Hi, my husband got me A Christmas present - a puppy. I have had two dogs, and grew up with them when was a teenager, and it has been a while since I have done all the care for them. Please can any one tell me how to feed her? I had no dog food yesterday and all I gave her was raw beef. Today I ran out of beef and stores were closed (December 25th - Xsmas day) so I made her some unsweetened homemade hot cereal with milk and she loved it. But I am afraid it is not enough for her. So here are the questions:
1. How do I feed the puppy and how many times a day? She is 6 weeks old.
2. I am 7 months pregnant and the puppy has not been vaccined yet, nor had its first vet appointment. I have kissed the dog and played with her, am I safe? I mean does she have some dangerous germs I can get, or can my baby get anything?
3. When can I take her outside to train go outside instead of the house. As I said she has not been vaccined yet.
4. How do I clean the floor where she pees and poops? What should I use to sterilize it?
Thanks, Alina D.

Hi, 6 weeks is very young and you need to be feeding at least 4 times a day, it would be best to feed whatever the breeder was feeding the pup so I would phone them and ask what it was and then send you husband to get some. Don't worry about the injections yet it is too soon you will speak to the vet but it wont be before 8 weeks and may not be until 10, more important is to make sure the worming is up to date and I would ask the breeder when that was last done, at this pups age you will need to do every month and with a wormer you get from the vets not the supermarket.

Sorry missed some, you can take her into the garden now but not anywhere that other dogs have been until she has had her second injection about 11 or 12 weeks. The best way to clean the floor is with a normal biological floor or laundry cleaner, don't use bleach.

I know you say you've had dogs before, but i'd go out and buy 'The Perfect Puppy' by Gwen Bailey if you don't already have it now. I was recomended it by everyone i spoke to, and i must have read it about 3 times now. I personally think it is invaluble especially with a breed such as the GSD, which needs careful socialisation and upbringing. Believe me i know this as our neighbours were in a similar situation were kids were given GSD pup as a present, knowing nothing about the breed only for it to be rehomed 7 months later, due to it being (a very big!) handful.
  Have to add however that our puppy was planned years in advance, researching breeds, visiting shows etc, and even now i feel quite nervous about bringing pup home as no matter how much i read and read, i feel like i'll never know enough.
  I'm sure today (Boxing day) shops will be open, so as someone said, ask what puppy food the breeder had the pups on and get some of that.
Please don't think i'm trying to offend you, i too will be picking up my 6 week golden pup soon and i know how exciting it is. I personally think however that this pup wasn't brought in the best circumstances, as in my opinion puppies need alot of planning and thought.

Hi thank you all for advice. I know, I know, it was not a great idea of getting a puppy when I am about to have a baby myself. But I am pretty sure I can handle this. As I said to my husband we will imagine that we got two babies/twins. And I will never ever rehome the puppy. She is so adorable and I have been asking for a dog for a long time. I know it will take lots of time and patience to train her and of course lots of money. But I am up to the task. I did get scared though, after the shock of happiness has settles down, that I will not be a good provider or owner of the puppy. But I feel more and more confident. I had a shepherd and a puddle, two dogs at the same time, when I was a teen, as I mentioned it before, and my dad said that the shepherd still knows all the commands I taught her then. She is old now and lives in a different country with my folks. But as to planning to get a puppy, we have been talking about getting a dog for more than 3 years and we discussed what we liked and how much time it will take, and most of all my husband wants our children to grow up with the dog in the house, so do I. It was just so unexpected for me. He would not tell me what he is getting me for Christmas until he brought our dog home on December 24th.
And I will call the vet today and schedule our first appointment and see what we have to do next.
Thanks again, Alina D.

P.S. One more thing her nose is always warm, for except the times when she plays. Is that normal? And she seems hot all the time she sleeps on the floor instead of her bed. Why?

Did the breeder not provide your husband with a diet sheet?
Only a man would buy a puppy, bring it home when the shops are shut and not get any puppy food!! ;-) (No offence intended!)

Hi any sensible and caring breeder  would have not sold a puppy for a xmas present sorry but that is my opinion especially with no diet sheets, puppy food or anything thats irresponsible on the breeders part, I have Gsds and a 6 week old puppy should have a decent puppy complete ie Arden Grange or the like and raw meat and plenty of it for at least 5 feeds per day, has she been wormed and vet checked if not this needs to be done and your vet can advise on differing times for vaccinations my vet, I am in Cumbria, will not do them till they are 8 weeks old and then 12 weeks, when the puppy soils just use an decent disinfectant sorry this is not a dig at you at no offence intended on your part, just feel so angry when people sell pups at christmas time no thought about the pups welfare comes into it at all, do what another poster
said get in touch with the breeder ask when and what wormer was used what feed the litter have been on have they been checked by a vet and what about kc papers and pedigree have you got them

