New puppy!

(Megan) #1

Hey everyone,

An off-topic post but this is my community and I want to share my good news :smiley: It’s a complicated story which I won’t bore you all with, but I have a new puppy! It’s not something I was planning on, but life is strange sometimes. But because I didn’t plan it, I am trialing how it goes.

Anyway, meet Moses! (I’ll post a few pics soon).

Moses is an almost 10 week old Golden Shepherd. Dad is a large pedigree papered German Shepherd is very good hip scores, mum is a pedigree papered Golden Retriever with very good hip scores. All the pups have come out black and some have a weeny bit of white. The 1st litter all came out black too, which is kinda strange given the breed mix. Google images shows almost entirely golden retriever colours and german shepherd tans thru to rust with some black and dark browns mixed thru the coats.

Moses being black is a huge plus for me. It’s my fav dog coat colour by far. His hair is medium length wavey and curly and right now he is a complete puff ball! And it’s sooo soft. Another huge plus is he didn’t cost me a cent and, apart from the initial vaccination costs, he won’t cost me much more than I was already paying for food, flea, worm, insurance etc, and I already have all the things he needs - leashes, collars, crates, toys, enrichment interactive stuff, winter jacket, slow feeder bowls etc.

He has quite fine facial features and is one of the back of the pack pups in the litter, with low middle and back being my preference. So, he’s a follower rather than a bolshy, confidant instigator of rough and tumble games or a pup with a strong personality. He’s not timid by any means, more quiet, calm and soft.

He already adores Lulu, my 2 and a half year old Rottie, and she is being so gentle with him - as long as I keep play sessions short. She seems a natural mother too, giving him a few gentle corrections, sniffing him and nudging his privates to let him know he needs to pee/poop etc.

I am at the end of day 3 and not a single accident inside. A few situations have shown me he already knows pee and poop is something done outside. He’s a little cracker huh?

Caring for a young puppy is exhausting! And rough going for someone who lives with quite a lot of chronic pain. But I know this is time limited and things will get easier soon(ish).

I’m hoping I decide to keep him but I’m also going to be honest with myself if he turns out to be a dog who needs more than I can give him, especially in regard to physical and mental exercise. It’s not a given his breeds mean he will be very high energy and will need a lot of draining, but there is a good chance he will. Here’s hoping he doesn’t! I can meet moderate, but I can’t reliably meet high.

(Megan) #2

The breeder gave me a 4kg bag of the kibble he’s been eating. I looked at the ingredients and groaned! Slowly transitioning the wee fella to a much more biologically appropriate large breed puppy kibble lol

Here’s the horror story…

Royal Canin Maxi Puppy Dry Dog Food

Ingredients: Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, maize flour, wheat gluten*, animal fats, maize, wheat flour, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, maize gluten, vegetable fibres, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, psyllium husks and seeds, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligosaccharides and betaglucans) (0.29%), algal oil Schizochytrium sp. (source of DHA), Yucca Schidigera juice, marigold meal, glucosamine from fermentation, hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).

Nutritional additives: Vitamin A: 15500 IU, Vitamin D3: 1000 IU, Iron: 42 mg, Iodine: 4.2 mg, Copper: 13 mg, Manganese: 54 mg, Zinc: 136 mg, Selenium: 0.07 mg - Technological additives: Clinoptilolite of sedimentary origin: 10 g - Preservatives - Antioxidants.

Now, not all of it is bad, but it’s pretty dang bad, imo. No wonder dogs don’t live as long as they used to.

On a side note Lulu and Sophi love it! It’s doggy McDonalds!!

#3

Congratulations Megan.

Breeders will advise a puppy ‘food’ for the pup they hand over. Having a nutritionally formulated diet that is convenient relieves the worry for many with puppy raising. Then the vet, often captured by pet food companies, usually does the same - recommends a processed food diet.

When we got our Labrador I was naughty. She went on to a well formulated home diet based on beef, bones, ocean minerals, and healthy animal fats. She is the shiniest and most vibrant young dog now. Vet visits are for young dog learning misadventures, overactivity, and not for fragility nor inflammatory diseases (itchy skin etc).

(Megan) #4

You? Naughty? Noooooooo :laughing::laughing:

I raw fed my dogs for years and they looked amazing. Grace at 11, before cancer suddenly took her, acted like a 5-year-old. People refused to believe she was 11. Not a single white hair either.

“Interestingly” Moses is a very similar breed mix, and maybe an identical one. Grace very definitely had german shepherd in her and some kind of medium length coated retriever - her coat looked a lot like a golden retriever or flat-coat retriever. And, possibly, a bit of border collie? She was predominantly black, a weeny white blaze on her chest, with tan feathering on her tail and the back of her legs and a few tan hairs on parts of her face. Stunningly beautiful looking girl.

/nod There are much better nutrition advisors in the global community than most vets.

(Bob M) #5

A black golden? Goldens are often mellow dogs, chosen to be therapy dogs. Unlike my dog (a poodle mix), which is way too friendly and loves people too much to be a therapy dog.

We also feed our dog raw.

Show us some pics!

(Megan) #6

He’s half golden retriever, half german shepherd. The mix is called golden shepherd but not a hint of golden (or any other colour) anywhere! lol Yea, goldens can be super mellow, once past the puppy and young dog stage.

Awesome, definitely my preference. I had to stop a few years back when my extremely affordable supplier closed. I half raw feed Lulu but now I’m not so sure it’s a good idea, because the carbs in her kibble change the stomach ph too much according to some stuff I was reading last night. I just bit the bullet and did an online order for her this morning so I can fully raw feed her. I’m sure there’s some cost I can cut elsewhere. Maybe feeding me! :stuck_out_tongue:

(Bob M) #7

That is an interesting mix. We’ll have to see how that works out.

