Puppy Tips
The tips provided are for guidance only and is what I've found work best for my dogs.
Feeding:
We raise our puppies on Eagle Pack large breed puppy in the purple bag you can find more information about Eagle Pack at www.eaglepack.com or www.thegreatdanelady.com. I recommend you continue with this food since large breed dogs have different nutritional needs due to their rapid growth. They should be fed a brand name food with 24% protein or less. Too much protein in their diet can cause their legs to bow under the stress of their growth. DO NOT give your puppy vitamins; they won’t need them as long as you keep them on a good quality puppy food. Great Danes are suspectable bloat which can be fatal. To reduce the chances of bloat, I recommend multiple feeding per day even as adults. Also, as your puppy grows, you need to move the food bowls up off the ground.
Vet Care:
Shots should be given at regular intervals until around 5 months, after that it is the routine once a year shots. Vet's vary on shot schedules so please consult your vet on when to get his/her shots. All of our puppies and adults are given heartworm preventive year around since they were 3 months of age. Your vet can let you know when it is a good time to get them started on this.
A Well Mannered Dane:
Great Danes are a very intelligent breed and will strive to please those around them. It is, however, very important that they are obedience trained and made aware early on that the humans in the house are the boss (this includes your children). Dogs are by nature a pack animal and think of their humans as part of their pack. Like any pack, a pack has a leader and a pecking order. Dogs assume that if the humans aren’t the leaders then they must be and will take that position and can become dominant in nature.
Inappropriate behavior such as pulling on the leash, not minding or being aggressive should not be tolerated even at an early age. You may be able to tolerate bad behavior in a small breed dog but a 100+ pound dog can hurt you or someone else. Obedience training and housebreaking should be started as soon as you are comfortable, just remember they are babies and some may not get it right away. If you’ve never obedience trained a puppy, ask your vet for obedience class references.
Potty training:
Here is what I’ve found to work the best:
Establish a saying when you are ready to take them outside like “go out”. Say this each time before you take them out and they will learn that is their signal to go outside for a bathroom break. Once outside, continuously use another key phrase like “go potty”. This will let them know it is now time to go. These two things will make bathroom breaks in the future be smoother and faster. Be sure to always praise your puppy when they’ve gone to the bathroom. I don’t use treats only praise.
Guidelines:
Right when they wake up or get through playing hard take them outside. Be prepared, you may have to stand out there for a while but you’ll be glad you did.
Another key time to take them out is 10 – 15 minutes after they’ve eaten. This is when they are most likely to poop so stay with them until they do.
If they haven’t gone out to the bathroom for about 2 hours, it is a good idea to take them outside. Immature bladders don’t hold for very long.
