WAIIRI PUPPY REARING GUIDELINES
 

Veterinary and Health Considerations

Worming due now and at 24 weeks, then every 3 months for the rest of puppies life.  Make sure you use a quality wormer that does all the worms

Desexing *Recommended even for male dogs, makes them less frustrated, happier to be at home with you instead of off chasing other dogs, Makes them cleaner and often less aggressive towards other dogs.

They will still be masculine and good guard dogs, just more people orientated dogs, instead of sniffing and weeing on every lamp post!!

Shampooing cattle dogs is generally not needed or recommended. Regular brushing should be all you need to keep his coat and skin healthy, and good flea control with some oil in his diet occasionally.

Please take your puppy to a puppy pre-school class, so you can start him off on the right foot, while he is young and training is easy!.  Make sure when you book him in that your pre-school class is conducted on motivational training, or reward based training, as it is much easier for puppy to learn, and much kinder for him.

Even if he is a well behaved puppy we STRONGLY recommend preschool, as the early puppy socialisation it offers is invaluable in teaching him DOG/DOG manners, his puppy human manners you may  teach him, but his doggy skills you cannot, and these must be learnt before he is 14 weeks old.

Feeding

The best food for your puppy is a natural diet. Often called the ‘BARF” diet, standing for Bones and Raw Food. There are 2 books available by Veterinary surgeon Ian Billinghurst, one called ‘the barf diet’, and another ‘grow your pups with bones’. These are recommended reading to give you an idea of how to do this properly. There is also a web site where you can look up this information.

A natural diet for a dog in the wild would generally consist of roughly

• 30% RAW bones
• 30% grasses, grains and vegatables and fruit
• 30% meat
• 10% remaining made up of offal, eg liver/kidney, dirt, roots, eggs, droppings from other animals (replace with yoghurt!),
• and whatever else he can scrounge up.

Canned food tends to be 60% water, and often makes the droppings smelly, and can cause diarrhoea in some animals, as can milk which is not needed now your puppy has been  weaned.

If you are going to feed a commercial diet, and they are handy, then a premium  dry food diet for puppies available from your veterinary clinic is recommended.

Yes they are expensive compared to supermarket foods, but they are MUCH better quality.  They work out to only roughly $1.00 per day, and are completley balanced with all calcium, all vitamins and minerals.

A straight meat diet is NOT a balanced diet for a dog.

If meat is added to a commercial diet, then while puppy is growing he should have a calcium supplement, roughly one teaspoon of calcium per 500 grams of meat that he eats. As an adult add calcium per 1kg of meat, or feed extra raw bones instead.

Take advantage of your puppy, and have him eat all your leftovers, including fruits and vegetables which most dogs really like. However,

NEVER EVER FEED ANY COOKED BONES – it is the most common thing veterinary surgeons doing abdominal surgery find that CAN NOT BE PASSED BY YOUR DOG - as dogs cannot digest bones properly once cooked.

Puppies should NOT be overweight. Puppies that are too heavy have extra stress placed on their growing joints, which can lead to arthritis later in life.

Have your puppy slightly lighter if anything, he should be young and fit and agile, like an athlete as he is growing. Fat is NOT healthy.

Keeping him lean will give you extra years to enjoy him, as overweight will shorten his life span.

Exercise, Training and Activity

Cattle dogs are active so be prepared.

The more activities you can give your puppy to do then the more settled he will be, and the less likely he will be to invent fun for himself, fun which YOU may not find appropriate. While he is young he should not be allowed to OVER EXERCISE. Meaning best not to take him for 3 km hikes, or throw the ball for hours on end.

Puppies tear around llike silly things, then crash and rest and sleep when they get tired. If you have him out for a 3km hike, he can’t stop and sleep when he gets tired, and he may not even notice at first that he is tired, because of all the stimulating smells, sights, sounds.  NOT STOPPING when he is tired STRAINS his young joints, which can also lead to problems later in his life. And a cattle dog chasing a ball will not notice he is tired either!!

Try to find mentally stimulating things for him to do (see environmental enrichment), take him to play in the park, but no long walks home.

While he is young expose him to as many situations as you can, eg children, skateboards, bicycles, pensioners, men in funny hats, men with beards, the more he experiences now the easier he will be to live with as he gets older. What is often perceived as aggression in dogs is actually ‘stay away I’m frightened’. A confident dog is a happy dog. The more he experiences as a puppy the more confident he will be, and the less stressed he will be.

Take him training, as they say that 10 mins training is the equivalent of 30 mins exercise, and cattle dogs being a working breed actually LIKE having a job to do and something to think about. They DO enjoy positive, reward based training!

Be prepared  Young puppies are MUCH less trouble than young adolescent dogs of 7 – 18 mths.  Start your training now so that he is in the habit of doing the right thing before he hits adolescence.  More dogs are euthanased for behavioural reasons, eg for digging holes, barking etc than for any  other reasons. 

Have him inside with you if it is too cold or too dark to take him walking. Dogs are social creatures and NEED interaction and a family to belong to. If you are inside and he is outside then neither of you benefit from each other at all.  Have him in for company and indoor training, eg lie on the mat and be calm training.

If not he may find your garden fun, like pulling out your new shrubs, your new shoes could be fun (what great chew toys they are.)  He may like your washing, in pieces and on the ground that is, (and boy that was fun. ) 

Or he may decide that the outside world looks pretty stimulating too, and a 6 foot high fence is not an insurmountable challenge to a mentally understimulated  cattle dog.

If you don’t exercise and stimulate a 10 month old cattle dog – he will do it himself!!

Most of all be prepared to enjoy your cattle dog puppy.

And if you do have any problems please get in touch.

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