Bringing your mastiff puppy home

Bringing your new mastiff puppy home.

What you need to know.Preventing disease in your mastiff puppy.

Your new mastiff puppy should have had its first set of vaccinations and have been wormed by the breeder when you get your new mastiff puppy.

The first thing you need to be aware of is that even though your puppy has been vaccinated , your pup is “NOT” full protested from diseases, especially PARVO. Your puppy will need to get a booster shot 2 week after it’s first vaccination and then again at 6 months before it is fully protected . In the mean time to protect your puppy from disease such as parvo follow these steps.

Do not bring your puppy to any place where other dogs may have been such as ,

Public parks,

Trail and paths frequented by other dogs,

Public streets where others walk their dogs.

Do not let the puppy great or play with strange dogs .

Do not let your puppy sniff where other dogs, or sniff where other dogs have gone to the bathroom.

Do not let your puppy eat from a dish that another dog has used.

If you are traveling with your puppy and it need to exercise or go to the bathroom take it to a spot where it is not likely other dogs have been.

Even though your mastiff puppy has been wormed by the breeder you will have to have your puppy wormed again. I suggest when you take the pup to the vets for it booster vaccination you ask the vet to worm the puppy with a “BROAD SPECTRUM WORMER” . While your puppy was with the breeder it was to young to be wormed against all worms and was probably just wormed for a few types of worms.

Feeding your mastiff puppy.

For the first 14 days, only feed your mastiff puppy the food the breeder recommended , no table scraps for the first 14 days . After 14 days start introducing new foods and snacks. The reason for this is if the puppy you have just bought gets sick you will know it is not from a change in food or diet . All so, your new puppy, even though looking happy, is stressed because it is in a new environment away from its , littermates and old home, this in it self can cause stomach upset. After the 14 days your puppy can also start chewing on ‘large’ cow bones. Never feed pork or chicken bones.

For the first two week you can give your pup strong Kong chew toys , and nylon chew bones.

Buy bottled water and only give the pup bottled water for the first 5 days , one thing that can really cause up set tummies in puppies is a change in water , gradually over a few days mix in your tap water with the bottled. water to get your pappy used to your water . I live in the country and my dogs drink well water. The chlorine in city water can very much upset a new puppies tummy.

Exercising your mastiff puppy.

REMEMBER , even though your mastiff puppy is large, it is a very young delicate baby. Your mastiff pup will sleep a great deal the first month, and much like human babies ,will start to get more energy and be awake for longer periods as they get older.

I tell mastiff puppy buyers “do not take your puppy for a walk any farther then you can carry it back” . When your mastiff is tired it will lay down and not move.

As your mastiff puppy grows you must not let your mastiff puppy play to hard with other dogs or over exercise . I strongly recommend restricting exercise . There will be periods of growth when your mastiff puppy is gaining up to 5 pounds a week. The muscles and tendons do not grow at the same time as bone structure dose. So some times the muscles and tendons are tight over the bone structure . When this happens, if the puppy is jumping or playing to hard , it is very easy do permanent damage your young dog or pup.

Never let your young mastiff, Jump up or down off of things. Never let your mastiff puppy ride in the back of a truck.

Never let your mastiff pup play in a rowdy fashion with other dogs.

It is very common when your mastiff pup is 5 to 14 month of age to wake up in the morning acting stiff and sore. Watch your pup careful, if as the young mastiff walks around a bit the sore and stiffness goes away then do not worry. But ask yourself if the mastiff had an overly active day , the day before. You know then that your pup is going threw some growing pains and the muscles are taunt over its structure.

If the soreness gets worse as the day goes on, you will need to take your pup in to the vets to have it checked out. What you will need for your new mastiff puppy

To prepare for your new mastiff puppy you should buy .

A extra large dog crate.

Blankets and bedding .

Food and water dishes.

An adjustable dog collar.

Leash.

Lots of chew toys.

Dog food.

Bottled water.

Drool towels for paws and lips.





Article by Sharon Medforth Island West Mastiffs


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More information on mastiffs can be found here http://www.englishmastiff.com or check out http://mastiff25.tripod.com

feel free to email us about mastiff puppies mailto:mastiff@shaw.ca

Mastiff Breeder: So you want to breed Mastiffs

Mastiff Breeder: So you want to breed Mastiffs

So you want to breed Mastiffs

So you want to breed mastiffs. Breeding mastiffs is not an easy job , Please take a moment to read this before considering being a mastiff breeder.



