zoey11

I have a 18-week old female toy poodle, and today I made a little obstacle course, in our large basement. I set up two 6-inch jumps and then threw a tennis ball to the end of the hallway, and she would jump both jumps and return the ball. We did this for about an hour, as she (and I!) really enjoyed it. She jumped the two 6-inch EFFORTLESSLY. It was so cute!

Anyway, I've heard poodles (toy, mini and standard) shouldn't jump until they are a certain age, so I was wandering, did this do any harm? Can I continue it? It's so fun!

Thanks,

zoey11

Curlydogs

I am sure some people with more experience will have some thoughts on this, but as far as I understand, jumping puppies too young can cause injuries and is not good for their joints. In my agility classes puppies get started with introductory stuff/play - the balance board, ground work, planks on the grounds, going through jump stanchions with the bar on the ground, etc. At my dog club, I don't think puppies do any serious jump training at any real height until at least 12-14 months. (I don't know what full jump height would be for a full grown toy - maybe around 6"?)

It is great that you and your pup had so much fun with the obstacle course - it sounds like she may be a natural! I would not think that you did damage with one jumping session, but if it were me, I would not continue jumping at any height for a few more month and just stick to foundation games.

neVar

once in a blue moon won't hurt her. But don't do it until closer to 12 months. but keep br on the ground and work on 'over' and othre basics.

Maybe look for a puppy agility class!

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Purley

My friend has a Coton show quality puppy and its in the contract that the puppy can't go down stairs until a certain age. So she carries it outside. I have never heard that. Lucy is nine months old and she jumps off our deck at times, but I wouldn't put her over jumps until she is about a year old.

debjen

I work my puppies on jumps with no bars..graduating to jumps with bars on the ground and slowly working up to their full jump height around 1 year of age..(for smaller dogs, 18 months for larger dogs)...when I do work my puppies it is for a few minutes at a time not for an hour..that much repetitive jumping could possibly due damage to their joints in the long run.

Sounds like you might have an gility dog there..I would recommend finding a good foundations agility class .. a class where they start to teach the basics needed for agility.

flyingduster

regimented jumping over set jumps (ie like the agility jumps) is to be minimal until their growth plates have closed (generally around a year old)

Until their growth plates have closed, keep the jumps to the height of their 'wrist' joint (the one right above the foot, and below the 'knee'. So for a toy poodle puppy it'd probably be only an inch or something!!) yes it is ridiculously short, but it won't jolt their joints and will still be fun to play with and teach her to jump and stuff.

Note that yes I KNOW she can jump a heck of a lot higher. Most puppies can jump as high as themselves, if not higher, without any real effort, but jumping about while wrestling and playing and being silly is entirely different to the pounding of jump jump jump of agility style jumps/obstacles and while jumping about when playing and so forth is fine, keep agility style jumps to the wrist joint for pups.

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Rocketagility

Flyingduster is correct Keep the jump heights low untill the pup is I would say 14 months old. One thing I did with my pup is I teach a jump up onto things and I don't let them jump down. So this way the dog learns how to jump but the landing is soft.