Puppy and Stairs

[LucaGiantSchnauzer]

Hello everyone. We introduced a Giant Schnauzer puppy, Luca, into our family on December 20th. I am a law enforcement officer new to this breed. I have owned several dogs throughout my life including Dobermans and Rhodesian Ridgebacks. I also have tons of experience with German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois due to my job. What I can say is my wife and I are in love with the Giant Schnauzer breed so far (this is her first dog). Our Luca is so smart and already follows several commands in Estonian. We also train him without treats.

My question is regarding our puppy and stairs. We live in a brand new three story house and we have four flights of stairs. Our puppy chases our young daughter everywhere. He loves to run up and down the stairs and jump from height. He does this countless times a day. While observing our puppy run up and down the stairs today, it hit me that he might be straining his joints. He is a big pup, and when he runs up and down the stairs it looks like he is moving in slow motion. He has taken several big tumbles off the stairs too, but always seems unaffected and happy.

After doing some research today, it appears that the general opinion of allowing puppies to run up and down the stairs is that it's an absolute no-no. For this reason, starting today, we are no longer allowing Luca to run up and down the stairs and will be buying a dog gate so he can remain on the first floor and if he needs to go up or back down, we will carry him. I'm kicking myself in the shin for not realizing this sooner.

He has been a loving member of our family for almost three weeks and he is scheduled to go to protection school with my wife when he is 16 weeks old. Luca is only 12 weeks old right now. Do you think by allowing Luca to run up and down the stairs, and jump around everywhere, we might have permanently damaged his joints/hips? We take care not to overfeed him and follow the recommended feeding schedule to promote healthy growth. Just thinking about the damage we might have caused to Luca is stressing me out. We hope to have Luca as a part of our family for a very, very long time.

[Oscar 12345]

Hi Calvin, welcome to the forum. What's done is done so there really is no point worrying about it, try to forget it now. The important thing is to protect Luca's joints from this point onwards which means restricting where you can the jumping up and down stuff including furniture, steps, etc. and adhering to the solid pavement walking guidelines of 5 mins/month for each walk. A larger dogs joints to take longer to develop and I don't think they fully mature physically until around 18 months. Leigh (Zeta) has a link to a good article about puppy walking guidelines which are helpful.

[zeta1454]

Welcome to the Forum Calvin

As Julie says don't worry about anything that may have happened in the first weeks with Luca going up and down stairs... but equally well might not! Luca is still very young and you can do all you can now to protect his bones and ligaments, and build up his muscles.

There is a link here which should prove useful as a guide to the amount and kinds of exercise appropriate for growing puppies:

https://shoppuppyculture.com/pages/age- ... e-exercise