Breeding the Old English Mastiff .

The English Mastiff is one of the hardest and most expensive breeds of dog to raise and breed . Fertility problems in both the male and female mastiff is common . Whelping difficulties are normal for the female mastiff as well as post delivery problems are a high probability in this breed. You can not breed a mastiff until they are at least 18 months of age and if you try breeding after 6 years of age you will be courting disaster. So you would be very lucky to see 3 litters out of a mastiff female , I have been breeding mastiffs for 10 years and have never managed to get 3 litters from any of my bitches. .This is one of the reasons the cost of buying a mastiff puppy is higher then other breeds .Reputable mastiff breeders seldom ever make money breeding mastiffs.

Before deciding to breed a mastiff stud dog or bitch , the breeder should be confident that their mastiff is a good example of the breed in both temperament size and confirmation and dose not have health or temperament problems that can be passed on to their puppies.

Health problems that should be tested for are Hip and Elbow Displacia , Heart problems, genetic eye problems , and thyroid . Many reputable breeders go even farther and do testing for many more genetic health problems.

If you are thinking why bother testing , I will tell you that from a monetary standpoint you do not want to be refunding money to unhappy puppy buyers because their pup has Hip dysplacia or a bad heart. You could go broke really fast , You may even find yourself in court over an unhealthy puppy. Your goal as a breeder should always be to produce a healthy , sound, friendly, mastiff, of outstanding breed type.

You can contact you local veterinarian and he can make all the arrangements for the testing you should do before breeding your mastiff.

If you are thinking of breeding your mastiff to make money let me show you how wrong you can be.

First of all you will need to factor in the cost of buying a breeding quality mastiff , you are looking at paying $1800 to $3000 dollars for a mastiff puppy from a breeder who dose genetic and health testing on their lines . . Then the cost of caring for that mastiff for 2 years before you can breed the mastiff.

Then you are looking at about $700 dollars to do X-rays on hips elbows , eye testing , and heart and thyroid .

You can then expect to pay $2000 for stud feel to the owner of the male you are using .

As I stated before mastiffs are very hard to breed so you may well have to do progesterone testing on the female to make sure you have bred her at the right time , so factor in another $400 dollars on progesterone tests . 60 percent of mastiffs need some sort of veterinarian help whelping and many end up in C-sections at a cost of about $800 or higher . After the mastiff whelps you have a very high probability of mastitis in this breed , this is an infection in then mammary glands , “My last 4 breedings my females all got mastitis” and you may well end up bottle feeding pups and have a bitch so sick she needs strong antibiotics and sometimes surgery to drain the infection, you could well be looking at another $400 to $600 dollars for this common complication. Then you must supplement the pups , pay for worming and vaccination and health checks before you can sell the pup , as well as the cost of registering the pups . Add another 600 dollars for this expense . We are not even going to factor in to this the cost of laundry , whelping box, puppy food, milk replacer, thermometer and other whelping and medical supplies . Now suppose you only have 4 pups in the litter ,, Guess what even if you sell your pups for $2000 each , you are in dept big time . Now to make matters even worse , lets say some of the pups have a genetic health problem after you have sold the pups , You will ether have to refund the puppy buyers money or they can take you to court and sue you. . Gee should have done that genetic testing and X-rays right !!

So you wonder why anyone would every want to breed mastiffs , There is only one reason reputable breeders keep on with the breed and that is LOVE OF THIS BREED, Any long time mastiff breeder will tell you they have gone in dept , that breeding mastiffs is hard on the pocket book . I know many mastiff breeders and do not know a single one who can say they make a profit.


Here is a great article by Dr. robins on whelping and breeding the difficult mastiff.

http://members.aol.com/rocknrob56/index.htm

Article on Determining if your mastiff is breeding quality http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/MastiffBreeder/m3ap2adetbrpotmast.html

Are you a wanna be mastiff breeder , this mastiff breeders site has lots of great article

http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/MastiffBreeder/main1sitetableofcontents.html

Carting , draft work and weight pull with the mastiff http://mastiff25.tripod.com/carting/

Island West Mastiffs http://www.englishmastiff.com

Mastiff puppies http://www.englishmastiff2.com

Mastiffs in Sandlot 2 movie http://mastiff25.tripod.com/islandwestmastiffsonsandlot2thesonofthebeastmovieset/

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