Annavellie
Member
I recently rescued a little Mastiff puppy from what Iwould consider an unreputable breeder. HerAKC papers (which were literally thrown out the door with her) reflect that her parents were both born 1-13. This is disturbing thatthey both were less than one year old when her litter was born. Also they sharethe same birth date which tells me the parents may have been litter mates.Scary.
Anyway, we named her Abby. She was born10/28/13, she weighed 22 lbs on 1/25 (vet is not concerned, her body appearsnormal and healthy in size – she is just small). She has normal hip movementand flexibility now. Until we picked her up she had never seen a vet, beenwormed, had vaccinations or been outside of their yard. She is 13 weeks oldnow. We have had her a week. At the vet they did basic blood work, firstimmunizations, fecal and urine samples as well as a thorough exam; I have notheard anything from them so I am guessing all was normal. We go back nextSaturday 2/8.
Since Abby had no training from her parentsor humans we are starting from scratch, thankfully she is small and I can coaxher along. I am hoping you can give me some advice about a few things since theonly Mastiff’s I have ever had were Cane Corso and BullMastiff. I cannot askher breeder and I don’t know anyone that has English Mastiff’s. My vet is greatand I really like her, but she is a vet – she does medicine not practicalsolutions and training.
I should also mention that I have an eight year old Labrador, Earl, anda Great Dane, Rio, born 10/12/13 – Yes, TWO puppies!
Food: I currently have both puppies eatingPrecise Hollistic Large/Giant Breed puppy, but Abby has loose stools (think chocolate pudding). Herthird day of wormer was Wednesday. Her stoolwasn’t loose when she came to us, but they wouldn’t tell us what she was eatingso it has not been a smooth transition. Precise is expensive and if it doesn’tagree with her there is no point in feeding it. The only thing my vetrecommended for both puppies was to feed them Large/Giant breed puppy food; she didnot give any specific brands. I like Precise because it is made in the USA,holistic, organic and has a clear disclosure of ingredients which are humangrade; but if Precise doesn’t agree with her tummy’s than I need to switch. Doyou have any ideas how to figure out if it’s the food, stress, wormer,genetic??? My vet simply said try different brands until you find one thatagree’s with her. If you try a few and it doesn’t work then we can run tests,try prescription food or other diagnostic measures. I have also added aprobiotic to her diet.
Potty Training: We are crating her a night – it has beena sleepless week – but the moment I open her door at 2:30 a.m.,before I can get a leash on her, she runs to the bedroom to snuggle in with myhusband. I find her with her front paws on the mattress and her little tailwagging waiting to be lifted onto the bed. I try to skootch her out of thebedroom, down the hall to the front door and inevitably she pees on the groundalong the way. I have started just picking her up and making her go outside,but this isn’t the answer for too much longer. I did try putting a leash on herat night so I would have something besides her collar to get ahold of the inmorning but instead of chewing her Kong she chewed the leash off at the hasp. Ifigured that would happen, but it was worth a try! She seems to like to pee onfabric (t-shirt, towel, dog bed, etc.).
She is either in her crate, outside with one of us or oneof us is right there with her. For some reason she still pee’s in the house. Wecatch her and of course make a mad dash to skootch her out the door, praise herwhen she goes potty outside. It seems like she goes potty every time we bringher back inside even though she just went! She drinks a lot, but the vet isn’tconcerned and says it is normal and good for a dog that eats dry kibble todrink water and the pee is very small in volume.
Leash: since she doesn’t have all of her shots we canreally only walk her around in the yard. She doesn’t like it. She is not treatmotivated (never happened to me before and I’ve tried several different kindsincluding just plain cheese) and she really could seem to care less about goinganywhere except back inside. We aren’t really active people and have a fullyfenced back yard, but we will need to figure out a way to get her to move on aleash.
Basic training: I can get her to sit if I have a peanutbutter spoon and I am on the floor with her, but lay down, stand up, let me seeyour belly or anything beyond sit she looks at me like “yah right ladyâ€. We arewith her every moment we aren’t sleeping or at work. She goes in the car withus, to the hardware store, to our friends, we have people over, we play in theyard (the other dogs play in the yard, she sits at the door to go inside).
She seems happy, her little tail wags, she gives kisses,loves to snuggle in on the bean bags with us, since she has other dogs to playwith she doesn’t really chew on us and isn’t destructive (although we know thatit is possible after she is acclimated). She loves the other dogs and hasmelded right into the pack already. She is the sweetest, quiet, loving littlegirl; she reminds us of our BullMastiff Fergie – that same stubbornness.
