What age is it acceptable to allow your GSD to jog with you? Engage in jumping outside of what he would normally? Lastly, does tie out work effect your puppy'ss joints?

You have excellent questions. When I was a breeder (I retired 5 years ago) this was an important issue between myself and my puppy customers.

Puppies are like babies and/or small children. We not want to risk injury because of what we ask the pups to do before they are ready.

If I had a puppy, I would not be running or jogging with the pup until it was 12 to 15 months old. I want the growth plates in their bones fused and their muscles ready to handle that work. I had more than one puppy customer who jogged with their pup at an early age who ended up with bad hips when every other dog in the litter had good hips.

I have this in the exact same category of keeping puppies thin and lean. Overweight pups cause bad hips. In my personal opinion, I believe these two issues are as much of an issue (or more) than genetic issues.

In regards to your jumping question, there isn’t one reason I am aware of to PUSH a young dog to jump at full height at a young age. All of your obedience training for correct performance can be done at a lower heights. How high a dog jumps is a physical issue and not a training issue.

Your question reminds me of Cindy deciding to jump her dog Rush (who was competing for his Mondio 2) a couple of weeks ago. Rush is 5 years old (he will be 6 years in a month). Cindy chose to jump Rush at a lower height and take a 6 point automatic deduction rather than risk an injury or risk the dog missing a jump and losing all the points.

So train your jumps, do it at a low height, and focus on obedience and not height.

Regards,
Ed Frawley