Do you believe Irish Wolfhound puppies should be allowed to run as much as they want or should their exercise be limited until their growth plates seal? For McGruff, we wanted to be as protective as possible. We limited a lot of his play to include not jumping, minor running outside, and we carried him up stairs and around large objects until he was just too big to carry. He is now 2 and has run in the FCATS with no problems and is not showing any signs of joint problems. He loves jumping into the truck and over logs in the mountains. Now we also have Luna, she was never laid back as McGruff was and always full of energy to play. As a result, it was nearly impossible to stop her from excessive exercise. She would jump onto and over the couch, sprint up the stairs, race around the table and chairs, run outside and jump up and into anything she could find. We stopped her when we could, but she regularly caught us off guard sprinting away and jumping on things. She even got herself caught in a patio chair because she ran and jumped into it while sprinting around the yard. She is just over 1 now with no obvious joint issues, but we are not ready to run her in any FCATS yet to see how she fairs. They both get ample play out in the mountains with hiking and tracking so I think their joints are going to be pretty strong, but I'm curious to see if Luna's intense play will cause joint issues or not.
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