine.  The younger one gets the best of both worlds right now as she gets to come on my runs in the morning, and then I return to the house to get the older one for some water retrieves.

Nixie is very cute . . . you will have plenty of time to run with her, just take it slow because before you know it she will be old enough to run the distance with you.

Roz.