HELP!! New Caucasian Puppy

I'm sorry, I accidentally reported your question but I didn't mean to. He's 10 weeks.

No. I've read a lot about them, but I wasn't quite ready to own one. I was planning to take my time over the next few months to decide on a breeder and build a relationship and so on and so forth.

I can also talk about his health now, where everyone can see. He is on parvo watch, because of three reasons: First, he has not been eating very much. I'm hoping it is because it is a change in diet, and he will overcome it. Second, he has diarrhea. Third, he was throwing up. He has stopped throwing up, but the eating hasn't increased by much. He will go back to the vet on Friday. He is going to get his second deworming treatment tonight, and he has two ear infections that I need to treat until the end of the week.

My other big concern is how to train him. I have read that I SHOULD hit him or pinch him etc., because that's what his mother and litter mates would have done to tell him that they don't like his behavior. I have also read to never hit them, because they have a strong sense of pride and will not react well to that. So far, I have been firm but fair with him. I struck him on the nose when he snapped at the person that scared him, but that is all. 

Here are some pictures. The one of him on the leash was his first time ever, and since then he has started to walk. If the leash ever becomes taught, he will sit down just like that and stop moving though.

Also, should I take him out as soon as he poops? He's also barking when he does this, and I don't want to teach him that if he barks long enough, he can get out.

Thank you! I'm going to try that tonight, wish us luck!

He is really something. He learns so much every day that everyone notices, this is only his third day and he's come so far. I think he's already starting to ask to go out if I really pay attention, he wanders towards my front door. It's only his third day with me and things couldn't be more different! I was worried he would never warm up to be after how scared he was at first, but he's my little buddy already!!

keep us updated on how he does  :)

you will do a great job !

Awesome, I would suggest you find some other owners and breeders and learn lots!

Hello everybody! He didn't poop in his box at all last night or today!! The first time ever!! It's hard to tell if he peed, if he did it was gone. I wipe his box daily, and it was a bit dirty. He had a BIG day today. I took him out constantly today, as usual. He's really getting a hang of the leash being connected to me, and that he needs to follow along. He played with a sixth month old Siberian husky and a sixth month old retriever. He went to a big trivia night gathering. The timing was perfect, because he was tired enough to not bark or growl. Everyone wanted to pet him and take his picture and he sat so politely. There was a giant chocolate lab that started to play too rough and step on him and bite around his neck, but I swiftly separated them. He always wants to play, but he is too small and clumsy to stand a chance. I let him meet them, but I always make sure he is safe and I make the rules. I want him to be comfortable with people and dogs, so that he always respects them when he should. He was brushed for the third time today, and he's getting very used to it. Maybe he was just tired, but he already let's me turn him this way and that!

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!

You have 3 pups at the same time?,,, wow,,,..

Hello, again! Things have been going pretty well, he's getting a little tiny bit better with kennel training and house training every day. But I have a question: twice he's been in a sort of... weird mood. He's been riding in the car, because I want him to get used to it. He's done it a lot, between the vet and various other places that he has needed to go. He usually does a great job. He's quiet, and usually lays down. Today, he barked at me. I told him to "shhhh," which is something I use to get him to stop barking at other people and dogs when we're outside (at an even volume, and I praise him when he's silent aftrewards.) I also reached my hand to let him smell it and he snapped at me. It wasn't bad or anything, but is that normal? I'm very firm with him, I'm no pushover. I'm just worried about the horror stories I've read, of people building great relationships with their dog and then the dog hits puberty and it's personality completely changes. I'm hoping it's just because he's still figuring me out.

I guess what I'm really asking is: are we still doing okay, even if there are some bumps in the road? If he tests his boundaries with me every once in a while, but I send a clear signal are we still on our way to a healthy dynamic? Did your dogs (everyone) ever test you guys when they were puppies?

I have two more questions: First, can I start to train him now? I have officially had him for a week, and he's two and a half months. I figured I would let him settle into his new life first, but is he old enough to retain specific commands? I tried sit last week, and he was doing it every time. But it was hard to tell if he was doing it because he was learning the command and I was saying "sit," or if it was just what he felt like doing. Second, what should I do when he's chewing things or about to bite something that he shouldn't? I always try saying "no," and then distracting him with something I do want him to bite. Every once in a while, he ignores the toy, because he's too interested in what he's after. I push his face away, and he'll ignore the action and me firmly saying "no" and go right back to it. Any advice?

He's at an age where he like's to Test you. This is normal Every dog does this , but it is more difficult with a dominant breed. Just show him that you are still the boss.

if you don't mistreat your dog then he is not going to turn on you! He Will love you and protect you!

they somtimes test you just to see how far they can go, but,if you show clear leadership this won't happen to Often in the future. ( this means that for example in a certain situation  you don't show that you are in control, he Will try to take over.)

