Puppy feeding and training
Discussion
Hi all,
Flash our 9 week old Rotweiler Dog is getting on ok, a few problems we need to sort but nothing major.
Firstly his food, he has a mix of raw mince, 4 1cm cubes of cow heart, some dry biscuits and a rice, meat and vegetable mix you add water to. This weighs in at roughly 200 grams 3 times a day. Is this too much? He weighs 6.5 kilos currently and is very happy when his food arrives, he wont really eat dry biscuits on their own now.
Potty training, he was better for the first few days but now right after eating he will go to the toilet, literally walk 10 feet and start going. Other times we watch as he walks outside, goes for a wee and then comes back in. He is given a treat (Liver cake) when he goes outside and a stern no when he does bad, he seems to be making more accidents though.
He sleeps well in his crate, he will whine for 5 minutes or so and then sleep till 3am when I get up to take him out for a wee, then again at 7am. He takes some of his toys in there of his own accord too. He eats in there also.
Biting, he nibbles at feet and hands all the time, we tell him no, give him a chew toy or deer antler to have instead but it's still a very common occurrence which we want to stop. We have a bottle filled with pasta we shake when he does something particularly bad but to be fair, I think we need to use it more.
He's good in the car, he will walk on a lead around the garden and is great with out little boy, the cats tolerate him now and will happily be in the same room. I'm hoping when we can take him out for walks it will use up some of his energy but apart from waiting for that we are really pleased after just 1 week.
Dave!
Flash our 9 week old Rotweiler Dog is getting on ok, a few problems we need to sort but nothing major.
Firstly his food, he has a mix of raw mince, 4 1cm cubes of cow heart, some dry biscuits and a rice, meat and vegetable mix you add water to. This weighs in at roughly 200 grams 3 times a day. Is this too much? He weighs 6.5 kilos currently and is very happy when his food arrives, he wont really eat dry biscuits on their own now.
Potty training, he was better for the first few days but now right after eating he will go to the toilet, literally walk 10 feet and start going. Other times we watch as he walks outside, goes for a wee and then comes back in. He is given a treat (Liver cake) when he goes outside and a stern no when he does bad, he seems to be making more accidents though.
He sleeps well in his crate, he will whine for 5 minutes or so and then sleep till 3am when I get up to take him out for a wee, then again at 7am. He takes some of his toys in there of his own accord too. He eats in there also.
Biting, he nibbles at feet and hands all the time, we tell him no, give him a chew toy or deer antler to have instead but it's still a very common occurrence which we want to stop. We have a bottle filled with pasta we shake when he does something particularly bad but to be fair, I think we need to use it more.
He's good in the car, he will walk on a lead around the garden and is great with out little boy, the cats tolerate him now and will happily be in the same room. I'm hoping when we can take him out for walks it will use up some of his energy but apart from waiting for that we are really pleased after just 1 week.
Dave!
Food - what has your breeder said to give him as he grows? A good breeder should have given you a food guide.
I don't agree with telling them off if they go toilet in the house at the training stage in case in makes them afraid to go near you, they might continue to go loo in the house but just in secret. Instead follow the dog around at the normal going loo times (i.e. after waking up, after play, after eating) and when he makes the "I need the loo" signs i.e. sniffing around - take him outside and give your toilet command. Then praise heavily once he goes.
I don't agree with telling them off if they go toilet in the house at the training stage in case in makes them afraid to go near you, they might continue to go loo in the house but just in secret. Instead follow the dog around at the normal going loo times (i.e. after waking up, after play, after eating) and when he makes the "I need the loo" signs i.e. sniffing around - take him outside and give your toilet command. Then praise heavily once he goes.
Jasandjules said:
Food - what has your breeder said to give him as he grows? A good breeder should have given you a food guide.
