This mini guide was created in collaboration with dog physiotherapist Helle Hoffmann and is in 3 parts.
Along the way, you will receive good advice and tips on how to best care for your dog throughout its life.
The first part deals with what you can do while the dog is a puppy.
Start when your dog is a puppy
The moment you take your puppy home, you are taking responsibility for its well-being for the rest of its life. I'm sure you're fully aware of that. But have you also thought about the fact that the habits you establish now, while your puppy is still very young, will have an impact on how it will fare in its old age? If you want a durable dog that will have the longest and best possible life and the best possible old age, then you need to start as soon as you bring your little puppy home.
Tip #1: Keep your dog slim
One of the most important things for your dog's health is its weight. If your dog is already overweight as a puppy, there is an increased risk that it will also be overweight as an adult. There is also an increased risk that your dog will develop joint problems due to the increased weight load when it gets older.
Your little puppy may have a small, fat puppy belly after eating. But otherwise, it should have a slim figure and belly. Your puppy is actually better off being 10% underweight than 20% overweight. Being overweight throughout a dog's life can mean that years are taken off its life. A study has shown that being 20% overweight throughout a dog's life will mean that it will live an average of 2 years shorter than if it had been kept at a normal weight throughout its life. That is why it is incredibly important from the start to ensure that your dog does not become too fat.
Until the puppy is about 6 months old, it grows a lot and therefore needs a lot of energy. But when its weight curve flattens out around 6 months of age (depending on the breed of your dog), you need to be careful. Make sure that if you go to training, for example, where your puppy gets a lot of treats, you subtract that from the food account. That way you can ensure that it doesn't eat too much.
Tip no. 2: Ensure adequate and varied exercise.
Now, I may have written exercise, but in reality, your puppy doesn't need exercise - at least not for the first year of its life. And when I say exercise, I mean long walks or monotonous movement.
Your puppy needs experiences first and foremost. That's why I would recommend that even if you have dreamed that when you got a dog, you would go for long walks with it, you should instead just go to the nearest park, the harbor or similar with your puppy and let it explore the surroundings, meet other dogs, etc.
With the above, I don't mean that you should wrap your puppy in cotton wool. Your puppy also needs to use his body so that he can get a strong body, but uniform exercise can directly harm him. Your puppy needs to run, jump, dig, climb, balance, jump, crawl, etc. He needs this to get strong muscles, strong ligaments and good body motor skills. But everything in moderation of course. 20 jumps in a row up and down from a high platform is not healthy for your puppy.
Again, it is important to establish good gross motor skills in puppyhood, as this will influence your dog's gross motor skills for the rest of his life. This leads me to the next tip.
Tip #3: Focus on environmental and balance training
As I wrote above, your dog does not need any specific exercise during the first year of its life. Instead, it needs environmental training in the form of lots of (positive) experiences. This does not mean that you should not do anything physical with your puppy. What it will benefit from is, for example, training that will strengthen its body motor skills. This can be, for example, controlled play with other dogs, but also walking on a tree trunk and jumping up and sitting on a tree stump. It may also be that there is a playground near where you live that you can visit with your puppy when there are no children using it. A playground for children provides plenty of opportunities to train your puppy's body motor skills and balance. For example, let it walk across a suspension bridge or up onto a tree trunk or bench. However, it is important that you make sure that your puppy cannot get injured by jumping down and hitting itself.
This type of training will not only strengthen your dog's body but also strengthen your dog's psyche and give it greater mental strength. However, it is important that when you train your puppy in this way, you always let it take the initiative and that you do not lure it. You can do this by throwing a few treats onto, for example, a suspension bridge on the playground. You should not try to lure your dog onto the bridge, but simply be patient and wait until it is so tempted by the treats that it cannot help but take a step onto the bridge. It may be that at first it only takes one step out, eats the treat and then quickly returns to safe ground. You can let your puppy have a short break and then try again and see if this time it does not get onto the bridge faster or perhaps takes more than one step.
Always make sure that you do not lure your puppy, but let it take the initiative itself. That way, its limits are not exceeded in relation to what it is mentally ready for. This will give your dog self-confidence when it does things of its own accord, and not because it was lured/forced. Also, always ensure your puppy's safety. If you use a harness on your puppy, you can hold on to the harness so that it does not fall off things. If you do not use a harness, make sure that the things you want to challenge your puppy with are not higher up than if it jumps down, that it does not get hurt.
I wish you good luck with your puppy.
About Helle Hoffmann:
Helle Hoffmann is a trained dog physiotherapist, reiki healer and craniosacral therapist for animals and humans, animal telepath, lecturer and co-author of the highly topical dog book: Læg din pate i min.
She also teaches craniosacral therapy for dogs.
Helle is the owner of Hoffmann Dog Massage & Physiotherapy, has her own clinic in Mørkøv and is at Furesø Veterinary Clinic one day a week.
She has 30 years of experience with her own dogs and dog training. Right now, she and her husband have 7 dogs: Addie (Labrador), Enya (Labrador) and Gracie (blind Cairn Terrier), Novo (Mallinois), Bastian (Labrador), Connor (Labrador) and Emmett (Labrador).
