How soon is too soon to walk my dogs?

Hello all!

I'll be having surgery very soon and am having difficulty getting an answer to this question from anyone here (Sweden) about this. I have 2 small dogs, about 4lbs each, and my husband has limited vacation so walking them will be an issue pretty fast. One pulls pretty hard and I'm concerned about that as well as the bending over to take care of "business". Would anyone have experience with dog walking post surgery? I'm so happy to have found this forum - all this information is fantastic!!

You will be able to walk your dogs as soon as you come home, but you'll be very tired and likely will opt for very short walks. Getting a dog walker for the first week or two might be a good idea if your dogs need longer walks.

I was told no lifting, pushing, pulling of anything higher than 5lbs from my surgeon, and I'm assuming your 4lb dog has a pull higher than this. I couldn't really pick stuff off the floor easily for about 10 days.

I can't say how else it'll effect you with the dogs, I have cats, but even putting my cats food down for them was a issue for about a week.

I worried about the same thing with my 85 pound golden retriever who pulls. I was able to walk him my first full day home from the hospital and even bend over to clean up after him (though I was very slow and careful!). The first week our walks were a bit over 1/2 a mile, the second week a mile at a leisurely pace.

For 4lbs dogs I think you will be fine quickly but take it as you go. You definitely want the movement, but if they pull and you don't feel secure then wait. Prob 1-2 days would be my guess.

The only nearly universal restriction postop is no lifting more than 10 pounds for 6 weeks. Will the pulling exert more force than that? If the answer is no, you should be fine.

Walking is great. They generally want you walking as much as possible, right from day 1.

The standard guideline is nothing more than 8lbs of push/pull/lift for 8 weeks. Take some time to seek out alternatives, like a neighbor kid, pooper-picker-upper device, take dogs out one at a time or with a friend.

I was able to walk my 25 pound beagle and 7 pound chihuahua right away. However, as others have mentioned I would only walk a little bit slowly at first (built up my endurance over time).

Thanks for all the input and apologies for not getting back sooner! My husband was able to arrange coming home at lunch to walk the dogs for a few weeks so I don't have to worry about over doing in my recovery. I had my surgery on the 29th and all went extremely well!