New Puppy Mommies in here *blerk*

[Awks]

Got our new puppy on Saturday. I was in tears this morning and I'm a pretty experienced dog owner. Its just so hard moaning cow that I am He is a 9 week old cocker and is a beautiful, cuddly boy but is a massive shitting machine. And not in the garden either.

So any new puppy owners want to weep in here then please do.

It's the rice. Toby was on Burns Puppy Mini which was high in brown rice. Omg. The splats. Ugh. Then we got mucous and blood in it. I knocked the Burns Puppy Mini in its head and switched him to Burns Puppy. More protein and smaller but equal qty if brown and white rice. Poos are ok now (apart from the worms, but that's another story!).

Have you looked on here? www.whichdogfood.co.uk/

Maybe what you need is some probiotic paste to help settle his tummy. It could be that it was too quick a change from the simple c&r food to the dog food iyswim. His gut might not have had time to recover yet?

It's unlikely to be the protein content. High protein content is fine for pups/dogs as long as the protein is coming from a high quality source. Lots of feeding guides recommend 23/4% protein for pups, but they are usually based on feeding lower quality kibble, which won't have such a good quality protein source. Anything that says 'meal' or 'meat/animal derivatives' contains poor quality protein, if it lists a large % meat first in the ingredient list it's much better quality. Which Acana is he on?

You can buy probiotic pase online. Our vet gave us Canikur for Pip and we've sourced it cheapest online here. It's just a 2ml dose twice a day for dogs/pups under 10kg and you just use it for a few days to 1 week in most normal cases of upset tums.

I would say perhaps you need to keep him off complete food for a little longer, perhaps 48 hours, then gradually reintroduce it, rather than stopping and then going straight back onto a whole meal of it. Starving isn't advised these days, as it just gives the bad bacteria chance to get a stronger hold. Small regular meals of easily digestible food (so boiled or oven cooked chicken without the rice, he doesn't need the rice) will probably sort him out in no time and probiotic paste will just help him rebalance his gut flora.

Pip is still on 7/8 feeds a day and was on purely cooked chicken for the first three weeks, but is now being transitioned onto Canagan and tolerating it well. He hasn't had a full meal of it yet. I started off just using it for training treats here and there, then gradually increased the amount he got. Today he's up to having about 10 kibble biscuits added to each of his feeds and we'll gradually build that up this week.

Just spoke to the vet. Pip has to restart his vaccinations, so that's completely kyboshed his whole puppy class course.

Going to have to get in touch and see what we can do about it, as attending a puppy class course is a condition of his adoption and we have to provide proof he's attended.

Just checked out the ingredients in Acana Large Breed Puppy. First ingredient is chicken meal, which isn't ideal and there's an awful lot of fruit and veg content, of which dogs only need trace amounts. Ingredients have to be listed in quantity order, which means the largest proportion of the ingredients is chicken meal. I would recommend considering changing it to something else. Check out the link Sally posted and in particular, if you're wanting high-quality kibble, have a look at Eden and Canagan. Another one that's pricey, but well tolerated by dogs/pups with sensitive digestion is Fish4Dogs

Restarting the vaccinations is because he didn't get his booster within the timeframe to keep him properly covered. I was half expecting it, but not happy, as it's going to cause problems with his socialisation and puppy classes and of course cost more than we were expecting.

On a more positive note, I have finally got both dogs insured. Went with Petplan £7,000 cover for life. They were very good and thorough, checking lots of my queries out with their underwriters before I committed. Feel relieved it's finally sorted.

I liked the look of Eden and am planning to get Toby onto that in a few months. When I thought about Sally's diet even though she lived on leftovers, it was a high protein diet with potatoes and vegetables. It didn't do her any harm as she lived until she was 14 yrs 4mos and was always about 22kg which for a small field trial Labrador was spot in weight wise. In fully expecting Toby to be about 30-35kg and tall. Just need to order some Eden!!