See more about Helle's work at:
https://helle-hoffmann.dk
How to get a durable dog: From puppy to senior dog - Part 1
This mini guide was created in collaboration with dog physiotherapist Helle Hoffmann and is in 3 parts.
Along the way, you will receive good advice and tips on how to best care for your dog throughout its life.
The first part deals with what you can do while the dog is a puppy.
Start when your dog is a puppy
The moment you take your puppy home, you are taking responsibility for its well-being for the rest of its life. I'm sure you're fully aware of that. But have you also thought about the fact that the habits you establish now, while your puppy is still very young, will have an impact on how it will fare in its old age? If you want a durable dog that will have the longest and best possible life and the best possible old age, then you need to start as soon as you bring your little puppy home.
Tip #1: Keep your dog slim
One of the most important things for your dog's health is its weight. If your dog is already overweight as a puppy, there is an increased risk that it will also be overweight as an adult. There is also an increased risk that your dog will develop joint problems due to the increased weight load when it gets older.
Your little puppy may have a small, fat puppy belly after eating. But otherwise, it should have a slim figure and belly. Your puppy is actually better off being 10% underweight than 20% overweight. Being overweight throughout a dog's life can mean that years are taken off its life. A study has shown that being 20% overweight throughout a dog's life will mean that it will live an average of 2 years shorter than if it had been kept at a normal weight throughout its life. That is why it is incredibly important from the start to ensure that your dog does not become too fat.
Until the puppy is about 6 months old, it grows a lot and therefore needs a lot of energy. But when its weight curve flattens out around 6 months of age (depending on the breed of your dog), you need to be careful. Make sure that if you go to training, for example, where your puppy gets a lot of treats, you subtract that from the food account. That way you can ensure that it doesn't eat too much.
Tip no. 2: Ensure adequate and varied exercise.
Now, I may have written exercise, but in reality, your puppy doesn't need exercise - at least not for the first year of its life. And when I say exercise, I mean long walks or monotonous movement.
Your puppy needs experiences first and foremost. That's why I would recommend that even if you have dreamed that when you got a dog, you would go for long walks with it, you should instead just go to the nearest park, the harbor or similar with your puppy and let it explore the surroundings, meet other dogs, etc.
With the above, I don't mean that you should wrap your puppy in cotton wool. Your puppy also needs to use his body so that he can get a strong body, but uniform exercise can directly harm him. Your puppy needs to run, jump, dig, climb, balance, jump, crawl, etc. He needs this to get strong muscles, strong ligaments and good body motor skills. But everything in moderation of course. 20 jumps in a row up and down from a high platform is not healthy for your puppy.
Again, it is important to establish good gross motor skills in puppyhood, as this will influence your dog's gross motor skills for the rest of his life. This leads me to the next tip.
Tip #3: Focus on environmental and balance training
As I wrote above, your dog does not need any specific exercise during the first year of its life. Instead, it needs environmental training in the form of lots of (positive) experiences. This does not mean that you should not do anything physical with your puppy. What it will benefit from is, for example, training that will strengthen its body motor skills. This can be, for example, controlled play with other dogs, but also walking on a tree trunk and jumping up and sitting on a tree stump. It may also be that there is a playground near where you live that you can visit with your puppy when there are no children using it. A playground for children provides plenty of opportunities to train your puppy's body motor skills and balance. For example, let it walk across a suspension bridge or up onto a tree trunk or bench. However, it is important that you make sure that your puppy cannot get injured by jumping down and hitting itself.
This type of training will not only strengthen your dog's body but also strengthen your dog's psyche and give it greater mental strength. However, it is important that when you train your puppy in this way, you always let it take the initiative and that you do not lure it. You can do this by throwing a few treats onto, for example, a suspension bridge on the playground. You should not try to lure your dog onto the bridge, but simply be patient and wait until it is so tempted by the treats that it cannot help but take a step onto the bridge. It may be that at first it only takes one step out, eats the treat and then quickly returns to safe ground. You can let your puppy have a short break and then try again and see if this time it does not get onto the bridge faster or perhaps takes more than one step.
Always make sure that you do not lure your puppy, but let it take the initiative itself. That way, its limits are not exceeded in relation to what it is mentally ready for. This will give your dog self-confidence when it does things of its own accord, and not because it was lured/forced. Also, always ensure your puppy's safety. If you use a harness on your puppy, you can hold on to the harness so that it does not fall off things. If you do not use a harness, make sure that the things you want to challenge your puppy with are not higher up than if it jumps down, that it does not get hurt.
I wish you good luck with your puppy.
About Helle Hoffmann:
Helle Hoffmann is a trained dog physiotherapist, reiki healer and craniosacral therapist for animals and humans, animal telepath, lecturer and co-author of the highly topical dog book: Læg din pate i min.
She also teaches craniosacral therapy for dogs.
Helle is the owner of Hoffmann Dog Massage & Physiotherapy, has her own clinic in Mørkøv and is at Furesø Veterinary Clinic one day a week.
She has 30 years of experience with her own dogs and dog training. Right now, she and her husband have 7 dogs: Addie (Labrador), Enya (Labrador) and Gracie (blind Cairn Terrier), Novo (Mallinois), Bastian (Labrador), Connor (Labrador) and Emmett (Labrador).
See more about Helle's work at:
https://helle-hoffmann.dk