Can you work your doodle to hard?

[Hailey and Oliver]

I was recently outside with Oliver.   we went for a walk, and i threw sticks for him for about 15 to 20 minuets.  i this to much at a time?  When we got inside after we were done,  he was panting vigorously.  Is this bad? does it mean that i should play and run with him a little less at a time?  or should i gradually work up to a certain amount of exercise?   

    Any help will be appreciated!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

What was the temperature? What time of day was it? Dogs certainly have different levels of energy, I have one lazy and one who is non stop... You just need to learn how to gauge when enough is enough by their body language.

[BG and Gavin]

When I hit balls for Gavin, he will go full out and when he is wore out he will lie down.  I then hit about three more and we are done!  Better to do several short burst of hard running than one long activity.  Maybe do two session of ten minutes each instead.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

JD is like this too when he is full out running after balls at the soccer field. When he has had enough, he comes back to me with the ball, but instead of stopping and dropping the ball for me, he continues to walk a little way past me toward the parking lot and then lie down in the grass, lol. It's his way of saying, "I'm done, can we go home now?"  It rarely takes more than 10-15 minutes of full-out hard running for him to get to that point.

In hot weather, you do have to be careful, though. They can get overheated before they are ready to stop playing. I imagine that you would also have to be careful with extremely cold temperatures.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I guess it depends on the dog and I do think they'll signal you when they're "done".  Guinness can run full out for about 20 minutes.  I swear Murph can go forever....I'm tired before he is.  I can tell with Guinness because he slows down on his "return" and then he lies down when he drops the ball for me. 

[Jen and Annie]

Panting is not necessarily a bad thing, but as others have mentioned - Annie will let me know when she's tired.  She will either stop chasing the ball, slow down, or will just begin walking around aimlessly at her own pace.  When she was younger I would only play with her for about 15 minutes at a time.  But these dogs were really bred to "go all day".  Labradors and Poodles are retrieving breeds that were bred to follow their hunters around and then chase down the hunt.  Some dogs are lazier than others and are ready to call it quits after a short time.  I think as long as you have water available for Oliver to drink when he needs it - he will let you know when he's too tired to go on..