Puppy Fact Sheet
by
|
|
Puppy Fact Sheetby
|
If you are getting one of our pups and you have kids, they may find our kid's page of information helpful.
Be sure to check back often to this page as we update it with useful information.
Congratulations, you are now the new guardian of a Portuguese Water Dog.(Click on the image on your right) In this document you’ll find several pieces of information designed to help you look after your puppy, and ensure that you all enjoy each other’s company as much as possible. It's recommended that you print this page off now, or press "Control-D" to add this page to your favourites.Firstly, your puppy has been carefully raised and socialised before it came to your home. Your job is to continue this. Raising a pup is just like raising a child. This means they need:
Critically never ever feed your pup a commercial dog diet. This means no dried food, no kibble, no canned food. This pup should never have anything containing grains, or cooked food. It’s ok once in a while to have the left over rice pudding, but that should be it, in terms of cooked foods and grains. Don’t let anyone try and use scare-mongering tactics to convince you to feed commercial dog food. If you ever get worried call me immediately to discuss further. If you have any trouble with your vet, call me and I will phone them myself to discuss the issues.
For further reading, the best books available are Give Your Dog a Bone by Dr Ian Billinghurst, and Raw Meaty Bones by Dr Tom Lonsdale. Both are Australian vets, and I am in regular contact with them both.
Two email lists I recommend you join:
|
This list is specifically for those people who have Portuguese Water Dogs, and who want to learn more about the Bones and Raw Food diet. If you still need convincing - remember, this is the only ACCEPTABLE diet for your pwd.
|
This email list is a broader diet list. Everything you wanted to learn about the correct way to feed your pet can be found here. (well just about everything!) |
Additionally, ensure that your pup has access to plenty of cool drinking water. I often will leave out 2-3 bowls of water in case one gets knocked over.
It’s important for you to know that by feeding your dog a commercial dog food, you will significantly increase its chance of getting Hip Dysplasia, IBD, thyroid problems, gum disease, UTI’s, tooth decay, and several other health problems. Our health guarantee is based on you feeding a correct raw diet. Therefore, if you ignore our advice and feed a commercial dog diet, you will be comprising the health of your pup and voiding your health guarantee.
Please let me know at any stage whether your dog has any health problems. And remember, please call me immediately if you have any concerns.
A pup, just like a child, needs to know what the boundaries are of their behaviour. It is absolutely normal for the pup to try and stretch those boundaries, and I’ve seen examples of this before where the humans let the dogs push those boundaries. This means if I ever visit you, and the dogs are lying on the furniture, and the humans are sitting on the floor - expect me to have a little discussion with you over boundaries..... Although, pictured right is my girl Splash who is stretched out on my chair! (Click on the image to enlarge)
Another example of ensuring boundaries are clear is on the issue of biting. All puppies will bite. It is completely natural as they attempt to use every one of their senses to learn and explore their environment. However, they have teeth like pins, and it does hurt! So, with your puppy, it is important that they learn that it is not ok to bite humans. With the pups so far, I have found the best word to use is not NO! in fact they are very good at ignoring that. The best word is a growling sound that sounds like "WHIRRRRR!" in a tough growling voice. I’ve found they tend to take notice of that pretty well.
Remember, if you think some behaviours are cute as a pup like biting and jumping up on people and furniture, imagine whatthat will be like in a fully grown dog between 20-25kg. These behaviours don’t magically disappear as the dog gets older. It’s up to you to outline the parameters now.
Do not over-exercise your pup, or over-stimulate it! The pup needs 16-18 hours of sleep a day. It does not need to be out on anything but a quick walk once a day (if that). I know you're friends are dying to meet the new pup, but please remember, over-stimulation can cause the pup to get sick. It will start to behave like an over-stimulated child, and there's nothing funny about that. So be conservative with your pup, and remember that "more" is not often best for anyone.
Don’t take pups for long walks or runs until they are at least 18 months old. Again use your common sense. And if in doubt, call me.
Encourage your dog to go swimming. This does not mean throwing them in the deep end of the pool and seeing if they can swim. Slowly introduce them. Some of the pups are already showing a natural inclination. Once you are confident in their retrieving and swimming abilities, you can even start throwing a tennis ball into water for them. Remember don’t throw it too far as they are usually smart enough to know their limits, and you will lose the object you have thrown in (can you tell I speak from experience here!).
Traditionally, the Portuguese Fishermen would shave down their dogs once a year at the beginning of summer. If you choose to do this, then you will save yourself a heap of grooming, and the coat will have good warmth by winter.
You will need to shave your pup completely at 12 months as they will go through a coat change then, and will usually matt considerably.
Whether you choose to keep your pup in a lion trim, or a working trim (an inch long all over) is up to you. Those pups who will be making show ring appearances, will be required to be clipped into the lion trim before hitting the ring. This is a spectacular trim, with the additional benefit of being easier to maintain as there is less coat.