Raw is expensive, and I’m not totally sure it’s 100% what I should be doing. For instance, most raw food is heavy on the cheaper meats, which tend to be the liver, kidney, etc. One trainer I listen to, Susan Garrett, had one of her dogs that ate too much liver from raw food and it affected the dog. She had to move to more muscle meats (which are even more expensive).

Our dog does not seem to be having any issues, so for now we’re staying with the “cheaper” meats.

(Megan) #8

Hi Bob, yes it sure can be expensive. Thankfully I have recently found a place that sells very cheap, meaty, human grade chicken frames, which means only one of Lulu’s daily meals will be a bit expensive. I bought her 1 x 10kg beef brisket bones, 1 x 10kg meaty beef neck bones, 1 x 10kg “Venison and Lamb” (lamb trachea (minced), venison muscle meat + venison heart + venison liver) and 1 x 10kg “Active Dog Mix” (beef, horse, heart, kidney, tongue and green tripe). Both of the meat mixes only have 10% organs which is good. Helps having a large freezer, buying bulk is cheaper.

I’ve listened to a fair bit of Susan Garrett and incorporate some of her thinking and training style. I don’t have the mobility, energy or patience to go “full Susan”, and I think she takes “positive only” too far, but she’s got some great stuff to say.

Weather here has been horrid and black dogs are hard to photograph inside, but here’s an image I nicked from google. Moses looks just like this pup except he has a finer muzzle and his coat length is longer.

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This is Grace as an adult.

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And finally, my darling Lulu. The BC in the background is a friends.

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(Megan) #9

I agree. I’m happy to feed a nutritionally formulated kibble during his 1st year or so, just feeding one that is more biologically appropriate and has a variety of meats. Still way too many carbs for my liking (!!) but I guess they have to add something to make it affordable for Josephine Average living on a limited budget.

Billy has looked amazing in every photo you have posted. And it’s easier keeping a lab from getting too fat when feeding raw :crazy_face:

(Bob M) #10

Very cute puppy!

That sounds like a great diet. I need to look more into buying in bulk, because we have a freezer too.

I like Susan Garrett a lot, particularly because she makes a lot of training into games. My problem with training is mainly time. Our pup LOVES people and has a hard time not freaking out with people and also not freaking out when she goes somewhere, say a pet store or a hardware store. I can train her inside our house to stay for a door and only go when I tell her to. But that goes out the window when we go somewhere else, as she gets so excited. She goes over threshold, and then that’s it. That’s fixable, but it takes time. You have to go somewhere and know that you might take 5, 10, 15 minutes to get through the door, while you’re training her to not move until you tell her. It’s just hard with two teens and a very full schedule to do this. Same with training about people – need to take her to a park and keep her below threshold. For us, that means a 15+ minute drive to a park. Where we live, she doesn’t see anyone because we live on a dead-end street with no dogs.

(Megan) #11

Yea, and if she’s a naturally excitable and/or high energy dog it could take a lot of time. One biggie I got from Cesar Milan is the importance of a dog being calm. It’s so much harder for them to think and learn when they aren’t. Grace used to get crazy excited just at the sight of the leash, or of me putting on my walking shoes etc. She sang for the entire car ride to the park or beach. It was a nightmare.

But thanks to watching a lot of Cesar I now have dogs who go thru the getting ready to go out and the walk thru the house then out to the car, super super calm. I don’t tell them they can get out of the car until they are calm and we don’t move once out of the car until they have stopped looking around and look up at me. We walk to a spot it’s safe to take off their leashes but I don’t remove them until they are sitting looking at me. I don’t ask them to sit and look at me - initially I just waited til they offered it and they learnt real quick it results in freedom to run and sniff and explore.

How about I swap you some of my time for some of your energy and physical mobility? Then we’ll be set re this dog training lark :rofl:

(Megan) #12

It’s been 2 weeks since Moses arrived and it feels like at least a month. Young puppies sure keep one busy! It’s going well tho, despite the tiredness and pretty intense pain from all the time on my feet. 11 weeks old and only 2 accidents in the house - which were the humans fault. I wake fairly often thru the night so take him out to pee once or twice, and he sleeps the rest of the time. Lulu’s raw food arrived yesterday and Moses loves it so he’s getting a mix of kibble and raw now. In another week I’ll be able to put him on the ground outside and I can’t wait to take him to the parks I take Lulu.

He wakes in monster-mode in the mornings - I must bite and chew!! It’s a bit much for someone who isn’t a morning person lol. And some afternoons he gets the zoomies after dinner, which is very funny. The rest of the day he’s pretty chill unless he’s with Sophi, then it’s full-on crazy play. Sophi is 14 months old so a big pup herself. His playstyle with Lulu is completely different, as is Lulu’s with him. She’s taken the adult role and tells him things like “it’s very rude to jump at my face”, so he’s more reserved with her. Lulu’s doing exactly what Grace did to her when she arrived: “I like you dude but I’m also here to teach you a few things” lol But she’s just started laying on her back and playing gentle sharkies with him and bringing him soft toys to grab and play tuggies with, so I know they’re going to be good friends.

But oh oh oh, do I wish I had a new body! This one hurts way too damn much. Carni helps in-so-far as keeping inflammation in check but my knees, especially, are just too munted now. Roll on knee replacement surgery but it won’t be any time soon. The hospital waiting lists are long and the fact I can still walk a bit with the help of a walker or crutches keeps me low on the list. Next referral I ask my GP to do I’m going to answer no to the question “can you walk 200 meters”! This is no life :grimacing: