Puppy Prep
Food
Your puppy has been weaned on Taste of the Wild adult food which comes in several flavors, they have had mostly the fish one. This is a high quality grain free dog food and I am sending you home with some to get started. I highly recommend that you continue this diet for the first year. If you switch foods remain on a high quality large breed puppy or adult food, most regular puppy foods are too rich for them. Some other good foods are Innova’s Core, Wellness, Blue Buffalo or Chicken Soup – do your research and some reading about what is best for your dog. Here is a good site that explains what makes a good food: Mercola Healthy Pets, you will find many helpful articles on this site and can sign up for their newsletter.
Your pup should be fed 3 times per day until about 6 months of age then twice a day forever. Your pup is currently eating approximately 1/2-3/4 cups per meal mixed with water. Don’t give more food than your pup will eat in 10-15 minutes, they have been finishing their food in 2 minutes here! You will need to gradually increase the food as your pup grows.
Be careful that your pup does not become overweight – they will if you let them – take a good look at how my adult dogs look as a guide. Overweight puppies have a great deal of stress on their growing bones, joints and tendons that can result in arthritis and other problems in later years. You should always see a few ribs and should not be able to grab rolls of fat behind the shoulder or on the neck.
Fresh water should be available at all times except several hours before bed.
Housebreaking hint: prevention is the key, your puppy will need to go upon waking, after eating and after playing so if you take him/her out at these times you will avoid many accidents. Also expect to get up once during the night for a few months.
Worms and Coccidia
You should check their stool at your next vet visit or if they have persistent diarrhea. Puppies will often have diarrhea when they go home due to the stress of leaving the rest of the litter. They have been given a wormer at 5 & 7 weeks but sometimes parasites will reoccur during times of stress. You should start your pup on heartworm at around 4 months old and many of the heartworm medications also have wormer in them.
Your pup has also had its first vaccination and vet check. I have attached a vaccination schedule and health certificate. Be careful of contact with unknown dogs until your pup has had its next vaccination but remember all the puppies in puppy K have been vaccinated so it is a safe group to socialize with prior to your 12 week vaccination. Remember that NO VACCINE IS DUE UNTIL YOUR PUP IS 12 WEEKS OLD! Please read the following articles about vaccinations for our dogs before your first vet visit. The first is at the Mercola site I mentioned above and is “When it Comes to Vaccinating your Pet Less is More”, another “Over Vaccination…”, Dr. Jean Dodds protocol, The Rabies Challenge Fund and lastly this site has multiple articles Truth4Dogs. There is alot of controversy regarding how we vaccinate our dogs and kids for that matter and you need to be educated about what is best because over vaccinating can cause as much trouble as not vaccinating so do your homework before your first vet visit.
I strongly suggest you take your new pup through a puppy kindergarten class or basic obedience while they are very young. Start them as soon as possible, all the puppies in puppy K have been vaccinated so it is a safe group to socialize with prior to your 12 week vaccination. You don’t want to go to places that you don’t know the status of any dogs vaccines such as the dog park. Remember this pup will be big and strong enough by 6 months to drag you around, so teach him manners young. Anything you want this puppy to do as an adult teach him (or not) as a puppy.
I give my puppies Vitamin C in their food until they are through teething. You may notice some knuckling over in the front legs or “flying nun” ears during this time. The Vitamin C usually helps this resolve. Occasionally I will tape a pups ears down if they are really flying up. If you see knuckling over on your pups front legs you may be feeding something that is too high in protein, which is why I don’t advise feeding regular puppy food, only large breed.
