We just got a 6 to 7 year old black lab from a rescue so that he could have a nice home. He has been to the vet and been cleared as healthy.

My question is how much exercise is good for him on a daily basis? I have taken him running with me and he is pretty tired after 1 mile of jogging...he slows down and pants pretty heavily. When playing fetch he will chase balls down but he doesn't go too hard. He just jogs after the ball and jogs back. After about 20 minutes he starts to lose interest. I have never seen a lab who gets tired if fetch. He would rather sit and be petted, he loves that.

Any recomendations on what is good for a dog starting to get older. Should I keep dragging him out to jog with me?

He probably out of shape. Start out with short walks.

I agree with K9-Man. Start with short walks and work your way up to longer bouts of exercise. 6 to 7 is not really that old, IMHO. My 7 year old adores swimming and would swim for hours each day if I would let him. With that said however, if your new senior is not used to exercise, you have to take it slow.

I also rescued a 7 year old lab. Marv was very overweight and out of shape. We started out with walks, fairly short. Even now almost a year later, I am careful with him, we walk twice a day and at least once a day we walk to somewhere we can play fetch and he will run for a ball, but he gets tired pretty quickly.

Swimming would be a great exercise!!! :)
Walks are always fun, but swimming is the best! :)

I also agree....because he is a rescue (bless you for rescuing him) , he probably isn't used to so much exercise at once and he may be a little "out of shape".

I would start out slow and as he builds up his stamina, then add a little more exercise...be careful not to over work him. I would hold off on jogging with him...nice walks would be better.

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise, especially for seniors, it is very low impact and not as hard on the hips and joints.

We would love to see a picture of him!

Thanks to all of you for your help. I will take all of your advice and we (my wife and I) will get him back in shape. He seems to have a lot of energy but it drains quickly.

I will try to get some pictures of him up soon. He has a little gray on his face, chin and paws but a nice full black coat otherwise. My wife loves him.

Thanks again for your help.

Thanks to all of you for your help. I will take all of your advice and we (my wife and I) will get him back in shape. He seems to have a lot of energy but it drains quickly.

I will try to get some pictures of him up soon. He has a little gray on his face, chin and paws but a nice full black coat otherwise. My wife loves him.

Thanks again for your help.I also adopted an 8yr. old lab and she is a bit slow but she started swimming and she seems to be getting in better shape daily .I also notice that the colder the weather the more energy she has.

we take maxine swimming as often as we can... her estimated age will be 9 years old on thanksgiving. even a couple of blocks of walking will make her achey, but swimming wears her out and no sore joints.

I rescued my dog 3 months ago and she was 10 lbs thinner. I feed her good food and walk her at least twice a day for 15 minutes at a time. Your dog will let you know when she's tired. I wish I had a place to take Lucy swimming but it gets pretty cold in New Jersey.

if he was in a rescue, if he was in a facility, chance are he didnt get much exercize, and needs a slow build up. if he was in a foster, often they have multiple dogs and they dont get as much exercise as they would like,
my lab mixes get bored with fetch after a few throws. and even when off leash in the park, they run around for five minutes then want to lie down and chew on sticks. the 1 1/2 yr old, doesnt go real hard real long. the 10 yr old, has always been low key, they are both mixes so that may have something to do with it.
you could have gotten the hyper active dog which would drive you crazy the other way.
thanks for adopting a senior dog.

I would not jog with him at all. Start out with short walks and build up his endurance. He is older...and being a rescue dog probably has had minimal activity. We adopted a 2 year old lab recently and could not believe that she could not fetch ( i dont think she was ever played with) and lagged on 20 minute walks. She is thin, so it definitely is a lack of activity thing (clean bill of health from the vet). She is doing better, though. My 10 year old lab has hip dysplasia severly but would love to walk. I limit her to about 10 minutes, it is sad to see her rear end wiggle and lag behind. Good luck~

My old man, Jack (10.5 years) does so much better when swims as opposed to running and fetching. He is a mad man chasing the ball and has the same drive with the first throw as the 100th. When we get home, though, he has a tough time getting up the stairs to my front door and is slow and achy for a while (even though he's on Rimadyl). When he swims, he (almost) bounds up the stairs when we get home. It's such great excersize becasue it's so much easier on the joints.

You have to leave it up to them, they will tell you. Our 7.5 year old lab, is definitly less active, but she loves slow strolls, walking around sniffing things, but could swim for hours without tiring. It was intially hard for me to see her less active, but now I just think she enjoys other things and we try to give her those fun times. Our pup, (little one) can go for hours, will fetch, run around like a maniac, it all depends. See when your new senior looks the happiest and go with that.

I adopted a 9 year old lab from a rescue. The best exercise for an older lab is swimming. It is easy on their hips and, of course, they are bred just for that purpose. I would recommend getting some water toys since they love to swim out there and retrieve