Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

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Mrshill
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Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Mrshill »

Hi all.
We got our new puppy middle of March. Iggy is a Beardie cross, she is now 4 months old, and 90% of the time is brilliant.

We lost our old dog last year, and initially I wanted to rescue, but Iggy's mum had pups and we were smitten. I will be honest I wasn't sure I wanted a puppy, it has been nearly 30 years since I had one, my other dogs have been rescues.

At times I feel very overwhelmed and have the occasional 'what have I done moment'.

I think she has been quite an easy puppy. The first night she cried for about a minute at bed time, and then no more, just went to bed quite happily.
She was housetrained in a few days and only had a couple of accidents when she had a little UTI.

She has picked up basic commands very quickly, and walks reasonably well on the lead. We need to do some work on how to behave when we see other people and dogs, as she seems to think that everyone wants to say hello.
She is a bit frightened of cars, but we can now pass parked cars without too much trouble.

I like to think we are making progress with the nipping and biting. Earlier today we had a mad 5 mins, running round like a loony, but she didn't attempt to nip at me.

I think because she is a big puppy I expect to much from her and forget she is only a baby still.

I do have a couple of questions. Please excuse my stupidity, as I say it has been a long time since I had a puppy.

I am feeding her puppy kibble , which she is doing very well on, now weighs 14.5 kg. But the feeding guidelines really confuse me. I feed her based on her being a large type dog, but it says for a large dog feed 305 -550 a day. Does this mean I need to up the amount every month until she goes onto adult food, or keep it roughly the same. Sorry this sounds really daft. But when I looked at the adult version she would be on about 400g a day.
She is currently getting about 330g a day.


The other thing is exercise, If I follow the 5 mins per month x2 per day, she is very hyper and even more nippy, but with a gentle stroll round the woods and a bit of free running really helps and then a short walk round the block in the evening. But then I worry this is not good for her joints and growth plates. Its really difficult knowing what to do for the best.

Anyway any advice would be much appreciated and might calm my neurotic puppy mum nerves.
Thanks
Sharon
JudyN
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by JudyN »

It sounds like you and pup are doing great :D
At times I feel very overwhelmed and have the occasional 'what have I done moment'.
Been there, done that, got the t shirt. Got holes in the t shirt. Puppies are exhausting but try to enjoy the fun bits. Yes, they are fun really, even if you'd far rather be sitting down relaxing and not having quite so much fun :wink: She will settle down.... honest! And actually, 90% brilliant is awesome!

Your question about dog food isn't stupid at all. Well, I hope not, because I don't know the answer... Can you say what variety of food you're giving her? It might help someone find and interpret the guidelines. But as long as she's growing well but not showing any signs of putting on weight you can relax. Just like human children, they will require different amounts at different times, and can have unpredictable growth bursts. It's not an exact science.

There's a thread here about the '5 mins per month' exercise rule: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13384&p=91415 I tend to work on the premise that if when not being walked they'd be doing wall of death round the front room and leaping on and off the furniture, they might as well be out walking. But this can be at her pace, lots of stopping and sniffing, inevstigating fallen leaves, maybe a pause for a bit of training, sitting on a park bench and watching the world go by. This will help her settle much better than 'just' walking at a constant speed.

If you were able to post any pictures, we' love to go 'Awwwwwww' :wink:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Mrshill
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Mrshill »

Thanks for your reply.
She is on step up to naturals puppy from Pets at home. I realise that this might not be the best food in the world, she is doing ok on it.
She was on raw food when I got her, but its not for me, I'm afraid. I had changed her to a different kibble, but it didn't suit her, so had to get something quick, this was it. I will keep her on it now, until she is ready for adult food. The guidelines are not clear to me at all.

Feeding Guide: Dog Size Daily Feed (approximate per day): Toy up to 5kg: 40-75g, Small 5-10kg: 75- 145g, Medium 10-25kg: 145-305g, Large 25-45kg: 305-545g, Giant 45-50kg: 545-585g.

Here's a pic of her.
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JudyN
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by JudyN »

She's gorgeous - thank you :D

Assuming she's going to be the size of a beardie, she should end up as 18-27kg, so could be the upper end of medium rather than large, which means 400g when she's an adult may be too high. If she ends up as 25kg she'd need 350g of the equivalent adult food a day.

I've looked at a couple of puppy feeding guides for other kibbles, and there's not that much difference between what a puppy needs and what an adult needs, as puppies expend so much more energy. So you're probably giving her about the right amount now. Skinners interactive calculator is the easiest I've found to compare amounts for current weight/age with expected adult weight, but this is just to given an idea of how the requirements change as Skinners will have a different composition: https://www.skinnerspetfoods.co.uk/feed ... &age=puppy

I'm not an expert, so someone else might come along and give a much more straightforward answer!

BTW, if you particularly liked the idea of raw feeding but not the practice, there are reeady-mixed raw foods that make it as easy to feed as kibble, e.g. https://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/natural-d ... d-dog-food
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
DianeLDL
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by DianeLDL »

Mrshill,

Welcome to the forum!
I'm sorry that can't answer your questions as I never had a puppy and we got our deer chihuahua at one year old.