Rule of thumb for grooming: Don't wait until you feel a knot in the coat before you groom. Like housework, the dog should be brushed before it looks like it needs it.
Be sure to groom the pup regularly as a pup. If you wait until the pup is 6-7 mo old before you start brushing it, I guarantee you that it will behave as if you are trying to kill it, or cut its throat at the very least. Additionally, it will behave like this every time you try to groom it for the rest of its life. It will wriggle, it will not sit still, and it will be out of control. And I have no "fix-it" for this type of behaviour. So don't let that happen to you. Start grooming them now and get them well and truly used to the routine before they need it. Afterall, we're aiming for success all round, so set yourselves up to win here!
At any stage, if you ever need help with learning how to groom, please contact me , and I will offer you assistance on this.
Some of you may choose to take your dog to a grooming parlour. My only advice don’t let them make the dog look like a poodle!
So, have some old towels or wipers to clean up any accident. Expect the pup to need to do their business after playing about, after eating, and after sleeping.
Never ever rub their noses in it, and never think that they are doing it on purpose to upset you!
Because your pup is fed a raw natural diet, its stools should be hard, without much odour if any, and are good for your garden. Tip: If your pup does dig a hole, fill up the hole with the stools. That will discourage the pup next time.
You will find, however, that the dogs as they grow older like to find a perch outside to sleep on and observe their surroundings. This is completely natural behaviour. We have provided an old outside table for our dogs to lie on top of. In summer we put the table in the shade, and in winter we move it out into the sun. The dogs appreciate this greatly. We have also built a small hillock for them to look out from. And if they ever get off it, we look forward to growing grass on it one day!
Rule of Thumb: If your pup chews something it shouldn't have, get a rolled up newspaper and smack yourself over the head repeating three times, "I will not leave my shoes (or whatever) out for the puppy to chew." And then ring me and tell me so that I can remind you!
One of my bitches enjoys picking up buckets and running around with them. Unfortunately this sometimes means that she runs around with them on her head. She seems to have a wonderful time though! This bitch has also been known to run around with my mobile phone, and the esky (half filled with water!).
Good training schools recommend you start training immediately. Backward training schools recommend you start at age 6 months. By that stage all of the bad habits are well and truly learned. If you wait until 6 months, you potentially can ruin the pup.
For the life of your dog, if you ever need help with training issues, call me immediately.
A book worth reading: Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor.
We always train our dogs to the word "bed". When we say "bed" we mean for the dog to go and lie on its bed and leave us alone. If their bed isn’t in the room, we expect the dog to find somewhere on the floor to lie down and be quiet. Actually, we also teach this to visiting dogs too. We highly recommend that you teach your pup the command "bed" as one of the very first things they learn.
Because of the trouble arising from the over-vaccinations that have occurred in the dog population, I recommend you call me to discuss the vaccinations of your dogs later on down the track, so that you can be fully aware of all risks.
It is understood that at last the Australian Vetinary Association is realising that yearly vaccinations are at best unnecessary, and at worst, plain dangerous to our dogs. Our understanding is that there is currently under discussion moves to make vaccinations 2-3 years apart. This will still be a conservative period, and it is more than likely that pets will not even really need the vaccinations this often.
The best prevention for any diseases that can be vaccinated against is to ensure a healthy immune system - which is best created and supported by a raw diet.
Additionally, do not bring your dog up in a sterile environment. Your pup has been raised so far with NO bleach, and NO anti-bacterial soaps.
Do not fall into the trap of being "too clean" - despite what your mother may tell you!
Most simply if you are not showing your pup under our guidance, then the pup is not destined for our future breeding program. Instead, your pup should have the life of Riley as a fabulous companion to you, and should be desexed before it is 7 months old. And remember, the difference between a dog for the breeding program and one that is not, can often be very small. The dogs are of no lesser quality, and cost the same to raise but there are usually slight differences that make one more suitable than another.
Additional links that you may find useful:
If you ever have any questions about this, please call us.
If you ever have problems with your Portuguese Water Dog, at any stage during its life, please call us to discuss. If for some reason, you cannot keep your pup, we insist that it must be returned to us for re-homing. This means, that you cannot place your dog with another family or friend, or sell it on without our written consent at a minimum. If required, we will also put in the necessary effort to re-train the pup and re-socialise it, if the need be.
However, we know that as you have been carefully chosen to take one of these pups, that you have the necessary skills and care to look after one of these precious pups. But, we will always be there if circumstances change.
Please, if you haven’t done so already, please join our email list at:
As a breeder it thrills me to see the quality of homes in which we have placed our pups. I look forward to you sending me through updates and photos of the pups. I will always be at the end of the phone or computer if you want to contact me.
Finally, a summary of the most important points:
Jane Johnson
Bluegrace Portuguese Water Dogs
 Puppies- available for placement Info for kids! |
|
Or see our page about contacting us directly: click here
... visitors to this page since 8th October, 2001