I don't agree with telling them off if they go toilet in the house at the training stage in case in makes them afraid to go near you, they might continue to go loo in the house but just in secret. Instead follow the dog around at the normal going loo times (i.e. after waking up, after play, after eating) and when he makes the "I need the loo" signs i.e. sniffing around - take him outside and give your toilet command. Then praise heavily once he goes.
The breeder gave us some puppy food from their sponsor which we use as the dry biscuits, they were quite happy when I said I wanted to go straight onto raw food. I don't agree with telling them off if they go toilet in the house at the training stage in case in makes them afraid to go near you, they might continue to go loo in the house but just in secret. Instead follow the dog around at the normal going loo times (i.e. after waking up, after play, after eating) and when he makes the "I need the loo" signs i.e. sniffing around - take him outside and give your toilet command. Then praise heavily once he goes.
We do that currently, he goes when he wakes up, after each meal and wees a couple of times inbetween. We are just too slow as he does it virtually instantly. Will definitely stop telling him off when he makes a toilet mistake though.
Dave!
Well he is now roughly 13 weeks old and doing great.
My wife weighed him today and he is 16 kilos, right in the middle of where he should be. He's nice and lean with a trim waist and is going through lamb ribs, cow trachea, snouts, lamb necks etc like a champion. He is doing really well with the bones and his teeth are great, also his breath doesn't smell unless he has had a lamb rib and then it smells like a roast dinner
We need twice as much cow heart as we initially thought but otherwise his food is going well. He has fish, heart, liver, veg, raw eggs, fish oil and dried sprats along with meat blocks of chicken, beef, lamb, duck etc etc. The ONLY thing he doesn't like is lamb kidney, which even when put in small chunks he carefully removes before wolfing down everything else.
Lots of time walking off the lead with him, he has shown up a few other dogs with his recall but he is far from perfect yet, he is very good apart from days when he is on a go slow which is fair enough. He has done a little swimming in the river and has interacted lots, other dogs, our cats, children etc. We found the best way for us was to walk around our town early in the morning, then you have lots of vans, deliveries etc but without too many people to distract him. He barely flinched when a jackhammer went off a couple of weeks ago about 10 feet from him.
The foot nibbling has stopped but it's taking longer for him to stop chewing our hands, he gets the message after a few minutes but is slowly improving still so i'm confident it will stop. He never nibbles the babys hands and was happy to have his ears and cheeks pulled about by him while we held him, he will give him a good lick and Maxwell is becoming more interested in him week by week.
I really couldn't have asked for a better puppy.
Here he is being shown the kennel I made him....
Dave!
My wife weighed him today and he is 16 kilos, right in the middle of where he should be. He's nice and lean with a trim waist and is going through lamb ribs, cow trachea, snouts, lamb necks etc like a champion. He is doing really well with the bones and his teeth are great, also his breath doesn't smell unless he has had a lamb rib and then it smells like a roast dinner
We need twice as much cow heart as we initially thought but otherwise his food is going well. He has fish, heart, liver, veg, raw eggs, fish oil and dried sprats along with meat blocks of chicken, beef, lamb, duck etc etc. The ONLY thing he doesn't like is lamb kidney, which even when put in small chunks he carefully removes before wolfing down everything else.
Lots of time walking off the lead with him, he has shown up a few other dogs with his recall but he is far from perfect yet, he is very good apart from days when he is on a go slow which is fair enough. He has done a little swimming in the river and has interacted lots, other dogs, our cats, children etc. We found the best way for us was to walk around our town early in the morning, then you have lots of vans, deliveries etc but without too many people to distract him. He barely flinched when a jackhammer went off a couple of weeks ago about 10 feet from him.
The foot nibbling has stopped but it's taking longer for him to stop chewing our hands, he gets the message after a few minutes but is slowly improving still so i'm confident it will stop. He never nibbles the babys hands and was happy to have his ears and cheeks pulled about by him while we held him, he will give him a good lick and Maxwell is becoming more interested in him week by week.
I really couldn't have asked for a better puppy.
Here he is being shown the kennel I made him....
Dave!
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