This type of thing was told to me by my breeder who had a puppy that was heavily trained in agility before the age of one year (and spayed young thus fewer hormones for bone development) and had a hip problem. I had to agree not to do heavy agility training before full bone development and not to spay early. My pup was from agility lines and it was encouraged, just not before full bone development. That does not mean normal running/playing/racing and training and agility basics. Agility requires lots of twisting/turning/stopping/jumping. Once the bones are mature it is fine and poodles do well. This is something that pertains to ALL breeds (and humans, too), not just poodles.

Hip dysplasia is not as common as it was ten years ago before testing for it became the norm. My last standard had hip dysplasia and had trouble from the age of about 8 years. Almost all large breeds can have hip issues, but they do not have to. If the parents had strong hips the likelyhood is the puppies will have great hips, too. I take my puppy on shortish hikes. I also do not allow her to try to keep up with my whippet when he runs. She plays and jumps and runs enough on her own. And, yes, it is true that too much exercise when bones and muscles are developing can cause hip dysplasia. I believe that anyway. The bones are not hard enough while they are growing to withstand repeated stresses. This is only for extreme sports like agility.

This does not mean your puppy should never run. Play away!

 

At what age are long walks okay? I've heard differing opinions but on my IG forum they say not before 8 months, even though iggys are not prone to HD.

 

What is considered long? As soon as I got Tiger at 6 months I began taking him on 1 hour walks - at the park or just along the street. I do not run with my poodles until they are 18 months. I believe I built Millie up to 30 min - 1 hour walks very young. I don't think that leisure to moderate walks will be harmful.

 

Our vet said they've really moved from the belief that it's just genetic over the years and think that may have something to do with it, but what happens when they're young is probably more important. He was concerned at how quickly our spoo was growing in the first few months and had us switch to adult food sooner to try to slow it down a bit. He didn't say anything specific about types of exercise, but I did read somewhere that you should discourage activities that involve jumping - like catching a frisbee - when they're young. I've been trying to teach ours to just catch stuff that I toss to him in his mouth for now so he doesn't have to jump for it. What a double-edged sword - you're probably more easily able to train them for things when young but then risk hurting their joints!

 

I don't believe it can cause hip dysplasia (I'm of the opinion that HD is genetic), but I do think strenuous, forced high impact activity (like running on pavement, repeated jumping off things, etc.) can damage the proper development of cartilage and bursa in the joints and cause early arthritis.

As long as you are not forcing the pup to walk far distances, or let them take breaks when they want/need, then I don't think it's too risky.

Matrix has HD and up until now, he never really showed outward signs of it unless he was playing catch. Now at 8 years old, his HD is much more apparent as he really struggles to get up on slippery surfaces and such.

 

If that was true though wouldn't all large breeds be equally susceptible? Eg a Labrador has a abnormal percentage of 12, a GSD has one of 19%, German short-haired pointer, 4%.. St Bernard, 46% yet a Tibetan mastiff which is of a similar size to a St Bernard, has one of only 14%.

That being said I *do* think there is a component to stress on joints when young but I'd think that maybe for a dog that is borderline hip dysplasic, it just makes it worse and symptomatic later in life when otherwise it might not be. I don't think it can *cause* hip dysplasia. I think genetics still play a much bigger role based on the hip scores of different breeds. Overbreeding probably plays a huge part as well as structure.. The bigger, more stocky breeds carry a generally higher percentage of dysplasic hips. The bulldog being the worst at over 70%.

 

I think the statement is a bit of a scapegoat. I have mixed breed dogs. My 1st was diagnosed with HD at 8 months after pulling a ligment in his hind leg & the vet said "rest" which is normal. But the leg ended up with a different lameness so when I took him back we did hip x-rays & found severe HD. SO NO my dog was NEVER over exercised at that point. We had only been doing obedience work. My other Mixed had great hips & was doing Agility & Obedience at a young age. Had his first Agility title at around 1 year of age & NO HD. ON the other hand my parents had a pure, poorly breed (inbreed) GR that was lame on all 4 legs. He had OCD & HD with NO impact exercise at ALL. At 6 months of age he had his 1st surgeries for OCD. Once healed from those surgeries the vet decided which hip was the worst & redid that hip by breaking it apart & wiring it together again. That specialist said he had never done all 4 joints on a dog & wasn't about too, so the dog was left with a a dysplastic hip that didn't have surgery. This was without fail a genetic problem & had nothing to do with exercise.

These dogs weren't really "heavy" either. Mixed breed was 22" & 64-68lbs (with HD), Mixed without HD was 27" & 56-58lbs, GR with OCD & HD was about 24" & 72-76lbs.

 

I do think you can cause skeletal issues with heavy exercise under a year because, like I said, the bones are not fully hardened and still growing. There is a genetic component surely, but I don't think a dog should be doing things like weight pull competitions and hoop jumping over and over when under a year old. I believe joint, ligament and tendon problems can be caused in suseptible breeds with extreme exercise when young. Genetic hip dysplasia can happen with or without exercise. Obvious to me is it has both a genetic and environmental component.

Here is a good site and here is a quote for it:
Both genes and environment have significant effects on the expression of hip dysplasia. The disease has a heritability of between 0.25 and 0.48. This means that 25 to 48 percent of the variability in hip dysplasia development is due to additive genetic factors. We may interpret this to mean that both genetic and environmental influences impact the progression of the disease.
http://bakerinstitute.vet.cornell.edu/animalhealth/page.php?id=1104