I have a 11 week old GSD. I am curious to the amount of excercise a puppy can endure without damaging hips at an early age. Or is excercise "good" for developing pups??

I have found conflicting views on this. GENERALLY, it seems that breeders for the American show dogs (the more angulated GSD's) seem to want only limited leashed exercise (no stairs even?) for their pups for the first year or so. I feel that H/D is a GENETIC condition, so preventing all exercise doesn't remove the DNA from the pup.

I am not a believer in that philosophy at all. I feel GSD's should be as healthy as any other breed when they are puppies, so that includes the 'normal' amount of exercise any other breed can do. Think of a vast fenced in yard full of loose puppies. They would be tearing around, jumping, chasing, tugging, tumbling, and generally tiring themselves out, taking a nap, and then starting up again. That sounds like 'normal' to me and tons more exercise than most of us are able to give our single puppy!

So while I don't encourage forced exercise (dragging a puppy on a leash while I ride my bike up the Grand Canyon) or repetitive extreme exercise (say going up and down the stairs 40 times in a row, or jumping a training jump over and over), pretty much any amount of OFF LEASH activity is what we do. That way the pups pace themselves. They run ahead, and rest for me to catch up. They chase a squirrel on the trail, and then lay in a puddle for a minute. They pace on the trail for a hundred yards or so, and then tear off after the other dogs.

Normal growth for bones, muscles, tendons etc include exercise. I love the off leash 'hikes' because it also adds the new sights, scents, views for growth of all my dogs senses and experiences.

Here's a site with some specific info on H/D and exercise.

http://www.showdogsupersite.com/hips.html

http://www.thedogscene.co.uk/articles/health/hd.htm

I have a 9 1/2 month old GSD with grade 3 dysplasia in his left hip, normal right. The orthopedic specialist said to keep him in good shape, exercise to keep the muscles strong and tight. He just said to not start jumping or the wall training until he was over 1 year. Luckily he very tight in his hips and was given the okay to continue Schutzhund training. I worried about him putting that hip out easier, and was told that's not an issue. Just use common sense, as said, and don't force exercise. I was told that swimming and uphill trotting were great for building the hip muscles. This dog, at a slim 90lbs, yes way over size but very agile, loves to do "fly bys" at me. As long as you are feeding a good quality adult food, or RAW and don't let you puppy get heavy and try to keep his growth rate down, don't do "stupid" exercising with him, you will have done the best by him. Jaden was put on adult Nutro at 3 months, slowed his growth as much as possible, and shows no signs of the horrible hip the x-rays show. Cathy, Chance, Jaden and angel Zoey snuggled deep inside my heart