Janines

Hi, yes, I understand all of your concerns. But no worries!!! :) The puppy was bought a week before Christmas, my husband paid to the breeder extra to hold her for another week, so he could bring her home on Christmas Eve (poor thing was all alone when he came to pick her up on Dec. 24th. We still keep in touch with the breeder, and he seems to be happy that the puppy is all right). Good thing we went to a vet today and bought a puppy package, which included all treatments/shots for a whole year. She got her first shot and they found roundworms in her feces :(, she got treatment for that too :). In two weeks (when she is 8 - 9 weeks old) the vet told us to start once a month pill for roundworms (gee for the rest of her life). So I think we are pretty much covered. He also said to feed her three times a day (since she is a large bred dog pup and don’t over feed her - may cause deformalities in her skeleton structure, especially in GSDs) with the large bred dog food for puppies. The vet was very nice and answered all our questions. Next appointment for our dog will be in January the 17th. Thank you all for help. It is so nice to know that there are still some people in the world that care about animals.
Alina D.
Chicago, IL

Hi,
What has your pup been prescribed for tapeworm? Heartworm? Lungworm?

Until 12 weeks your pup should be on 4 meals a day as opposed to 3.

For the roundworm the vet gave her something in the clinic, kind of greenish yellowish liquid. For the heartworm he gave her "Heartgard plus" for the first time when she is 8 - 9 weeks old (just one pill for young pups) and after the same thing but 25 - 50 lbs pups  (6 pills in a package).

I am not sure what these worms are: tapeworm, lungowrm. I only heard about heartworm and roundworm.

I was wondering, if any one knew how roundworms look like. We went out today for three hours and when we came back I thought she ate some threads or some noodles and threw them up. But I think it is that roundworm medicine that got all that stuff out. Does any one know how they look like.

Vet said our puppy is too chubby and she neds only 3 meals a day. Do you still think I should give her 4 (she is very active when plays) Because she seems hungry all the time. And it seems more reasonable to me too, the 4 meals a day thing. I gave her food at 1 pm, 5 pm and 10 pm. The puppy food. In the morning she did not eat anything. She had a loose stool and would not drink anything, probably because I fed her some bad stuff before we bought commercial puppy food. Now she is fine, got her appetite back and seems very happy. :)

The number of times a day you feed does not effect the amount of food given. Puppies stomachs are small and we would feed a 6 week GSD 4 or 5 times a day, but only give the same amount food just in smaller portions

Hi,
The 'noodles' your pup threw up were almost guaranteed to be roundworm. This shows that she had a very bad worm burden for them to be in her stomach as well as her gut. You're not in the UK are you? Over here the worming medicines the vet prescribes need to be repeated every 2 weeks until the pup is 8 weeks old, every 4 weeks till 6 months, then ever 3 months thereafter.

Here tapeworm infection is far more common than heartworm or lungworm, but both are seen occasionally (heartworm is more likely in imported dogs - I understand it's common in Australia).

I would certainly give her 4 small meals a day till she's 12 weeks, then cut her down to three. Till then her stomach simply isn't physically large enough to contain all the nutrients she needs if given in three larger meals.

Don't know if it is just my breed JG, but I have not had a pup for some years that has been carrying enough worms for them to be obvious. Had thought that breeders are paying more attention to worming their breeding bitches and following a sound worming programme with the pups.

Remember when every pup had a distended belly and when wormed you followed it around with a shovel trying not to be sick, now pups have a 'waisted', not wasted, appearance and when you worm them there is no visible results.

Is it the same in other breeds, if so that is a good result, means that breeders do care and are doing their best to turn out worm free pups. Well done breeders.

I absolutely agree, Jackie H! Also many of the modern worming preparations dissolve the dead worms, so you see nothing. The facts about this pup all add up to making me believe this could well be a puppy farmed (puppy milled if North America) pup, and certainly not one from a reputable breeder in the UK (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Hi Jeangenie, our puppy did not throw up the worms, it came out with the poop, but when I saw it I thought she ate some white threads and threw them up. Today she had nothing in her stool. My husband took her for a walk yesterday before bedtime and he said he saw the same thing - "the noodles". This morning she had nothing in her poop, I missed that procedure and she pooped at home again. Funny, but at night she pooped and ate some of it. I know it is disgusting but I cannot control that, and when she does that, she whines for me to clean it up. Most of the time I wake up at night to pick her waist, she already had a bite of it, and I dont know how to stop her doing this. Do you know? You seem like you know a lot about pups.
Thank You, Alina.

