dididog

Thanks, I have already read through most of those links and am aware of the risks associated with too much exercise but what do you suggest I do instead? She gets no exercise in our yard so can't exercise herself and when she hasn't done anything but some training sessions all day (which happened most of last week because of a heatwave) then she is really highly strung and runs around all crazy inside where Im worried she'll hurt herself from running into walls and furniture and slipping over. I figured swimming a bit and walking on sand for about 10-15 was easy on her joints... I also want to get her used to different environments but as she's so heavy I can't really carry her around.

My 14 week old Dane cross is very energetic and we don't have a very big yard (maybe about the size of 2 double bedrooms but some of it is decking) and because she isn't out of the danger zone yet vaccination wise and I don't fully trust her to come when called we don't want to take her to a dog park. Her daily routine consists of: - 2 or 3 short tug or chasing the ball sessions in the yard (5 or so minutes each) - 2 short training sessions, 1 going through the commands she already knows and the other one going over the new command of the week (5 or so minutes each) -I'd much rather her be doing free exercise so most days I will try to go to the beach where she mainly swims or go to the golf course where its safer to let her run around and practice recall as dogs aren't allowed (we go at night once it's closed and clean up after her) and there's minimal distractions except the birdies she gets to chase and their poop that she gets to sniff. We only go to the beach or golf course for about 15 minutes as by the end she's pretty tired. We do this most days (maybe 4 or 5 days out of a week) but when I can't get out there or the weather isn't that great we just go for a 10 minute walk around the block. Is this TOO much? She's tuckered out for most of the day but still has energy to get a bit rowdy now and then but I'd like to hear other opinions on exercising large/giant breeds when you don't have a yard? I know a lot of people on threads I have read have said not to go on walks and just let them exercise themselves at least until their bones stop growing but this isn't feasible for me and my yard.

Be careful wrapping in ice or putting ice on an overheated dog, cooling them down too quickly can be just as dangerous as overheating. One of my pugs was hot last night so I put her in a cool bath and she lay on the floorboards to sleep (she tried snuggling up to me but thankfully after about 10 minutes moved to the floor lol) I wrapped the ice bricks in a tea towel and only put it on her intermittently for a few minutes until the fan started working and she could cool herself down but yeah I probably went a bit over the top trying to cool her down but she seemed really distressed so I panicked. Thanks for the advice though... hopefully it does not get that hot for a while ickk

Take puppy to work for sure just as long as you can keep her secure in a crate or play pen and maybe try to find a quieter part of the warehouse to keep her at least for the first day or so incase she/he is overwhelmed by all the new sounds and sights but make sure you use the experience to get her used to different noises and situations just in a positive way. Also support what has previously been mentioned about making sure nobody has any inappropriate interactions with your pup so make sure you can either supervise her or have advised everyone not to do anything to the pup without you there. Best of luck with the new puppy :)

We'd been doing fine all heat wave but last.night our house just wouldn't cool down and I woke up at about 1 AM to pup panting frantically and burning up . I tried wetting a tea towel and laying it down on.the tiles in front of the fireplace but she didn't quite understand and wouldn't lay down on it so I triedwrapped her in the wet towel and went and got a fan from the garage. Turns out the fan was in the garage because its broken and you have to wait ten minutes for other to get going! In the mean time i tried to bring her body temp down by soaking another towel in icy chilled water and then wrapping it around a freezer brick and putting that underneath her while feeding her ice cubes so that she got hydrated. She cooled down pretty quick and i got the fan to work so we just fell asleep infront of that but poor puppy is really sick of the heat! Bring tomorrow is all I can say.

Thanks for all the kind words guys :) and since you asked here are some more.... It's been really hot the last few days so I've just been sitting inside and bugging her as I try to remember how my camera works so excuse the still questionable photography... She looks so dopey here and some of her being a silly puppy...

Yeah I am definitely not too sold on the DNA results as they also claimed Bedlington Terrier was in the mix and that's even more uncommon than Irish Terrier. I think I'll just stick with Great Dane cross for now :laugh:

Thanks everyone for the advice on feeding, due to the uncertainty of her final size I have just been feeding her what I think she needs. She was pretty skinny when she got here (pups weren't fed separately so don't think she was getting her fair share) so I fed her generously and then when she started leaving food in her bowl I began to scale back and am now feeding her less because she also gets meaty, fatty bones every day or so. I think she's in good condition but am worried of her starting to lean to the chunky side rather than the lean side.... Here's a photo of her body (not the best but she's a fidget), do you think she's ideal or should I scale her food back a bit more? We have a small yard so she doesn't get heaps of exercise unless we go to the golf course for a run around or the beach for a swim because even though I take her for short walks now and then I'd rather her do free exercise on soft terrain for the sake of her joints.

I highly advise speaking to your vet though as they and you know the dog much better than forum peeps. Good luck and I hope it all clears up. Thanks, I'll definitely be talking it over with him first and pup is starting to feel a bit better which is good!

Thanks for that! I will talk to my vet next Saturday about Canidae and just in general how she's doing growth wise and then start making a switch.

