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We have a Dogue de Bordeaux puppy and they're quite prone to heat exhaustion so our breeder recommends having those clam shells in the yard filled with water when it gets hot so he can wade in at his leisure. He's also an outside dog but we have an enclosed verandah at the back and he lies FLAT on the concrete floor when he's hot :-)

I guess it's different to a check chain then which I see often on DDB pics which just hangs lose around their necks? I don't think Tonka needs a prong collar yet (hopefully never) but he definitely needs more training :-)

How young can you start using prong collar with a Dogue de Bordeaux? I have seen a lot of DDBs with a check collar but the prong collar may be gentler and more effective with instructions and fitting ...?

"I AM SO ANGRY I COULD REALLY HURT THE OWNERS OF THESE DOGS!" I can really understand that ... "poor Max", but "lucky Max" too for your protectiveness. I always walk with a stick when I take Tonka for a walk, and make no mistake, I know how to use it & will use it if I need to. He's only a puppy (14 weeks) and I don't want him to get aggressive with other dogs later on because of other idiot dog owners out there. He's a DDB and will grow into a big boy so precaution on our part is a must. I will go ape-s#it if anything like this happens to him while he's still a pup !!!

Oh no, this happens often? :D We've only had our 14 weeks old DDB for about 5 weeks and have already had one offer. I thought it was a rare one-off thing, but from the looks of this thread it's not. A man approached me while waiting with Tonka for my OH who's in a shop and said he's got a rottweiler and they'll be a perfect match. I told him that Tonka's had a vasectomy but he was still keen, insisting that they can be reversed and was getting quite pushy. By this stage I was getting quite annoyed as the guy won't leave, he went on to pat Tonka and I told him not to 'coz he will get bitten ... by me! Tonka gets oogled a lot when we take him out (since he's just so gorgeous!!!) but I didn't think anyone would ever ask to "breed" with him. Lucky my OH wasn't there, that could've been very interesting.

I have a DDB too, Tonka, and he's 14 weeks old. I'm currently doing the distance learning with Steve at K9 Pro after reading the recommendations and feedback from here. It's great, we all love it! although ... after reading a post from Julie (Nekhbet) I usually feel like I've just been to school too (in a good way!) - Cath

I'm not really sure if I can add anything of substance in regards to the pros & cons of Cesar Milan's training methods but I would like to say that we owe a lot to this guy in regards to educating us in basic "puppy" issues. Without his book "How to Raise the Perfect Puppy" we would have been in all sorts of trouble, and I'm not exaggerating. My partner & I have both been raised around dogs but have never had our own and were painfully unaware of the extent of our ignorance when it comes to raising dogs. I only bought this book because I recognised Cesar Milan from an episode I saw on TV and not because I was looking for a book on purpose. We thought, "how hard can it be?", idiots! Here are a list of things we knew NOTHING about before reading this book, honestly: * puppy farms: we were actually looking at pet shops and would have bought a puppy from one if there was one we liked at the time! We thought, OMG how handy! (idiots!) * breeders: huh? what to look for in a breeder, contracts? huh? * how to choose the right puppy: temperament, how active are they, etc ... (huh?) we originally wanted our puppy because we loved Hooch in the movie! luckily enough our chosen breed actually compliments our needs, but can you imagine? * vets: how to tell if you have a good one ... what? aren't they all? * feeding quality food: huh? surely it's okay if it can be sold, right? * vaccinations: * crate training: we thought they were cages and cruel, I don't know what we would've done without Tonka's crate. and on, and on, and on. And all these before we even get the puppy! If anything else, I applaud Cesar Milan for being able to get the right message out there for dummies like us. Not only did his book give us invaluable information, it also taught us how to get the knowledge for ourselves. Must be working, our Tonka is a happy healthy not-so-little puppy and we found this forum - Cath

Here is the last picture from our breeder. He's going to be hard to resist! Taking him and the OH to Hanrob this Saturday, mostly for the OH who's going to be harder to train thank Tonka. Less than a day to go!

Hi everyone :-) What adorable looking puppies! It makes the wait a bit easier. We pick up our puppy, Tonka (aka Tyson 'coz he bit another puppy's ear at the vet) this Friday and we just can't wait. Our breeder sent us a pic last night and I nearly drove the 2 and a bit hours to pick him up right then & there :-)

ha! Sounds like me ... Given half a chance I'd eat til I pop too! We have made an appointment with Natural Vet at Russell Lea, which is a bit far but it's the only natural vet we can find. Also, can anyone recommend a good puppy school / obedience training place? Tonka's going to be a big boy so we want to start as soon as we can.

Hi dogluva, our breeder use Pro Plan for large / giant puppies. We have spoken to our breeder about changing Tonka's food and even though they wouldn't change what they feed, they are not against it and have offered to monitor Tonka's progress with us and our future vet ... And we love them for it :-) so far we have heard from other owners & breeders who have been feeding their large/giant size dogsraw from puppyhood with huge success ... And also kibble fed puppies with no problems at all ... Ugh! The responsibility

Linda ... we're naming him Tonka ... we're still thinking of his "bad dog" name :-) Nekhbet ... your Dogue is gorgeous! We are getting split views about feeding raw from 9 weeks and we are still leaning on raw (which also include raw "blended" vegies & fruits) but are definitely cautious about the idea. I just can't see how any form of kibble can be better for him. From what I've read & seen, puppies do not overeat when on natural food and as long as we feed the correct variety and monitor his growth with our (yet to be found) vet and breeder.

We are definitely doing as much research as we possibly can and will be consulting with others who have fed their giant babies a raw diet. We understand that this is not a conventional way of feeding our canine family members but we will do what is best for our baby, and not what is popular. We are looking very closely at Tom Lonsdale's recommendation of the RMB which makes a lot of sense to us in comparison to any kibble type food available in the market. He recommends a natural diet of raw meaty bones for puppies, including fish, offal, "table scraps" ... which would mainly be suitable vegies & fruits blended for easier digestion. We have informed our breeder of our choice to feed raw and they are ok with it, they know we will never jeopardise our boy's health and they will always be informed of his progress. We are getting unbelievably helpful information through this forum alone which we are very thankful for! It's great to see that raw feeding is getting very popular with amazing results.

Hello everybody, My name is Cath and would like to ask for your help, pretty please :-) We are picking up our gorgeous Dogue de Bordeaux boy in 3 weeks (he'll be 9 weeks old) and are starting to get a lot more excited & nervous as the Day close in on us. We saw him over the weekend at the breeder and he's nearly doubled from the pics that she sent us less than 2 weeks ago! He's so goofy and is definitely the pick of the litter (a BIT biased, can you tell?)! I was wondering if anyone may have any recommendations, especially Local ones, in relation to a trusted & knowledgeable vet and puppy school? We are also going to be feeding our boy the Raw Meaty Diet as prescribed by Dr Tom Lonsdale, and was wondering if anyone knows of a butcher that is good with raw meaty bones? Thank you so much in advance everyone

Hi Hopenfox, I was wondering if you fed the raw meaty diet to your dogs when they were a pup? We're picking up our Bordeaux puppy in a few weeks and have been researching food for the little (not so little!) fella and are quite keen to start him on the raw meaty diet as prescribed by Tom Lonsdale in his books. This is the diet which made the most sense to us and we're quite keen to hear about first hand experiences. Any practical tips will be greatly appreciated. Tonka's on Pro Plan at the moment and I'm keen to change his diet as soon as we get home. I'm taking time off work so I can supervise him and we will be monitoring his progress very, very carefully. We can't wait for the little fella to arrive !!