Bad news today :( he got very sick. He threw up everywhere, he threw up all his food and then he was throwing up bile. We had a normal morning, took him on his walk, he ate all his food, drank water, and he peed and pooped. I went away for an hour, and he started throwing up like crazy. My roommate heard him sounding panicked, and she saw him and called me an I came right home. He threw up everywhere and he had liquid poop again, and when I came home he was laying in the mulch with her and wouldn't move. He couldn't have eaten anything, because he is literally always in my eyesight. He got a Parco test and bloodwork and it's all good. He got an injection to prevent more vomiting and he he's had subcutaneous fluidso injected in his shoulder to rehydrate him. He's eating boiled chicken and rice tonight, and I have to keep watching him. If he doesn't get better, we're going to the ER.

I might have waited 48 hours to see if he got any better, before taking him in. But he scared me because he was just laying on the ground refusing to move. I've never seen him so lethargic. And the fact that he threw up his food, got it all out of his system, but kept on throwing up saliva and bile had me scared too. He's feeling better now. He threw up one more time, but he's on rice and boiled chicken now and he's getting his energy back.

I really need tips on what to feed him. I did a lot of research, and settled on blue buffalo wildnerness large breed puppy. I want to supplement it with raw food, just so I'm covering all my bases. I'm not sure what the best ratios are, and everyone had totally different opinions. Our vet says no raw food ever, because of the potential parasites. It'd be nice to avoid that risk, but it sounds like he needs at least a little raw food. I've been adding boiled chicken and rice to his kibble to help with his diarrhea, but I don't know where to go from there.

Thank you!! The misadventures have continued unfortunately. He has conjunctivitis--the vet said that's just a catch-all for some sort of little cut on his eye. It was a little red yesterday morning, but very hard to tell it was different than his right eye (it's his left). I thought I would just watch it, but over the next two hours it got worse. He's my little buddy, so of course I packed him into the car and took him to the ER. It was a busy, depressing day there. We waited patiently while a lot of critical cases came and went. Eventually, we left with antibiotics. That was the ticket, because it looked way better after the first application. When he gets excited it starts to looks worse and the vet said its because his blood gets pumping, but I'm treating it for seven days. We've got quite the night time ritual--he has a tiny scrape on his pad, so I put something on that, he's still using up the last of his ear drops, he's got his eye gel now, and he takes two little probiotic chews. He's STILL got diarrhea on and off. Every time I take away the boiled chicken and rice it comes back, so I'm still tinkering with his diet.

Other than all his little things, he's doing great. Even though it doesn't sound like it! He jumps around and plays with his toys (he's got a lot of toys). The scary lethargy and puking has passed THANK GOD. We just went for a long walk in the snow. sometimes he stops to grab at the leash, but otherwise he walks right along side me. Training him has been tough. He's a very different kind of dog and he's been sick, so we've had a difficult start. I've been conflicted about how stern and rough to be with him, since he's just a baby and he's been adjusting to his life with me as fast as he can. He seems to have hit his stride, because he has learned sit and just today he learned paw and down. He doesn't have those down quite as well as sit, but we are getting there. Come is really hard. He's very independent, so he doesn't just come bounding over when I get excited for him so we've got to work on that. He still doesn't have an official name!! Everyone calls him meatloaf, but I don't like that. I think he needs a better name to suit his complex personality.

The diet is the biggest hurdle. Right now, he's on his puppy food mixed with a prepared raw chicken dog food.

Thank you guys so much for listening to our story. It means a lot to have the support. This week he went to the groomer (just for the experience, I knew he'doing get dirty right after). The woman that worked with him loved him. Apparently, she has trained German shepherds for years. She offered to give me tips. I was apprehensive, because they're such different breeds but I'm always willing to accept help! She was so in love with him, she researched the breed and then she tried to convince me to give him up. Everything she learned, she learned from watching one night of Russian fighe videos on YouTube and translating the descriptions. That was really stressful, because I was starting to really doubt myself, but it passed. She did a great job with grooming him, though. It was just a little puppy thing. A sanitary trim and a bath. I'll attach pictures of him afterwards.

P.S. I think his conjunctivitis came from playing with his best friend, a little pit bull named jewel. She's very gentle withas him, but they ran through some bushes before I could stop them :(

Also, his biting thing is getting better. With me, anyway. At first, I think we weren't bonded close enough for him to care about me. He didn't seem to care at all when I raised my voice or made it angry at him for biting, so I was having to pin him down and then he would just get more angry. Eventually he'd calm down, but it was a process. He has started to listen to me now when I say "no." he can be very insolent though. My two best friends are around him a lot, and they thinknow he's too cute so they just let him run them and I'm trying to work with them to stop that. It's sort of a problem with them, because they don't set boundaries. And when they try to grab him when he gets too crazy, he just wants to thrash and growl. He's stopped doing that with me though

Could you direct me to the thread? I'm not very good at navigating yet. Do I just search growth stages?