Well I noticed the packaging on the almost out of date 18kg was different to the newer one we bought so maybe Advance has changed some things. As far as food goes I did some reading last night and am considering Euk, Canidae, Royal Canin and Black Hawk so I welcome any advice or opinions on these. I think from memory Canidae seemed the nicest ingredients wise but I don't know if that necessarily makes it the best choice for my puppy.

As with your pup, we had no idea as to what size/weight my horse puppy was going to be... the guestimate based on her puppy size/weight gains was looking to be around 50kg... but it's now tracking to be somewhere in the 35kg range. She is now 16 months old and 28kg - lovely long Dane legs and in lovely condition (read no fat) - she is in no way a "small" dog... *grin* T. Im really worried I am ovefeeding her and making her grow to quickly because I don't know how big she's going to get but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.... I do think 50 wold be an absolute maximum and have been feeding her a little less than what is recommended for a 45kg pup as we give her bones and treats - don't want her getting chubby!

We all thought she was Lab x Staffy cross until we got the DNA results.... Her Mum is a Lab, Dogues De Bordeaux, Dachshund, Irish terrier mix but had the body of a Lab with a brindle coat and Dad was Great Dane with a small amount of Boxer. Judging on her and her litter mates though Great Dane is definitely the main contributor with Lab and Dogues and the Boxer making an appearance... at 13 weeks she is already the size of two dachshunds so don't know where they come into the mix!

I guess I'm just a bit apprehensive to change and trial food while she's still a growing pup but will definitely start looking into making a switch in the next few weeks.

I have sent off a message to Advance and will call them if I get no response. I am also skeptical of where we bought the offending bag as the first bag and the most recent bag were bought at chain pet supply stores whereas the weird one was bought at a small feed shop my dad ducked into on the way home from work one day and when he picked up an 18kg bag from there a week later we ended up returning it because the expiry date was was a few days away. I'll read up on the Great Dane Rescue stuff but to be honest even though the breed most predominate in her is Great Dane, her DNA test shows a lot of other breeds in the mix though quite minutely (her mum was Lab, Dachshund, Irish Terrier, Dogues De Bordeaux mix and weighed 30kg and Dad was Great Dane with a splash of Boxer). With this mix comes a lot of uncertainty of how big she will actually get but we are assuming around 50kg for now (13.5kg at 13 weeks currently).

She's a rescue pup so unfortunately not an option

Thanks for that, I might check that out now!

I'm a bit apprehensive to change her diet since she's doing well on this one but I will bring it up with my vet next week when she gets her last vaccination. I wouldn't consider diarrhea to be "doing well" though Well its hardly diarrhea in the uncontrollable liquid mess sense, just 2 or 3 days of loose stool. She's a giant breed puppy so im not going to try and mess around with her food without advice from the vet. She's doing well on it as in growing.at a healthy rate, isn't gassy, has a nice shiny coat and apart from the transitions between bags her stools are firm and not too smelly. You said diarrhea in the post, I imagined complete liquid not just loose stools. Either way you should mention it to the vet and the supplier. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm sorry I probably should have been a bit more specific, the first day is mild diarrhea and then begins to firm up hence why haven't taken her to the vet but I don't think I will feed her Advance after this bag runs out.. I thought the first bad transition was a coincidence but after it happening again I'm not too impressed.

It was what she was being fed and the Vet seemed fine with it but I also don't want to keep her on Advance permanently but will keep feeding it to her till I find something else... maybe I'll have a poke around the forums, I just am a bit wary as there tends to be a lot of conflicting views and opinions when it comes to food.

I still have the bag from the weird batch so I'll get in touch with Advance soon about it!

I'm a bit apprehensive to change her diet since she's doing well on this one but I will bring it up with my vet next week when she gets her last vaccination. I wouldn't consider diarrhea to be "doing well" though Well its hardly diarrhea in the uncontrollable liquid mess sense, just 2 or 3 days of loose stool. She's a giant breed puppy so im not going to try and mess around with her food without advice from the vet. She's doing well on it as in growing.at a healthy rate, isn't gassy, has a nice shiny coat and apart from the transitions between bags her stools are firm and not too smelly.

I'm a bit apprehensive to change her diet since she's doing well on this one but I will bring it up with my vet next week when she gets her last vaccination.

The first day is diarrhea but not very bad and then day 2 and 3 her stool is just very loose. Goes back to normal day 4 or 5. Her bowel movements are still relatively on schedule except she does have to go during the night which she normally doesn't do

I have had my Dane x puppy for 3 weeks now and just wanted a place to shamelessly show off how beautiful she is as I'm getting the feeling my friends are beginning to get sick of all of the puppy pictures! I also want something to document her growing and changing as she has already put on 5 kilos since we got her!! Her name is Didi and she is currently 13 weeks old ^.^ Here she is at 8 weeks old 10 weeks (when we first got her) 11 Weeks 12 Weeks 13 weeks sorry they're all bad phone photos... I'll get round to using my actual camera soon....

I probably should've mentioned that! She is up to date vaccinated and wormed, definitely her usual energetic puppy self... I was contemplating taking her to the vet but the diarrhea was the only symptom and both times has occurred directly after buying a new bag of food.