Greetings:

My 19 week old German Shepherd puppy Dieter, is my first German Shepherd and I am very concerned about hip-dysplasia, but at the same time would like to ensure that he is given proper exercise to promote muscle development. As I am currently a graduate student I live in an apartment and am unable to let Dieter exercise in a fenced in yard.

In order to measure our walking distance I purchased a pedometer and have been slowly increasing the distance each month. As of right now (January) we are doing the following:

1. Morning Walk at 8:00 am = .25 miles
2. Afternoon Walk at 12:30 pm= 1 mile
3. Evening Walk at 6:00 pm = .25 miles

total distance per day= 1.5 miles

The pace we walk at is slow and I allow Dieter to sniff around from time to time during the walks.

Is this too much? Should I cut it back down to a mile per day? Keep in mind that these walks are the main times of exercise outside of playing around in the yard by my apartment with me or inside my apartment for brief periods of time (15 minutes or so).

Thanks for your advice GSD folks.