The vet says puppy classes aren’t an option for anothercouple months, until immunizations are caught up and doing their job. I wouldreally appreciate any insight you have!!!!!
Thanks!
Anyway, we named her Abby. She was born10/28/13, she weighed 22 lbs on 1/25 (vet is not concerned, her body appearsnormal and healthy in size – she is just small). She has normal hip movementand flexibility now. Until we picked her up she had never seen a vet, beenwormed, had vaccinations or been outside of their yard. She is 13 weeks oldnow. We have had her a week. At the vet they did basic blood work, firstimmunizations, fecal and urine samples as well as a thorough exam; I have notheard anything from them so I am guessing all was normal. We go back nextSaturday 2/8.
Since Abby had no training from her parentsor humans we are starting from scratch, thankfully she is small and I can coaxher along. I am hoping you can give me some advice about a few things since theonly Mastiff’s I have ever had were Cane Corso and BullMastiff. I cannot askher breeder and I don’t know anyone that has English Mastiff’s. My vet is greatand I really like her, but she is a vet – she does medicine not practicalsolutions and training.
I should also mention that I have an eight year old Labrador, Earl, anda Great Dane, Rio, born 10/12/13 – Yes, TWO puppies!
Food: I currently have both puppies eatingPrecise Hollistic Large/Giant Breed puppy, but Abby has loose stools (think chocolate pudding). Herthird day of wormer was Wednesday. Her stoolwasn’t loose when she came to us, but they wouldn’t tell us what she was eatingso it has not been a smooth transition. Precise is expensive and if it doesn’tagree with her there is no point in feeding it. The only thing my vetrecommended for both puppies was to feed them Large/Giant breed puppy food; she didnot give any specific brands. I like Precise because it is made in the USA,holistic, organic and has a clear disclosure of ingredients which are humangrade; but if Precise doesn’t agree with her tummy’s than I need to switch. Doyou have any ideas how to figure out if it’s the food, stress, wormer,genetic??? My vet simply said try different brands until you find one thatagree’s with her. If you try a few and it doesn’t work then we can run tests,try prescription food or other diagnostic measures. I have also added aprobiotic to her diet.
Potty Training: We are crating her a night – it has beena sleepless week – but the moment I open her door at 2:30 a.m.,before I can get a leash on her, she runs to the bedroom to snuggle in with myhusband. I find her with her front paws on the mattress and her little tailwagging waiting to be lifted onto the bed. I try to skootch her out of thebedroom, down the hall to the front door and inevitably she pees on the groundalong the way. I have started just picking her up and making her go outside,but this isn’t the answer for too much longer. I did try putting a leash on herat night so I would have something besides her collar to get ahold of the inmorning but instead of chewing her Kong she chewed the leash off at the hasp. Ifigured that would happen, but it was worth a try! She seems to like to pee onfabric (t-shirt, towel, dog bed, etc.).
She is either in her crate, outside with one of us or oneof us is right there with her. For some reason she still pee’s in the house. Wecatch her and of course make a mad dash to skootch her out the door, praise herwhen she goes potty outside. It seems like she goes potty every time we bringher back inside even though she just went! She drinks a lot, but the vet isn’tconcerned and says it is normal and good for a dog that eats dry kibble todrink water and the pee is very small in volume.
Leash: since she doesn’t have all of her shots we canreally only walk her around in the yard. She doesn’t like it. She is not treatmotivated (never happened to me before and I’ve tried several different kindsincluding just plain cheese) and she really could seem to care less about goinganywhere except back inside. We aren’t really active people and have a fullyfenced back yard, but we will need to figure out a way to get her to move on aleash.
Basic training: I can get her to sit if I have a peanutbutter spoon and I am on the floor with her, but lay down, stand up, let me seeyour belly or anything beyond sit she looks at me like “yah right ladyâ€. We arewith her every moment we aren’t sleeping or at work. She goes in the car withus, to the hardware store, to our friends, we have people over, we play in theyard (the other dogs play in the yard, she sits at the door to go inside).
She seems happy, her little tail wags, she gives kisses,loves to snuggle in on the bean bags with us, since she has other dogs to playwith she doesn’t really chew on us and isn’t destructive (although we know thatit is possible after she is acclimated). She loves the other dogs and hasmelded right into the pack already. She is the sweetest, quiet, loving littlegirl; she reminds us of our BullMastiff Fergie – that same stubbornness.
The vet says puppy classes aren’t an option for anothercouple months, until immunizations are caught up and doing their job. I wouldreally appreciate any insight you have!!!!!
Thanks!
I'm sure lil Abby will be fine...she has a loving family! Please post pics!
