Carrying puppies to avoid hips problems

[Melisssss]

Is it true that should should caryy your puppies until they are to big to carry when they go up and down the stairs to avoid hip problems when they get older? Someone has advised me to do so but I honestly have never heard of this.

[BostonRott]

Complete silliness. My litters are doing stairs by 6 weeks of age and I do nothing to discourage it. Hips have come out Good/Excellent so far. Same with my dogs.....they do stairs as soon as they arrive here. 2 Excellents, 3 Goods and 1 due in August (pre-lim'd as Good).

If the genes are there for bad hips, you're going to have bad hips. If the genes are there for good hips, stairs are not going to cause bad hips. OFA will verify this for you.

[Melisssss]

Thanks! Seemed strange to me because it would be such a cheap fix if your arms could only holdout long enough ;)

[Jhum2001]

The only thing that I have heard in regards to puppy development and going easy on hips is to limit the amount of exercise on pavement (only pavement though) because the hard surface can put extra stress on the joints, especially while they are still growing and strengthening. I have no factual info to back this up- just advice from fellow breeder.

[BabyBrownz]

What I was told in regard to stairs is just train them to go up and down slowly to prevent a slip. It's the slip that would cause injury to the hips not going up and down.

[stella123]

i dont allow my dog up stairs, fortunaly she hasn't quite figured out how to get up them yet lol, i dont think it matters if your dog goes up the stairs at a young age..

[Hoochiepoo]

in my experience, i've never had this issue. When puppies are ready, they'll do the steps. Some questions are completely common sense questions. If they are too little, carry them, if not, teach them. I couldn't imagine having to ask such a question.

[rencook]

The only reason I carried my girl up and down the steps as a pup was because she would try and FLY down the steps-usually missing one or two and crashing into the drywall.

[BabyBrownz]

Originally Posted by rencook

The only reason I carried my girl up and down the steps as a pup was because she would try and FLY down the steps-usually missing one or two and crashing into the drywall.

Same thing would happen with our old guy when he was a pup. I swear he thought he was SuperDog and would try to launch off the steps at 4 months of age..not a good thing, lol. We had to put him on a leash and train him to take his time.

[DANBUDDE]

While i'm not sure about the stair climbing.I wont let mine jump out of my truck as i feel it puts too much strain on the joints on the landing.In fact, i have a ramp which i use to have my pup enter and exit the truck.It might sound goofy but right now he's 70lbs at 6months and as he gets bigger, i dont want lingering joint or hip problems bothering him in his adult life.

[Eros]

My pup use to fly down stairs too. I've since trained her to take her time. Now, she flies off my couch, onto tile floor. I'm thinking of building a ramp for her to use. Her father and mother are OFA excellent and great, respectively, so I'm not too worried about her hips later, when her growing ends. I defintely don't want to cause damage to them now though.