[MJLSampson]

Hello. I am seeking some advice for our new puppy. He is now 12 weeks old and we are picking him up on Saturday. What should be his feeding and exercise / walking schedule be? We keep reading conflicting stories of not to exercise before feeding and not to exercise after to avoid bloat. I want to ensure that we abid by these rules, and there are only so many hours in the day. We are looking for a schedule to stick to. We both work during the day and will be home at lunchtime and home at end of day 4pm. We are planning on continuing the same Wilderness food that he is used to along with some cottage cheese during one meal per day. We do plan on crate training for housetraining. What are your thoughts / suggestions? I thank you in advance.
Mike

 

[workingk9s]

Hello. I am seeking some advice for our new puppy. He is now 12 weeks old and we are picking him up on Saturday. What should be his feeding and exercise / walking schedule be?

Depends on his vaccinations. I still wouldn't take him to places that could be high risk for parvo, but play in your yard or in friends yards (as long as there are no unvaccinated pets). 12 weeks is pretty young still so he would be able to hold it long so lots and lots of potty trips outside.

I would feed 2-3 times per day and mix his food with a little water.

We keep reading conflicting stories of not to exercise before feeding and not to exercise after to avoid bloat. I want to ensure that we abid by these rules, and there are only so many hours in the day.

We don't exercise hard 1/2 hour before feeding or after. That is hard exercize though. Normal wandering about should be ok.

We are looking for a schedule to stick to. We both work during the day and will be home at lunchtime and home at end of day 4pm. We are planning on continuing the same Wilderness food that he is used to along with some cottage cheese during one meal per day. We do plan on crate training for housetraining. What are your thoughts / suggestions? I thank you in advance.

Crate training is GREAT!!!

Mike

My answers in blue.

 

[coco77]

Our puppy is 15 weeks old and we have been feeding at 7:30 am, noon and 5pm. This has worked well for us. We have morning crate time/nap and an afternoon crate time/nap. Maybe a short, slow walk in the morning before you head out and a good long walk after work? I try to wait a half hour after feeding to walk. When Dakota was still potty training we also kept a crate in the living room and let her settle down at night in there while we watched a movie. That way she could be in the same room as us, but we could actually watch a movie without worrying about her having an accident (we had an admission half way through for a potty break though). She got something wonderful like a dehydrated trachea or an antler to keep her happy and occupied. I really feel crate training was the key to potty training!

 

[MJLSampson]

COCO, How long did it take for him to be potty trained? What type of bone is the best for him to chew. I do not want anything that can splinter. I heard that the antlers are best? Are pig ears good or bad?

 

[Amelia_]

Congratulations on your new puppy!

Rupert was house trained in 3 days, I didnt do any crate training (although I've heard lots of success from other people with this method), nor did I put any paper down, I just made sure to let him out every 1-2 hours and waited until he went, saying 'toilet' at the same time. He would stay in the kitchen if un-supervised, and If he started going in the house I would say 'toilet' and quickly pick him up and take him outside. Im no expert though, this is just how I decided to do it and I think it worked very well.

I began feeding Rupert 4 times per day, although he never ate very much on his second feed. I would say the minimum needs to be three times a day to begin with, as they grow so fast you wouldn’t want to deprive them at all. It also reduced the risk of bloat (the second biggest killer of dogs) to feed multiple smaller meals. I would say to definitely not give him pigs ears so young, instead you could try frozen carrots, rope toys and Kong toys.

If you are buying your puppy from a good breeder, they should give them some kind of 'Puppy Pack' which should hopefully have info on what he is currently being fed on and when, along with leaflets and information. You could always ask the breeder/vet/dog trainer what they think is best too, If im ever in doubt of anything I type my question into google and read a couple of websites


//Edit: You need to be careful about over exercising puppies too as this can cause problems when they're older, I have been told 5 minutes for every month of their age is appropriate. If he's driving me mad, I take him for a couple of short walks a day.

 

[eisel]

morning walk(45min) feed. food and potty break at lunch. evening walk(45min) and then food.

 

[StarlightDobe]

As far as exercising goes, both my girls were allowed to play while we were home, they would romp with each other in the living room, play with toys, go for walks with us, and run around the back yard while we were outside, and do all the normal puppy activities a puppy does. I read someone posting that they were told to leave their puppy in a crate all the time except for 10 to 15 mins of training and potty breaks until it was grown to 6 months then start training and this is ludicrous. Not letting the puppy run hard for long periods or walking them too far at a young age is smart, but normal activity is fine for puppies. They need to be active, and play, socialize with people, learn their environment, learn how to play, and act around different situations.

 

[arankin]

Scar's feeding is 830am, 2pm, 830pm. Waiting an hour before and after to exercise. Someone is always home for her during the day and on weekends, but she still gets about 3 hours of crate time usually after breakfast to relax.

Now that she is a bit older her routine has changed. But as a pup for the first few weeks we weren't even going on walks. Playing in the backyard was enough, puppies need like 16 hrs sleep a day or something? Anyhow, it's lots.

I would keep the feeding as regular routine as possible, whatever fits into your schedule. Training and getting associated with the crate and of course with ME! was my first priorities when bringing home my pup. Building a relationship and trust. So read up, do lots of short (like couple minute) training sessions through out the day, keep it fun, and bond with her.

And I repeat.... Crate training is your best friend.... lol. Although not easy at first, don't give up, it will help profusely in the long run.

 

[coco77]

COCO, How long did it take for him to be potty trained? What type of bone is the best for him to chew. I do not want anything that can splinter. I heard that the antlers are best? Are pig ears good or bad?

It took 4 weeks, which was a bit longer than I expected, as my boxer puppy trained in 1 1/2 weeks. However, he was on a "stricter" schedule. When we got him I had a 1 year old and 3 year old I was pretty busy, and so the puppy went on the baby's schedule. This time around I have no baby and wasn't as stuck on schedule, and I think that is why Dakota took a bit longer.

We LOVE antlers. I can leave them out for my power chewer adult boxer and my puppy loves them too. I have heard that pig ears are bad, and raw hide anything is bad. We have mainly used trachea in the car to occupy her while riding. I can't see how an antler would splinter, I believe it is cooked bones that would splinter. The antlers look very safe to me. Maybe someone has seen/heard contrary?

 

[monicaei]

Antlers are AWESOME. Bully sticks too. Our pup can finish a trachea in like 3 minutes, so it's not worth the money