I know!! It's hard to get everyone to take it seriously. What's the best thing I can do when those situations happen? Do I intervene and say no bite even when it isn't happening with me? I try to tell them what to do, so they can assert themselves. It just doesn't come out very forceful when they do say anything or try to do anything. He was supposed to be the runt but he has great big paddle feet!

he's realy cute ! :)

would like to know the growth chart page aswell so if anybody could link it here :)

knoave

Stages of Puppy Development

I recommend to you to read this article. A very good article who will be very useful!

http://molosserdogs.com/m/articles/view/3308-stages-of-puppy-development

I found it! So does it apply really well to COs? He seems to be following it, but everybody says they mature differently. We are starting to work on recall and "kennel up" now! Is there anything about the level of exercise he can do, while he devealops? I take him on a lot of walks in a day. Most of it is on a gravel trail by the woods, because I'm hoping that a better on his joints than concrete. I take him on a lot of short ones and one or two medium ones in the morning and at night to get him ready for bed and ready for me to be gone for a bit

Have any of you guys tried clicker training? He seems to really like learning commands, so I was thinking about trying it.

I like the discussion! I read the whole thing. His joints are what I'm worried about, but he does let me know when he doesn't want to keep going! I'll just try to listen to him :)

Thank you for being so patient with me. I read that article on orijen, but I'm not sure how much they've taken giant breeds into consideration. I think I'm going to try feeding him that, and then on his last meal adding some meats and maybe raw egg. I used to feed my dogs egg yolk and egg shells as a kid, has any big new study come out saying that is awful? 

And I'm definitely going to contact that other member!

He has had such a busy two days. We went on a two hour roadtrip to Charlotte, and he met his first children! He played with an Akita puppy that was roughly the same age and size, too. The finale was meeting my grandmother, and he did a fantastic job. The kids were kind of hard on him, but I intervened. They would ask him to give paw 50 times in a minute, and when he hesitantly offered one they wouldn’t even stop to say, “good boy!” It was just right back to asking for tricks. I swooped in and shut it down, because one little girl in particular (my cousin’s daughter) couldn’t seem to follow my guidelines for interacting with him. She was too excited, and she was creating a bad situation. He barked at her twice, but she was panting at him like a dog and then she flopped down on all fours right in his face (that’s when I ended it). Through all that, he was totally calm except for the barks. I was sitting on the an inch away from him the whole time, in case I needed to cut it off. The Akita was touch and go. They really liked each other, but there was definitely an element of trying to establish some hierarchy. All in all, it was a GREAT trip. He showed exceptional patience and maturity. Better than I could have hoped for!!

There was another little boy and girl that was very polite and calm, and they just stroked him gently and he just wagged his tail and enjoyed it.

The Akita puppy wasn't ready. I felt a little bad. I should've taken a video, because my puppy was just laying on the ground chewing on a toy. He was completely ignoring the akita. The akita was barking in his face, hopping around him. Finally, it started chewing on the other end of the toy (it was a long bone thing), and my puppy was still ignoring it. Everybody thought it was so cute, but I was right there ready to go. The akita finally tried to pull the bone from his mouth and take it away, and he shot up andstarted barking and the akita backed up so fast he fell over. 

I was right there for all of these situations, to keep him safe and so that I could monitor everything.

He was the picture of politeness and calm the whole time really. He was perfect in the car, he was perfect in my cousin's house. My grandmother loved him, he just sat by me calmly or slept. Everyone said he was very handsome and charming.

Hello everybody! We have started our raw journey. I found a very nice mentor (Estrela), thanks to you guys. He is eating a chicken leg a day. He started with just half of one in the morning, but now he eats half in the morning and half at night. He's also eating some Orijen kibble too. He's got diarrhea again, it started last night. I was expecting it sooner! Hopefully, it won't last long this time. We start puppy kindergarten classes this week. I'm not sure about them, but the woman that runs them is familiar with some large breeds and she's an animal behaviorist. She owns a great pyrenees and she's trained some anatolian shepherds whose owners gave her good reviews. I'm hoping if nothing else it's a good socializing experience for him! If I don't like her style or the class setup we can always just leave! I'm mostly training him myself from internet research, but that isn't going half bad! His recall is constantly improving, so are his commands when I use them in different situations. It was hard to transition from listening in my room or alone in nature to listening in public. He saw his first deer today on one of our walks. It was very cool, he barked at them of course (very brave protector). We are more inseparable every day. He was my valentine this year. I got him a "tough" toy, and he destroyed it in 30 minutes :)