It is indeed a minefield when you start looking into it. Plenty of dogs have cast iron constitutions and their owners never need to even think about what they feed beyond cost implications, but if you get one with a sensitive tum, a whole world of considerations suddenly become important and it's a real headache. In fact dog food and insurance are the two things that have given me the most stress.

No, no advice from the vet re socialisation. Obviously Pip's got Lurcherboy, but he's such a daft thing that he tolerates too much bolshy puppy attitude from Pip, so not ideal to teach him some manners.

He can mix with fully vaccinated dogs in the garden, but the only other people we know who have dogs are not good candidates for socialisation as they weren't properly socialised themselves or are generally badly behaved and out of control. We are considered the slightly odd 'dog people' amongst our friends, who all have either cats or no pets at all.

my GSD has a v sensitive tum and he is fed on Fish4dogs. Its amazing stuff, no yuk, his coat is brilliant and well I am happy with him on it.

Pup is fed on f4d puppy food and he likes it too.

Moose you may have a visit from Toby as I will be heading your way this month as my grandparents live in Southam.

We started reintroducing kibble type stuff to Pip using Fish4Dogs training stars and he was fine with them from the off.

VetUK have a discount on them at the moment, so I bought a few bags. Will probably buy a box full from the F4D website next month, as that's quite a good deal.

It's good stuff.

Sally, I'd love that. My old boss lives in Southam.

Speaking to a vet friend earlier, Wagg is one of the best dog foods in terms of ingredients and vitamin content

.... which proves that vets know naff all about canine nutrition.

I can't believe they would recommend a food that has cereals as it's first ingredient and is only 15% meat. I should be [shocked] but I'm not, as the nutrition element of veterinary training is very often supplied by pet food manufacturers. Wagg puppy food ingredients. It's basically junk food for dog. They may as well eat cardboard sprayed with vitamin solution - although that would probably cause less digestive problems than cereal based food.

The thing is, if they actually thought about the rest of their studies, they would realise that any cereal based food is totally unsuitable, as canine digestive systems are simply not designed to digest cereals.

Lurcherboy is driving me batty.

Having worked out I always have a pocketful of treats and am treating Pip for everything he does right, he's decided the best thing to do is stick to me like glue, even down to leaning over the keyboard when I'm on the laptop in case he misses an opportunity for a freebie.

I'm really pleased with Pip today. He's started generalising 'Leave' to situations such as dropping dd's cuddly toy and stopping mauling Lurcherboy's neck and has managed to grasp the cue 'Quiet'. (Which is something we're all thankful for, because he's a noisy little so and so when he wants Lurcher to play with him.)

We're getting our 8 week old labrapoodle on Saturday, dad is a minature poodle so I'm unsure as to what size of crate to buy?

Always had dogs growing up but this our first one as a family

Hello watfordmummy. I'd say you'd be safest getting a crate recommended for a Labrador, as that's the biggest he/she's likely to be when full grown.

I'm not great at crate sizes, but SallyBear might be able to help, as she has a beautiful Labrador pup.

So Beryl the Border terrier arrived today. She is 4 months old as the breeder was planning to keep and show her, but has since decided to stop breeding altogether. She is already vaccinated, lead trained and mostly house trained. Settled in the car with our 3yo girl for the journey home no problem, and has been for her first walk this evening off lead around local foot paths.
Fingers crossed she stays this easy!

Congratulations on the arrival of your newest family member Fab41.

She sounds lovely and a lot easier than Pip. Wishing you a nice quiet first night with her.

Oh - and I love the name Beryl!

This is exactly what I thought moose so I am sticking with purina beta for a bit longer and will scour that link for a better alternative!

Wow can't keep up with this thread must try harder

We're getting Nala a week on Weds when she's just under 8 weeks. She's on Burns Puppy just now and looks amazing on it, lovely shiny puppy.

Only downside is the vet had detected a small heart murmur, it's grade 1 the least serious and apparently it's common in fast growing breeds, the breeder is going to get her checked again next week.