18/10/2026
🐾 A beautiful giant-breed puppy in for a biomechanical check! 🐾
It was such a pleasure checking over this gorgeous boy today.
Giant-breed puppies have a lot of growing to do, and while they are often full of energy, their bones, joints, ligaments and growth plates are still developing.
A commonly used rough guide is around 5 minutes of controlled exercise per month of age, once or twice a day — so a 4-month-old puppy might have around 20 minutes of gentle walking at a time.
For giant breeds, we recommend to focus on short, controlled walks rather than long walks, with plenty of free play and rest. And importantly, jumping, repetitive stairs, hard running and high-impact activities should be avoided while they are growing.
It can be difficult when you have an energetic puppy who thinks they can do everything! But allowing them to grow slowly and develop strong, healthy biomechanics is one of the best things we can do for their future joint health.
Luckily, this puppy's owner is very keen to do everything right, so I'm confident this gorgeous youngster is well on the way to becoming a healthy, happy adult dog. 🐶❤️
Slow and steady really does matter with giant breeds!