I recently (two days ago) adopted a lovely, 12 week old Siberian cross and she has a wonderful energy. I'm excited about it because I want her for long distance trail running and eventually skijorring.

She has extreme highs where all she wants to do is sprint around, chase balls, and run like a maniac. Which is great, and I will run her along a trail for a short distance, along the roadside or play with her toys. Afterwards she crashes and sleeps for two hours or so (which is also pretty great, lol).

So my question is how old should she be before I run with her? And what games are good to play that might have some element of training to them rather than just mouthy, ball throwing which seems to backtrack us a little on the "no using your teeth" rule. I don't want to encourage mouthiness but most importantly I don't want to stress her joints while she's in a such a rapid growth phase.

Any information or insight on this would be great.

Here's a pic:

On the trail:


Crashing (hahaha):

so cute Leo loved to sleep by the couch too at that age . usually free ruining and puppy play groups or puppy preschool are good. at that age i played with Leo by having run around after us every now an then, for sort bursts. i also used a toy tied to rope or a plastic soda bottle, that's his favorite game and have him chase it. and were still working on the hole fetch idea, so far he'll fetch for peanuts     . working on basic training is also good too. and food dispensing toys are also good for brain workouts .

The whole sleeping on the floor thing is so new for us. Our pit would do anything and everything he could to cuddle on the couch- I feel a bit lonely without it now!

I have an antler/rope toy that we play with as well as a ball/rope toy. The toys with ropes seem to stimulate her the most and they are the most entertaining for her when she's just playing by herself. She's game to run with me and seems to really enjoy it but I've read huskies will run themselves beyond tired so while my pit just plopped down when he was content, I'm worried she'll just keep pushing herself.

How do you use the pop bottle? I image the squishiness and sound would be something Qinu would just love.

i also tie it to a rope and he chases it around i some times put small rocks in there just for noise making, loves the noises   . and some times i use it like a soccer ball. Leo tends to take brakes on his own when hes tired, but tends to get a bit grouchy when tired , well if hes way to tired anyway.

I'd watch and see if they start slow down and are not quite as fast as when you started, i used the five minute rule. which is 5 minutes of excises per month; example if they are 5 months the can have 20 minutes of exercises 2 times a day.

i would usually make him stop playing do to over excitement which was usually  flowed by some nipping    still working on the over excitement thing, which is getting better with age . then make him take a 5 minute break and then start the play section again. so far nipping rarely happens now .

I love that idea :-)

I'll use that 5 minute rule as a guideline and see if I can gauge how much she's actually highly active during the day. It feels like it could cumulatively be as much as 2-3 hours but because it's so one and off it might just feel that way. Even with a solid hike and river time yesterday she was running around the house.

my trainer has one of those dog, its her American stapphire terrier named Pearl. the dose hikes, agility, barn hunt, and dog diving. and her dog still runs a muck like then never did any thing. she told me she has to create do get her to sleep, or even nap during the day. .

yeah  i know the feeling, it was like that till around 4 months when he started sleeping through the night, just the 20 minutes of play felt so long when your half a sleep .

Sophie, I'll add to that great advice, getting physical and mental exercise at the same time, will tire her out. I did and still do use play time to reinforce training. So now is the time to start teaching sit, stay, down, leave it, drop it. It is pretty fun for the dog, and you will see the play time/ training time pay off. You can use a ball or toy that you throw and play fetch or play tugs, or you can do this while walking, so the training/playing can be done at any time. In the midst of playing fetch for example you can start teaching drop it, you can practice sit and stay and throw ball or tugs then release her to get it. We must have done this 8-10 times a day for the time limit mentioned above. So 3 months old 15 minutes. Also, great opportunity if you have a yard to teach boundaries, on leash walk the perimeter of your yard, let her do her sniffing thing, if going to far away from safe zone start practicing sled commands, on by for example. Really the only limitations you have is how inventive you are. They do not have any idea you are training, they think it is fun, so it is a win/win. The main point with the 5 minute rule is pavement walking, and running a lot. Their bones and joints need to be protected. I did no real structured walking, running, or hiking until that rule was 30 minutes or at 6 months, and then it was still limited and mainly dirt or grass walking. I know that you are excited about doing the hiking, sledding, and such, but at this time training I think, imho, is far more important and just as rewarding for both of you. This will build a solid bond between you two. And yes this can build up to several hours a day. If you have that type of time, I recommend the play/training. Good Luck and Have Fun!!

BTW, on the mouthiness, it is a very natural thing for a dog, as you already know. Playing tugs is to me very important in the development of bite inhibition. Play tugs and go into it with the understanding that you may get a chomp, wear gloves if you need to. I had better success at teaching Miya not to mouth me by playing tugs than by simply using other methods, trust me I tried the yelping thing, the time outs, etc. Once I realized that she needed this type of play, and I was the director of all of it, the mouthiness subsided drastically. If you have no issues looking like a crazy woman, have Qinu chase you, or as I like to say, be a dog for short periods of time, haha, it is rewarding for both of you, gets the crazies out of her, and again a great way to bond, just go into it with the understanding that you may be butt swiped, taken out at the knees, and well, ummmm, you will look like a total lunatic, but she will love it, lol. You may need to reserve old sweats, and an old t-shirt and possibly gloves, for me I don't care, I do get banged up, but totally worth it.

i hear that, he loves a good game of tug a war every once in a wail too   . he dose get over zelles and nips. I've tried the yelping thing too, but he doesn't always stop nipping. its getting better .

just not sure why he nips wail running around chasing me, but he dose fine wail biking .

He nips while chasing you, because you are his prey at that moment. At his age he should know not to bite too hard, at about a year old they get the fact us humans are wimps haha. I think that type of play is enriching for the dog. I do not live near dog parks, and have only 2 male husky neighbors that my girl can play with, so playing with her like I am another dog, fulfills that need to be with other dogs, that need to chase prey, and just have fun.

With loki I liked to play hide and seek. Someone would keep him in the room with them and I would go to some other room and call his name and he would come find me. It's good for learning name recall. He also used to nip faces a lot so I taught him ' kiss' by pointing at my cheek and giving him a treat when he touched it with his nose without biting. Made that one up myself so I don't know how legitimate it is but it worked for him.

I didn't get all the alerts to your messages!

Thank you all so much for your insight! With Qinu I do play tug-of-war and use it as an opportunity to teach "drop it". Whenever we walk we work on "on by/leave it", and might add "gee" and "haw" in a short while. I run about 50km a week so running is the natural thing to go to to get rid of energy but like I mentioned above, I'm quite concerned about what that could do to her joints at this age.

I really like the ideas you guys have mentioned here. The chasing might have to hold off a bit until she understands she can't bite. Right now she nips/bites a lot and isn't considerate of how hard. So we are trying to just put a stop to it altogether (which she seems to be learning very fast). I definitely understand the desire and need for "dog play" and she us allowed limited play time with vaccinated dogs. Because of when she came in to the rescue she is behind on her puppy shots and we don't want to chance anything. She meets tons of people though and is extremely social.

We do have a large yard and I hadn't really thought using it to teach boundaries. I'll play around with that as well.

I like the "kissing" idea :-) It's kind of sweet and with her rosy red coat she would look so adorable! lol