Age to walk on leash?

[porterscota]

Hi,

It has been 10 years since we have had a puppy. Having recently lost our 10 year old male, we decided to bring a new member into our family. We got our puppy at 8 weeks. After his second set of shots we started bringing him out into the world and he is loving it (needing it)!! When we were at our summer home, we took some short trail walks off leash and he did great, when he seemed tired I would carry him. We just came back to the city and now he is 11 weeks. I have taken him with our 9 year old female on some walks around the neighborhood on leash and he did really well with some minor pulling.

I have read some articles that say you need to be careful about walking a puppy this young because of the bones and muscles that are still growing. Also about the tugging on the neck when he is on leash. We are planning on getting him a harness.

I would never want to do anything to harm his health. He has tons of energy and is so spunky on the walk and can even come home and still play in the yard so I know that he is not overdoing it.

Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. If there is a thread that has been posted before with guidelines, I would love to read it.

Thank you,
Lissa
Mom to Porter (at the bridge), Scota, and Rogan

[BxrMommieNAZ]

Be careful about where you take him, after only 2 sets of shots he is NOT protected from things such as Parvo, Distemper, Rabies, etc so it's still a very real concern that he could come down with those at this point. I wouldn't take him on a walk on leash for more than 5-10 minutes at the age that he's at. At this age, playtime in your fenced in yard, in the house, playdates with other dogs that you know at your home are really the better way to go for tiring him out purposes and then for practicing on leash walk around the house or yard or just let him drag the leash. He should not have long hard walks or running on leash until 12-18 months when the skeletal system is done growing. On the harness make sure to not get a traditional harness if you go this route as they promote pulling they do not stop it. They have a gentle leader easy walk harness there is also the gentle leader head collar (which I personally prefer) for teaching them not to pull and to heel, etc on walks.

Good luck!