P.S. Yes, we do live in USA, and we got her from a farmer in Wisconsin. But they dont mill the pupps. At least I hope so. And of course when my husband was looking for a puppy, what did he know about  dogs. Some friend told him that his friend's friend dog just had puppies, and only three were left out of 10, so he went to check on the breeeder and was happy with the results. So he got our puppy there. And no matter what, my puppy is the best for me and I will never exchange her for anything else in the world. I will try my best to keep her healthy from now on, if the breeder failed in the first days of her life. :)

Hi Alina,
Hope your puppy is doing OK. It does sound as if your breeder didn't know much about rearing puppies, but that doesn't really matter as she's got a good home now & you are trying to do everything right. As you say, not much you can do about her eating her poo when you're not there, but it does mean you'll have to keep up the worming as she'll keep reinfecting herself.
I think she should be fed 4 times a day (without increasing the amount). Puppies have very small stomachs & a large breed simply cannot eat as much as it needs in 3 meals. Puppies shouldn't be fat because it does put an unnecessary strain on young joints etc, but you have to strike a balance between not feeding enough & too much.
Good luck

Just out of interest, when you said that your husband paid extra for the breeder to keep pup for another week mean that the pther pups went the week before? Surely that would've made them 5 weeks old! Thats very young. Is that normal in America?

Yes, they were very young when they were all sold. I dont know if this is typical in America or not, but when I lived in Latvia we got our GSD when she was only 3.5 weeks old (and we got her from a very prestigious breeder, but later on all puppies died including their mother, except our dog, she had some complications with liver from Parvovirus) and basically we had to teach her how to eat (she was as small as a puppy of a medium sized puddle, we had one too before we got GSD for dad. He said a puddle is no dog, so we got him a bigger dog - a shepherd). She was so tiny. This guy's dog had 10 puppies and probably could not afford to feed them all, I assume.

Hi Anwen, thanks for encouragment and support, so far you gave me the friendliest advice and reply. I appreciate it. I have enough stress from figuring out how to keep our puppy healthy, feed her, housebreak her and correct all the "mistakes" the breeder made (but I dont blame him), plus I am 29 weeks pregnant. It has not been easy for me (the first two days... I did not know what to do with our new family member, or who to ask...), but I still have fun taking care of my new puppy, including cleaning up after her. Of course, my husband helps me a lot. Sometimes we even fight over who is going to clean after her, feed her or take her outside :). Thank You again Anwen.
Alina D.
Chicago, IL, USA

hi alina this is liz, i have just read your postings.
i too have a german shepherd a bitch, i brought her myself unexpected at christmas from my sister-in-law.
I had german shepherds years ago but they died and years later i married had kids the usual, i have two kids 8 and 10. the 10 year old is disabled and hyperactive yet great with the dog and our other border collie.
I have always loved and pined for my gs and am so glad hubby let me have her.
she was 6 weeks old when i brought her home and i fed her boiled rice and chicken and rice and fish as she had diahorea.
i then went on at the advice of my vet, to pedigree chum puppy food and ped chum mixer biscuts,the same as i fed my other gs's
i feed her 3 times a day 7 in the morning, 12.30 midday, and 5.50 in the evening.
she is doing absolutely great shes had her first jabs as shes now 8 and a half weeks old her 2nd jabs when shes ten weeks and a complete medical from the vets.wormed every two weeks for now.
shes gained weight not too much not too little just fine the vets say she is doing grand and is a georgious looking girl, her coat is shiny and healthy, i couldnt ask for more. shes another baby.
dont be to disheartened at some replies you may get on this forum though, im new and so far had a few prats to contend with.
BEST ADVICE COMES FROM VETS?rermember that and ignore the few wannabe expets, each dog is there own character and have there own staminer what works for 1 might not work for others.
regards liz

Hi Liz.
My puppy is doing great (in fact each day better and better). She is getting almost perfect. She is trained not to pee or poo at home, and at only 8 weeks, her birthday was today. She has good appetie and I cured her from all the troubles she had (worms - yikes, it was a nightmare for me). I figured out how to keep her quiet at night, so she would not cry and my new vet is absolultey awesome. She helps me a lot and is very very supportive, helpful. She calls me every time I have some worries/questions about my Marta (she even remebers her and asks how is her Marta doing. It is so nice to hear that.)
At first I felt like I was a bad dog owner (esepcially after some women told me that it is all my fault that I got a puppy from a bad breeder, I had to get rid of my dog, and get a better puppy from a prestigious breeeder in England.) and I was failing. I could not understand what my dog wanted or needed. Now we are totaly friends. And I am so happy and proud of Marta. And I dont need any other dog. She is the best.
Good luck with your  GS and thanks for kind words!!!
Alina D.

im glad you feel better about your relationship with your dog.
i did notice that you said the pup was walked on the 27th dec. it would have been 6 weeks and not fully vaccinated, you have to wait at least 7 days following the 2nd jab before you walk your pup. just an observation, not a critiscism.