But, I will say that she is beautiful! :D :D and I can see how you fell for her. :wink:
I'm sure Judy is giving you great advice as others will, too.

Enjoy having fun! She looks so cuddly. :D

Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
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Nettle
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Nettle »

I feed puppies to appetite. They stop and walk away when they've had enough. They tell you when they need to go from four meals a day to three to two. Numbers on sacks are just guidelines - each puppy is an individual, and some days they want more, some less. As they grow, they'll look thin, fat, thin, fat. As long as they aren't circular or hatrack thin, it's okay. Trust your own judgement - you feed yourself, you may be feeding a family, you can feed a pup. :)
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JudyN
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by JudyN »

Nettle, have you ever had puppies who are gluttons who will simply overeat if given the chance so have to have their food limited?
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Nettle »

Never.

Though I've never owned a labrador :lol:

Seriously - every normal pup I've known, which is a lot of them (including labradors), eats what it wants and then walks away. Greed problems seem to come during and after adolescence, and I suspect that a lot of that (but by no means all) comes from very high sugar and artificially flavoured food which when we eat it creates a hunger gap rather than a feeling of satiation, and might well do the same with dogs. Overeating in dogs is also often a learned response due to general insecurity (not food-specific) and feeling threatened around food.

Allegedly, the way a puppy is fed during weaning creates over-eating, but I am not so sure. It certainly creates food guarding but IME (therefore others may find differently) the dog will eat what it wants and then guard or stash the rest. Or stash it and guard it. But just to eat and eat - no, never found that.

Dogs that have been starved are of course a different matter. I've had one of those, but even she wouldn't overeat after the first few days. Just to confound what I've said above, she didn't food-guard or stash either. But she did steal! oh how she did steal.....


However that is just my experience. Others may well have found significantly different.
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DianeLDL
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by DianeLDL »

Nettle,

The point you made about puppies eating until satiated is the same with human babies into toddler years. They eat until satiated & don't overeat unless mom or dad starts pushing food. Studies have shown the human babies fined a variety of foods will eat like you explained about puppies. One day baby might choose one type of food & a different one another day. At the end of a week or month (forget the exact study) but they found that nutritionally the baby ate exactly what body needed.

It's usually the parents of babies or puppies who tend to overfeed & push foods. And as you mentioned dogs who are adolescents, just look at human adolescents. Both tend to go for the tastier foods, high in fats, sugars & calories.

So, your suggestions make a lot of sense. The puppies will eat what their bodies need provided the food given has the nutrients they need.
Therefore, as to puppy foods, I would think it's more important to look at the actual nutrients on the label than on the amounts suggested.
Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
JudyN
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by JudyN »

DianeLDL wrote: Sat May 13, 2017 2:35 pm They eat until satiated & don't overeat unless mom or dad starts pushing food. Studies have shown the human babies fined a variety of foods will eat like you explained about puppies. One day baby might choose one type of food & a different one another day. At the end of a week or month (forget the exact study) but they found that nutritionally the baby ate exactly what body needed.
In that test I believe they were only offered a range of healthy foods - there weren't bowls of Frosties of chocolate mousse - so it made it harder for them to eat really unhealthily and gorge on cake. But that ties in exactly with what Nettle said about the dangers of high-sugar artificially flavoured food.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Shalista »

Bax is on raw and will cheerfully eat himself into a coma :lol:

but he also has guardy issues and was raised in the puppy equivalent of the Hunger Games soooooooo
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
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Nettle
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Nettle »

That's why i said normal puppies :lol: and said it stopped at adolescence
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Erica
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Erica »

Delta still won't overeat at 2.5 years old. If we do a lot of training with treats (hello weekend workshop!) he may not even touch his next meal, so I tend to cut the treats with kibble so it's not totally nutritionally unbalanced!

There's a middle ground of exercise -- too little and they're too energetic and hyper; too much and they're too tired and get wild and nippy -- and finding the right balance for your pup is important! Just keep it calm, let her go at her pace, and don't go for a three hour hike ;) It sounds like you're doing fine. How long are your walks with her?
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
Mrshill
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Mrshill »

HI
She seems to be doing ok, gaining weight nicely, weighs 14.5 kg at 4 months.

We walk through the woods usually half hour or so, some on lead, some off. sometimes twice a day,
otherwise
once a day through the woods or a quick whizz round the block, 20-30 mins. working on heel and sit before crossing the road etc.
She goes to doggy day care 1 afternoon a week, too.
She can be a bit nippy if under exercised too, unfortunately, we started clicker training today.
Trainer was impressed by how calm and quick she is.
Many thanks for all the advice.
Sometimes Im such a neurotic dog mum.
Sharon
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Nettle
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Re: Feeling overwhelmed.- 4 month puppy

Post by Nettle »

You do as you see fit, but unless you are thinking of training for formal obedience competitions, there is no value in the dog sitting each time before you cross the road. It's fine for her to stand calmly beside you, and dogs find that a whole lot less stressful. :)
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