E-Mail von Dr. Jerry Vanek*, Veterinär bei Expeditionen und
großen Hundeschlittenrennen sowie Schlittenhundespezialist:
...
Regarding puppies and exercise: Time is more important than distance. However, I am suspicious of most time and distance "rules", as cells don't have human clocks and calendars. Most important of all is variety. The worst thing when young is excessive repetition. So, a puppy can play until it falls down exhausted and falls asleep, as long as the puppy gets to decide when that is. A puppy's brain is wired to respond to exhausted muscles. It's us grownups who don't know when to quit.
So, the more variation, the better. I would not jog with a puppy in harness for long periods as that is too much repetition. Better to run and play freely with water to splash in, obstacles to run around, climb, or jump over, etc. The puppy needs to learn where all its body parts are and how to use them. Agility over endurance. Knowledge over skill. Endurance and skill come with age.
Expose her to small doses of every sport and activity there is and let her natural abilities develop according to her likes and dislikes and the genes she inherited. In harness, do different kinds of pulling - a little hard, a lot of light, walking, trotting, loping, on asphalt, rocks, grass, tree roots, straight, curvy, uphill, downhill, but always mindful that the puppy is having a lot of fun; try to quit while the puppy is still wanting to go. That way, it won't overextend itself, or learn how to quit on its own, or start to think of fun as work, or use one set of muscles and joints too much until there is injury. Over time, you can capitalize on what she does best and then increase the specialization with maturity.
Successful mushers use speed ("freedom") as a reward. That is, the dogs learn that running fast is fun. That can only happen if they never get hurt running fast too soon, and if they are stopped before they are too tired and discouraged, or even injured and want to quit. You start with puppies believing that there will be something new and different around every corner and their reward is when you let them discover it. The art of training them is to know how to progress from uncontrolled freedom to controlled freedom as a reward for work.
A human child that likes to kick things is slowly taught to kick round things and then kick round things in one direction and then round footballs toward a goal and so learns the freedom that controlled kicking can be more fun than just kicking things anywhere, getting bored, and quitting.
Dogs, too, once they learn to retrieve specific things, will do it all day long, unlike an untrained dog that may retrieve something once an then get bored and quit. So puppies that start out playing in all things are schooled, as their bodies can handle it, to succeed at one thing and then want to do it more and more. By the time they are adults, the musher makes them haul a heavy load (by riding the brake) and the dogs know that sooner or later, the brake comes off and they get to run as fast as they can (with the musher wisely stopping them before they become exhausted or injured and stop on their own). It's a gradual evolution and an art. There are no numbers or distances or minutes to calculate with the young. It is all by "feel."
...
* Dr. Jerry Vanek's career with sled dogs has taken him from the southern tip of Chile to the northern tip of Norway to the Karoo of South Africa; from Boston to Nome; and from North Dakota to the Yukon. He has served as a sled dog veterinarian on 90 races and expeditions including the Iditarod, Quest, Beargrease, CanAm, UP200, Femundløpet, and Finnmarksløpet; the Mount Vaughan Antarctic Expedition, and three 1925 Diphtheria Serum Run reenactments. A musher since his teens and former sprint race competitor, he still drives dogs whenever he can. He is a past president, life member, and charter board member of the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association (ISDVMA).
Over the past two decades, Dr. Vanek has presented more than 130 lectures and publications on sled dogs and sled dog medicine to veterinarians and mushers on three continents. He is a certified canine rehabilitation therapist (CCRT) with a veterinary practice focused on sled dog medicine, and he is the co-inventor of the Ultimate Wrist Wrap, still the most commonly-used carpal wrist wrap in use today.