Meg goes for a hike…

We work really hard to continue socializing puppies while they’re with us and waiting for their new homes. 🙂 To that end, Meg got to go on a short hike on Labor Day Weekend.

It’s important not to overexercise puppies, but most older puppies (Meg is 14 weeks) are well able to keep up on a self-paced walk of half a mile to a mile, especially on softer surfaces like dirt, turf, or gravel compared to pavement. (This is one place I disagree with the Puppy Culture ‘best practices’ guides- I feel like it’s very conservative for all but the most extremely built breeds, of which pomskies are not one.)  Meg spent time on leash and dragging a leash (this particular hiking area is also popular with trail riders, and we wanted to make sure that she didn’t get any Wild Ideas if horses suddenly appeared from the trees, as visibility isn’t great on portions of the trail.

When hiking or exercising with puppies, it’s important to let them go at their own pace and encourage them to sniff and explore. Most active puppies WILL happily run to keep up with you even when they really shouldn’t, so walking at a relaxed pace yourself and letting the puppy dart ahead and then catch up with you benefits them by both forcing him to vary his pace AND teaching him to keep an eye on where you are in relation to him.

Your job, as the one with thumbs and a larger brain, is to carefully supervise your puppy. If he’s not paying any attention to where you are, he’s not ready to drag a leash. (So use a long-line or even a (gasp) flexi-lead).  He won’t have any idea about any hazards on the trail, so you have to be alert to them and ready to keep him from getting into dangerous situations or from being a pest to other dogs or walkers you may encounter.

Sniffing is great for dogs’ brains, and hikes are a great chance to go sniff some new ‘snoofs’. 🙂