Puppies jumping up and down from SUV? Ok or not?
Our 8 month old boy OES (Oliver) is a big lad and weighs about 37kilos now / c. 80lbs. He is not fat, just from big parents, and the veterinarian is satisfied with his height to weight ratio. My question is about our car: Oliver is getting a bit too heavy to pick up and put in the car, so is he old enough to jump in and out? The car is a BMW X3 SUV. I am not sure how high that tailgate entry is. It is definitely lower than the larger American made SUVs but a little higher than a Volvo station wagon. We live in Holland which is as flat as a pancake and Oliver does not come upstairs in our house so getting in and out of the car is really the only jumping he will do. I am just a bit concerned about damaging growing joints. Any advice welcome! Thank you. |
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| Should be ok if not done to often. I got a 5 month old that will jump off my deck that is higher that any suv,and I usually try to stop her from doing it so many times. |
| Our dog is spoiled. We don't allow it and pick her up to get UP or DOWN from the vehicles. I probably would allow it if I felt her legs were sturdy. She's exceptionally tall and it just looks like a lot of pressure when she slams down to the ground. |
| I hadn't considered this...
We allow the girls to jump in but never out... but we have an SUV. We'll be faced with this same weight challenge when we get a boy... His daddy at 2 years, 4 months weighs 113 pounds http://oesusa.com/PuppyBoy/Justin.jpg . The only other option I can think of is a ramp we purchased a while back... |
| It's not the jumping in, as some have surmised, it's the jumping out (down) that could perhaps be an issue. But, honestly, how many times a day does your average dog jump out of a car? With a young puppy, I'd be concerned. But by 8 mos old they're tall enough that it's not a huge drop and it's not like they're doing it 50 times a day so I probably wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. You do be concerned about jumping out onto ice or something like that.
Jaci - for your projected big boy   , you teach him to put his paws up on command and then you lift his butt. This is also done on the grooming table from when they are tall enough to put their feet up. It's not to save them from themselves - Macy jumps up onto the top of my 3 ft tall dog walk from a standstill - it's to save your back!!! It's much easier to scoot a butt up than lift an entire large dog. Down from the grooming table and, for instance, SUV, I'm not so sure as I have small bitches and even my lone male isn't that big, so I can lift them down. Hopefully somebody with bigger dogs has some ideas on that one.
Kristine |
| ^^
This is what yuki does since she's never learned to "jump in" or "jump out" of anything. Everyone who sees this laughs since here we have a huge dog with her paws on the back end waiting to be pushed in ...as if she cant jump. |
| We do this with Kaytee and Panda too... they put their front feet up
and we give them a boost. We'll definitely do this with buddy-boy. Thanks Kristine. |
I've always had dogs on the bigger end, even Daisy was 100 lbs. I never let them jump off a grooming table or from the truck. When they got too heavy to lift I bought an electric grooming table and ramps for the trucks. Also good for me since I have herniated cervical and limber discs  |
| my two jump in and out - mostly. but I have a RAV 4 and that is lower to the ground. I had heard- oh mandy!!!!- that the grooming table issue is to protect their hocks.
I have ot admit they dont seem to leap out of the car, but sort of lower themselves down. |
| You can get a ramp and teach them to walk up and down to and from cars etc. |
| I find this interesting - mine jump in and out on their own but it's in a van - not any higher than a car. But two of them are incredibly agile and will jump over any 4 ft fence they could find, and one who has jumped out of an open window, and from a patio - about 8 ft.
With so many of our dogs doing agility - is there no jumping in the agility courses? I have never been involved in agility but I just assumed there was hurdle jumping. Maybe the difference is level ground...and they have a running start. Anyway, suffice it to say, until this thread I never gave it much thought. |
rdf wrote: I find this interesting - mine jump in and out on their own but it's in a van - not any higher than a car. But two of them are incredibly agile and will jump over any 4 ft fence they could find, and one who has jumped out of an open window, and from a patio - about 8 ft.
With so many of our dogs doing agility - is there no jumping in the agility courses? I have never been involved in agility but I just assumed there was hurdle jumping. Maybe the difference is level ground...and they have a running start. Anyway, suffice it to say, until this thread I never gave it much thought. It's the not whether or not the dog is athletic enough to jump in and out if a vehicle. Any healthy dog can. The question is age and the person asking has an 8 mos old puppy. You don't want a puppy whose growth plates haven't closed slamming into the ground repeatedly. If you damage the growth plates, that tends to cause some serious permanent damage to your dog's development. The same reason we're careful about training agility until the dog's growth plates have closed. Even as adults I don't like mine jumping down off of a grooming table though. They tend to be set up on slippery flooring and all it takes is one bad slip and.... They can and do jump up onto the table on command to their heart's and my back's content 
Kristine |
| Baloo will jump up into the back off our SUV on his own 90% of the time. I would have to actually HOLD him down to keep him from doing it. He doesn't really jump out... perse- It's more of a big lean forward and a step off. Not really jumping. (does that make sense??)
BUT I guess I was never worried about it much because his mother is a jumper with a huge capital J -- from what I have been told. I just assumed he got it from her. When he was little we didn't let him jump in, simply because I was worried he wouldn't have made it, or missed and bumped something etc. I trained him to put his front paws on the bumper and I hefted his rump up and in. He still does that on occasion too, but if he sees that door open (even if we are not going anywhere-- just bringing in something...) he will get a running start and HOP right up in. it's actually very effortless for him. Like I said... I just figured he got it from his Momma. (Right Wendy?!) |
| Obe will jump into the cab of the truck and out. It's stock Nissan Frontier so not a jump more like a big step down. On rare occasions, 2 out of 10 times he will jump into the bed/back. There is camper shell on, one of his beds, food and water dishes inside. He will jump out if the tailgate is down, but I dont like it. 99% of the time I lift him and up. Spoiled I know. He's only 71 lbs, it's not like he's 100lbs. I was given a ramp while visiting my parents but left it on accident. He learned to go up and down in about 30 seconds. I put half a treat in the truck and showed him the ramp, did the same for going down. |
Mad Dog wrote: Down from the grooming table and, for instance, SUV, I'm not so sure as I have small bitches and even my lone male isn't that big, so I can lift them down. Hopefully somebody with bigger dogs has some ideas on that one.
Kristine My males weigh in at 90-95#. Even my bitches average in the 80's. What I have always done is teach them to put their front feet on the grooming table with a hand signal or the word "up". When they feel me getting ready to boost them up they have always pushed up to help me with the weight. Getting down, I teach all the dogs to count. 1, 2 & on 3 we are going off the table. At the count of 3 they boost off while I have my one arm under their belly & my other arm across their chest & under their chin. By doing it this way I make sure their REAR feet hit the ground first instead of their front feet. Especially as dogs get older, their fronts will break down before their rears. Jumping a hurdle is the easy part. It's the landing on the front legs that is hard on them. |
| i have an suv and took out one of the seats in the back so they don't have to jump off the back |
| One of my friends is a vet, and highly recommends people use a ramp if they have a vehicle higher than a jeep. She says the force that is put on the spine and joints when jumping down from the vehicle is enough to cause long term injury, especially if the dog is at higher risk (HD for example) for such injuries.
We use a ramp not only for the car, but also for the bed. |
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