Puppy whining on walks - why?

[Calandra]

After about 10 minutes of walking, Chloe starts whining. She walks ahead of me, will turn around and look at me and whimper a bit, and then will keep walking. Eventually, she starts jumping up on me and then I pick her up because I don't know if she's exhausted or something. The longer I hold her, the louder and more pitiful her whining is and she seems to want to get down after about a minute. I put her down, and then the cycle starts again. We aren't walking far - maybe 2-3 miles.

Has anyone experienced this? Is she just not used to panting since she's a puppy? (I admit, the first time I saw her pant like a dog I was kinda freaked out since she wasn't doing it as a younger puppy. Clearly now she has reason since she's getting more exercise. Maybe she's just not used to the feeling? She's 6 months old.)

[Soushiruiuma]

How old is she? It sounds like she's still young. It could be that her pads aren't that tough yet, and her feet get sore. Could be just more exercise than she can handle yet. I'd scale the walks down, it sounds like she just isn't ready for that much exercise yet.

[ashleighelizabeth]

Sonny did this when we first started taking him on walks. He would do fine for a couple of minutes and then start jumping up. What we did which seemed to work is we would stop walking until he stopped jumping and then we would continue. It took some time for him to realize that he couldn't do that on his walks and that we weren't going to accommodate him. To be honest, walks became very not fun for awhile because of this, but eventually he stopped doing it. Also when we first started taking Sonny on walks we completely overdid it. We were taking him on three walks a day and it was just too much for the little guy, so maybe just cutting down to 10 minute walks??? Or 15 minute walks or whatever little Chloe Louise seems to be able handle. Good Luck!!!!

[waldor]

I think 2 - 3 miles is a long walk for a 6 month old puppy, especially if on pavement. It might be making the joints hurt because they're still growing. I walked Sophie for a mile until she was 6 or 7 months old, then added a half mile each month, or something like that. I worked her up slowly for fear or hurting her bones and joints, because we have to walk on pavement.

[Calandra]

Thank you all for your feedback. Sounds like I pushed her too soon. I'll scale back her walks, and know we need to wait a bit longer before she can be a true "workout walking buddy" for me. I'll make sure our walks are truly for her right now and know I will need to workout on my own without her for now. I look forward to her being my workout buddy soon.

[BeBe]

Hey Brooky's Mom gave me some advice for walking BB - her trainer recommended 1 min for each week of age until they got older (not sure how old?). I have been using that as a guide and have not had any issues with BB on her walks - hope it helps!

[Karlin]

Two to 3 miles is incredibly long for a dog that young -- vets generally do not recommend really long walks til dogs are over a year and bones fully formed. At this age about 20-30 minutes twice daily is about right.

[Calandra]

Definitely heeding all the advice here. Thanks! I like the 1 minute per week rule BeBe set as a rule of thumb!

I feel bad that my poor little girl was overworked. I'm glad I at least picked her up when she wanted me to.

[murphy's mum]

Definitely heeding all the advice here. Thanks! I like the 1 minute per week rule BeBe set as a rule of thumb!

I feel bad that my poor little girl was overworked. I'm glad I at least picked her up when she wanted me to.

We all make mistakes, don't beat yourself up. We did exactly the same thing when Murphy was really young, we took him round a forest walk, and he ended up whimpering and wanting picked up. I still remember how tired he was went we got home, he slept for about 4 hours straight without waking up. I kept checking he was breathing, I was so worried. Needless to say the walks got shorter until he was a lot older

[BeBe]

I made the same mistake!