Repeating what others have said a pup with the potential size of a GSD should be getting 4 meals a day at least till they are 12 weeks old, if you feed less you are either feeding too little or too much at one meal. The pup may seem fine but could suffer in latter life. Exercise should also be kept to the little and often, and that should be so till they are about a year, increased a little at a time.

<BEST ADVICE COMES FROM VETS?rermember that and ignore the few wannabe expets, each dog is there own character and have there own staminer what works for 1 might not work for others.>

So the best advice comes from vets!?   Maybe on health subjects but certainly not on breeding and feeding where most of them are concerned.  They will not have had the experience of breeding (normal) dogs or feeding (normal) dogs as unless there are problems there is no need for owners to consult a vet.

So, in many instances the best advice comes from experienced breeders and owners who are extremely knowledgeable about things vets only come across briefly in their training

Hi Alina,
Who was it told you that you had to get rid of your dog, and get a better puppy from a prestigious breeder in England? It must have been in either private email, or conversation - nothing of the sort has been mentioned on this site.

Alina no-one would say that you should have got rid of your dog. 

What board members were trying to point out that as a puppy buyer you have the right to expect a well bred and reared puppy who has the best chance of having fewer health and character problems.

A good breeder would have soent a long time choosing just the right mate for his bitch to preserve her best qualities and strengthen the ones she was weak in.  Both parents would have been checked for Hip Dysplasia and Elbow problems with the Orthopaedic Foundation for animals.

Then the bitch would have been fed only the best, and been weormed and treated for any other parasites prior to breeding.

The pups will then have been born in a warm clean area, and the pups will ethn have been gently handled from birth, ans been exposed to all normal household experiences once the eyes were open.

Weaning would have been gently started at around 3 weeks, as would a good worming regime.  In USA it would have been normal to have had some shots (differnt diseases prevail).

The breeder would not have let you have the puppy until at least 7-8 weeks of age, onece they had ascertained that you would be likely to provide the best of homes.

The puppy would have come home with a diet sheet, American Kennel Club Paperwork and a 5 Generation Certificate of Pedigree, and probably photographs of parents, and copioes of their health certification for Hips and Elbows (not sure about eyes in USA).

Most importantly the breeder would have been on the end of a phone to give you KNOWLEDGEABLE advice any time you needed it for the rest ot the puppies life, (many friendships have started this way).

Most importantly if your circumstances changed (say your new baby was alergic to dogs?) then this breeder would happily take back the dog and find it a suitable knowledgeable home.

For this in most cases you would not have pais an awful lot more than for a badly bred and reared pup of dubious parentage.

You ahve already found the pitfalls of buying such a pup, lots of vet trips already.  So costs will have turned out the same.

Hi there.

I am sorry I will have to disagree quite strongly with some of what you have said.

Yes Opinions vary, and there are diferent ways of soign things that are correct, but some things are generally agreed as being best.  You take advice and work out what is best in your circumstances.

I must say that the Vet is not the best source of advice regarding the care of a dog.  Their area of expertise lies with the treatment of illness. 

Unless they keep or breed dogs they will have very little practical idea about rearing puppies.

For example it is accepted by most that puppies from weaning to around 12 weeks of age are likely to need at least 4 meals a day (some tiny breeds start with 6 meaols a day), dropping to 3 when the pup can fit more init's smnall stomach.  The daily amount of food increases to about 25% more than an adult would eat up to about this age, and then remains the same until the dog finishes growing, when it will need to be reduced gradually to adult maintenance amounts.

The average vet for example will never have seen a straightforward canine or feline birth, or any other animal for that matter, as they are called in when there are difficulties.

Those who have expereicne training and breeding generations of sogs will have far more useful information than the average Vet.  Pet owners of a particular breed will also have more useful advice for owners in a similar position to a Vet who may never have met one in day to say life, only in the surgery.

Well sorry if I step on  anyone's toes, but I have reared GSD's and looked after rescue ones who have had problems with poor rearing. If I offer advice it is because that is what over the years I have found the best way to go, you can take it or leave it, up to you, but I would not mind betting that some of us have had the care of a good deal more GSD's then the average vet

Jackie H I agree with you. I went back to read these posts but found it too hard.... I only have a stud dog now and leave the breeding to my friends.

I have to agree with the view about vets, when registered i asked the vet how many danes did she see "erm 1 or 2" was she prepared to come out immediately or see us asap if we suspected bloat "well it would depend on my circumstances" suffice to say we changed vets to one that knew more about the breed.
One contributing factor is how popular the breed is as far as i'm aware there are only 2-3 G.Danes in our town (quite a big town but you get to hear don't you) and there are 3 vet practices.
So no i would only trust a vet to a degree.
:)

Hi jvoric1,  Just wondered who are the 'Prats'  that you are referring to ?

I think the prats she is referring to is the people offering advice most with years of experience in breeding showing and caring for in most cases many dogs.

Nickie.