About Berners and Doodles
This is very important information to guarantee proper and healthy growth for your Bernedoodle puppy or Bernese puppy.
This information is not for Bernedoodles alone. Any large breed puppy owner should take the time to read this.
Puppy Care Information
This is an X-ray of a 2 week old puppy( left ) - look at how far the bones have to grow before they become a proper bone joint! This is why you should never let puppies jump off of beds, couch, steps or even out of the car. They should not travel up/down stairs, over exercise or over train. Never take your puppy to play with older faster dogs, they can't keep up but will not stop trying. Do not have them chase toys on slippery floors, and on ice, where they will repeatedly slamming their shoulder into the hard surface. Doing to much impact activity at a young age can cause serious issues later in life, or even at a young age. Hip dysplasia, ACL tears and other orthopaedic conditions are rising in puppies!
Remember the puppy rule for every month increase activity by 5 minutes. For example a two month old puppy only needs 10 minutes of physical activity a day - a 6 month old (right) only needs 30 minutes a day of physical activity!
A Bernese Mountain Dog or Bernedoodle needs daily exercise (30 minutes twice a day). If not they may have trouble in adjusting to the calm house pet role that most owners expect. Remember if you are looking for a dog to jog with you 365 days a year this is not the breed for you. Puppies should have controlled walks and a good rule is five minutes for every month of life. You can do this walk two or three times a day. If your puppy collapses from exhaustion on returning from a walk.., you are doing damage to joints, ligaments, tendons and muscle. Remember repetitive inflammation causes permanent damage. Connecting the dots between excessive exercise -- injury – surgeries is common place with large breed dogs. This diagram shows the growth plates which will close (indicated by the arrows) between 6-24 months and which joints are most vulnerable (indicated by the red circles). The average age for injured puppy is 9-13 months - The story is always the same...folks don't understand what happened; "...he's been doing (this) for months, and then all of a sudden, BANG, he came back on three legs"! Truth is, the puppy was injured because he had been exercising at levels that are only safe for mature dogs (hiking for an hour or longer, running at full tilt after Chuck-It balls or beside a bike...)! How this happened should be no mystery - the diagram illustrates all the asymmetrical development of puppy's limbs! The hips, shoulders, elbows, stifles, hocks and SPINE are all vulnerable, creating more serious risks than when he was a wee tot!
DO NOT over exercise your puppy, especially with dogs that are more active and lighter framed…they do not have the draft frame like your dog and can move much faster and turn faster…your puppy will try to keep up with them and potentially hurt themselves long term or short term! They can tear connective tissue when trying to keep up with other dogs. Too much exercise has been shown to cause ED/ HD and cruciate ligaments at an early age. As with any exercise program start slowly and increase as you go along. Start with flat areas and walking. Then slowly add small hills to build muscle tissue which will support joints.
The causes for cranial cruciate ligament disease are most frequently caused by repetitive micro-injury to the cranial cruciate ligament, that is, putting pressure on the ligament in the same way, repeatedly. This action causes slight stretching of the ligament each time, altering the structure, and eventually causing the ligament to tear.