My 9 month old female Malinois is a kook. She takes flying leaps going after balls and bounces off of trees and other solid objects. She has jumped on and off the picnic table and up over the park bench outside. It is like nothing fazes her from going for it. I've seen her jump over 5' high going after bouncing balls. Part kangaroo and Malinois I guess.

We went and checked out a flyball practice and the facilitator lowered the jumps to like 6 inches for my pup to try, she (pup) could step over them with ease and the facilitator said that the pups bones and joints are still growing as the reason why. Or was the facilitator of that Flyball team being overily safe?

Can a over zealous pup mess up their joints??? Doing the behavior I describe?

I find it hard to believe that a pup just doing what a pup does requires handling with special care (kid glove treatment).

In fact it is pretty near impossible without keeping my Malinois pup in her crate or a plastic bubble 24/7 to curtail it. When should I not worry about her bones and joints? Or should I worry at all?

I feel your pain. Carbon is 6 months and is part jumping bean. He used to jump like a nut going after a tetherball (talk about an excercise in futility) and I did make him stop doing that because I was concerned what all that repetative jumping would do to his joints.

However, there's a limit to how earth-bound I can or will make him be. I don't ask him to be a canine pogo stick, but at the same time I'm not going to restrict some natural puppy boinging if he's chasing after a ball.

This is only my personal decision, but at his tender age I'm not going to ask him to do any major jumping activity like an Olympic hurdle event, I'm not about to put him on a trampoline, and the tetherball championship will just have to wait. But I'm also not going to let myself worry about my pup being a pup and doing what feels natural and good to him. We always talk about letting puppies dictate their own exercise level up to a year or so, and I think the jumping he does on his own during playtime falls under that catagory.

Others may disagree, but it's a compromise between quality of life and the advice concerning joints. I agree with you...keeping an active pup in a restrictive bubble is impossible.

What my vet told me is the jumping around they do on their own isn't a problem - it's natural, and they're unlikely to land exactly the same way many times so they're not putting repetitive stress on any particular area. What is a problem is training jumping - the same motion and stress over and over again. So he advised me to let my puppy be a puppy, but not to do any serious training jumps before he was at least 16 months old. The larger the dog, the longer you should wait. I have a 26", 90lb, solid boned but lean GSD. It's okay to use very low jumps that they can basically step over, just to get them used to the command, but even that shouldn't be done with any regularity until they've finished growing.

I dont know the true medical answer but my choice is "as long as the ground is soft you can do what you want". No forced exercise, no long walks on concrete sidewalks, just play in the grass n let em make their own choices on how hard they are on their joints. I also don't believe in that "don't let a puppy climb the stairs" crap either. Just don't let em charge up and down the stairs full speed 80 times a day

At 9 months I wouldn't be overly concerned, but aware yes.

 Quote: Amber Morgan

..keeping an active pup in a restrictive bubble is impossible.

I agree and don't think it's healthy mentally or physically for them. Lear loves to jump so it's been a concern for me too.

Oh yeah, and what Mike S. said

my little Meeka(female GSD) has a tendency to climb just about anything she can and jump from it..we have a 3ft fence that keeps her in her section of enclosed yard during the day while we are not playing with her. it has got horizontal bars and what she would do is ust them as steps and go up this vertical fence and then once at the top jump over...there is no way of stopping her from climbingi even tried using a wire fence with small holes like .5cm byt .5 cm i think thats 1/4 inch...she gets up and over that too...so i let her do it. i figure atleast i know her legs muscles are strong enuf for her to climb and she lands with such finesse.

Climbing horizontal bars?! Wow, that's very cool! Not something most dogs like to do. A little athlete already

While it's true that over-stressing a puppy's joints by taking it jogging, forcing it to walk for prolonged periods, working it on hard surfaces, jump training, letting it get chubby etc. will cause problems, growing puppies also REQUIRE the normal stresses of movement and activity for the muscles, joints and bones to develop properly.

Keeping the puppy and young dog THIN, letting it play and run frequently and freely throughout the day on soft grassy ground and engaging in a variety of activities (a little bit of gentle stair climbing, some running after a ball, a little jumping/bouncing around in play, splashing around or swimming) is the best way to go.
Repetitive movements (like jogging) or extreme stresses beyond what a puppy's ready for (jumping down from big heights or playing rough with older dogs) are what cause the most damage.

Keeping a puppy locked up in a crate all day long or in a plastic bubble to "hold it back" are also damaging to its physical growth (and mental development too obviously).

If you have a super hyper bouncing puppy, let it play all it wants on soft ground. Just make sure it lies down and rests regularly (don't over stimulate a high-drive pup to the point of exhaustion).
This regular vigorous play will help the puppy's joints and bones grow and harden the way they're meant to

(Probably no need to mention this on this particular board, but feeding grain-filled crap - ie commercial kibble - to a puppy will also hurt its joints by causing hectic growth spurts... too many people underestimate the damage that improper feeding and vaccinating can do to a growing puppy).

Thanks everybody,

I just didn't get it, the non jumping thing. There is so many people that I run into that give advice but don't follow through with an explanation. I know I always get a straight answer from this community. You all just made it clear it's just commom sense. No need to get my underwear all bunched up in a knot by letting a young dog be a young dog.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program with my 1/2 Kangaroo 1/2 dog ..opps I mean Malinois pup!

I feel your pain. We had our pup neutered just last week ... and they said no running or jumping for 7 - 10 days. Only leash walking. Well how about he just pull me down the street on his leash walk he is so wound with energy.

You wouldn't think that the pup had any surgery ... he acts fine!

To help him minimize his activity level, I left him confined to the kitchen since his return home. But today I just had to take him with me. He isnt normally home alone all day. So I took the cone off of his head, and used his muzzle instead to make sure he wasn't knauwing at his stictches ... and well he is still bubbly and peppy but also a lot less mopey.

So, I'm with you - sometimes you have to let the pup find his way around a bit ... and I admit that he has been zooming our yard this week. Totally Self Directed!

Cheers!