too big to lift? Questions

so long as you arent putting stress on his limbs in grabbing him, or puting too much pressure on one sensetive area when holding him.. which I dont.. I see no problem carrying around my 3 month malamute from the house to the car or to skip muddy patches from the car to part or rec areas.

of course pushing 30lbs its getting harder and I was wondering if maybe he is getting too used to being picked up and despite the lack of whimper or look of disdain maybe its unhealthy for his arm or shoulder joints to lift him like that a few times a day.

at what age did you stop lifting or carrying your large breed dog to/fro in certain daily situations?

May I ask why you are carrying a 3 month old dog from your house to the car or from the car to park areas? If he does not walk his muscles will not be able to develop properly. Lifting that puts any stress on his front legs will not be very good for his shoulder joints.

Would it not be better for him to walk to and from the car?

I’m a little confused about all this lifting that’s going on
As you are a new member we don’t know much about you and your dog.
Is there a physical need to lift him around so much ?
Sorry, I didn’t welcome you....welcome Paul
Philippa & Yoji

Hi and welcome Paul.

What breed of dog do you share your life with?

To be honest, it's personal choice provided your lifting method puts no strain on the dog. With large breed dogs, it doesn't hurt to lift them in and out of the car and can save jolting on immature joints.

Lifting over mud puddles can save a lot of muddy paws, but my guess is that if you have a large breed dog, it's something that, I'm afraid you are going to have to live with

Thanks all

yes he obviously walks plenty.

if he is in discomfort during the lift or while holding obviously he is free to go down but it's a preferred method of trransport in some scenarios and I wanted t make sure it was ok.

its an alaskan malamute.

I still do not understand why it is necessary to carry him from the house to the car or from the car to park or rec areas, and then presumably back again, and to be lifted "a few times a day". It is not just lifting him in and out of the car, is it.

Lifting him over muddy patches is your choice, presumably to avoid muddy footprints, but why can he not walk from your house to the car instead of being carried? He might weigh 30lb now at three-months, but he is going to get a lot bigger and heavier and by lifting and carrying him now you are not giving his shoulder muscles a chance to develop, which will not help him when he is bigger and heavier.

why arent his

why arent shoulder muscles developing because I lift him up once in a while?

I came here for opinions but please provide useful information if you can.

I have a Shar-Pei who fully grown weighs 37 lbs. Even when she was 3 months old and only weighed around 17 lbs I never picked her up, the most I did was help her get into the car. My other dog a Miniature Schnauzer weighs around 17 lbs and he'd be very annoyed if I tried to carry him!

Dogs aren't babies and you'll soon find out that most dogs love walking through mud. wallowing in muddy puddles and rolling in all kinds of poo and other stinky stuff. How do you propose to cope with that?

And what happens when your dog reaches adulthood and could weigh up to 101 lbs how are you going to manage to lift him without doing yourself an injury?

confused.com

In your OP you said

Not "once in a while" - in your OP you said "a few times a day". You asked for opinions and in my opinion yes, it is unhealthy to keep lifting him, and if you carry him about, how on earth are his muscles going to strengthen and his bones strengthen?

He needs to be able to walk, not be carried everywhere like a human baby.

I think I can avoid doing myself an injury pretty well.

and if he's due for a bath in the afternoon i'll let him go nuts in the mud to his hearts content.. and i'll smile watching him wallow in it.

but if he just had a bath i'll do my best to keep from having to wash him again once we get in the house.

I still havent got any valid feedback on the shoulder injuries.

porki can I suggect maybe you are not picking your dogs up properly and straining them adversely if they wont even let you pick them up at 17lbs?

totally misunderstanding my post.

why would I carry him everywhere like a baby? even as an adorable 2 month old I wouldent do that.

last time I checked " a few times a day" and "once in a while" were not mutually exclusive.

does not look like i'll be finding any educated opinions on this query here.

On the contrary my Schnauzer doesn't like being carried because he happens to be a dog and like most of his species he wants to explore his surroundings which he can't do if I'm holding him in my arms.

You obviously know better than any of us so I suggest you do what you think best.

Rosie gets picked up regularly - necessity here at times because of broken glass, obnoxious owners who let their dogs run riot and any other time when picking up can avoid a dangerous or nasty situation

Picking up a dog in the correct way does no harm and may even be helpful in later life when joints stiffen if they are used to it from a young age.

I'm talking here of picking up when necessary (as I believe the op is) and NOT carrying a dog everywhere you go

Sorry Chris, but if you read the OP again you will see that the dog is picked up and carried from the house to the car, from the car to the park, and presumably back again.

That is not just picking up out of necessity, that is picking up and carrying the dog, instead of letting the dog walk from the house to the car etc. Nor is it just helping the dog into and out of the car.

With Rosie being a small dog, I carry her to the car. However, it's only about 12 ft from my living room into the garage .

I think the original post has been misread (maybe the op could clarify). I'm guessing it isn't far to the car and that the dog gets plenty of floor time once over the muddy car park at the rec area.

It's a bit of a moot issue to be honest, because, obviously, this dog is going to get quite a bit bigger and lifting will get to be far from comfortable for both dog and owner

agree this will all be redundant when he starts pushin 50lbs.

back door to carport is 20 feet, he likes to bolt under the car to lick the ground. its annoying.

I dont carry him to the park so I can walk around with him in the park in my arms!?

what are you guys thinking when you read these posts..

thanks for the common sense answer and interpretation.

Just a minor suggestion - why not put a leash on him so he cannot bolt under the car to lick the ground?

Obviously it’s your choice to carry your dog wherever you want to. It’s not going to be long before you can’t as he will be too heavy. From your original post it was clear you had concerns about pain etc so you clearly care about him.
My concern is....when humans carry dogs about, for whatever reason, the dogs loses its ability to do things the dog way and can often lose its confidence as it hasn’t done things for itself.
Basically, dogs aren’t meant to be carried around to avoid a bit of mud !
Let the dog be a dog

Out of curiosity how often do you give him a bath? I believe your dog like mine is double coated. You don’t want to bathe him too often as you don’t want to wash the oils off his fur, they are there for a reason. Once a month at most and I’d say that’s too often.

I don’t know if this is your first dog or not but if your dog gets muddy if you let him dry off a lot of the dirt will just fall off and the rest can be mostly brushed out.