03/09/2024
✨️Educational Post✨️
🐾 Bringing Home a Great Dane Puppy: What to Expect 🐾
Are you thinking about adding a Great Dane puppy to your family? 🐶 Here's what you can expect when bringing home these gentle giants:
1. **Size Matters to an extent:** Great Danes are known for their impressive size. Be prepared for a puppy that grows rapidly, so make sure you have enough space to accommodate their needs. Do not get caught up in your puppies weight/height. Everyone grows at different rates. Leaner dogs tend to live longer and healthier lives. Grow slow!
2. **Gentle Giants:** Despite their size, Great Danes are typically gentle and affectionate dogs. They thrive on companionship and love being part of the family.
3. **Exercise Requirements:** While they may seem like couch potatoes, Great Danes still need regular exercise to stay healthy and happy. Plan for daily walks and ample playtime to keep them stimulated. They should get 15 minute walks up to 6 months. 30 minutes from 6-12 months. 60 minutes from 12months & up. Seniors should restart at 15 minutes a day. You do not want to over exercise them.
4. **Training is Key:** Start training your Great Dane puppy early to establish good behaviors and manners. Positive reinforcement methods work best with these sensitive souls. If you notice behaviors that aren't ideal, seek a trainer immediately. You do not want to encourage bad behaviors. Anything you wouldn't want them doing as 100+lbs do not allow as a puppy.
5. **Health Considerations:** Like all breeds, Great Danes have specific health concerns to be aware of, such as hip dysplasia and bloat. Regular vet check-ups and a nutritious diet are essential for their well-being. We always recommend keeping Gas-X on hand for bloat. It will not fix the problem, but can buy you time to get to the veterinary office.
6. **Grooming Needs:** Despite their short coat, Great Danes still require regular grooming, including nail trims, ear cleaning, and dental care. Most good breeders will have puppies on a weekly grooming schedule. Keep this up. You want to be able to touch their feet, ears, and mouth without issues. You can also desensitize them to bath time and not have to wrestle them into the tub.
7. **Socialization is Vital:** Introduce your Great Dane puppy to different people, animals, and environments early on to help them become well-rounded adults.
8. **Patience is a Virtue:** Remember, raising a puppy, especially a giant breed like a Great Dane, requires patience, consistency, and lots of love. Enjoy the journey as your puppy grows into a magnificent companion! 🌟
9. **Potty training:** Most reputable breeders will have began introducing potty training/crate training before they go home. We recommend crate training even if you do not plan to use it often. It is good in emergencies. We also recommend bell training to make things easier. Puppies need to go outside every 2hrs, 10-30 minutes after eating, and immediately when they wake up from a nap. They will not have complete control until 9-12 months so this is a long process.
10.**Food:** You will want your puppy on a nutritious food that promotes proper growth. Our favorite foods are SportMix and Purina One Large Breed Adult. Your breeder should have already started your puppy on a great food, but if for some reason you aren't satisfied with it always look at the nutrition facts. You will want a food that has less than 26% protein and a calcium/phosphorus ratio of 1.2:1. Do not feed puppy food for large breeds. They aren't a large breed, they are a giant breed.
11.**Knuckling, Flat Feet, HOD, Pano, & OCD:** If you begin to notice your puppies feet are bending over themselves at the "wrist" area. This is knuckling. It is from lack of integrity in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This is not genetic and it can become very extreme looking. We recommend adding vitamin c daily. Flat Feet can be caused from being kenneled too much, slippery floors, nutrition imbalances, and growth spurts. We recommend taking puppy outside on for playtime and short walks on different landscapes such as sand and gravel. This will build muscles within their feet. HOD is an orthopedic developmental disorder that can cause limping, pain, and swelling in the joints. The cause can be from improper nutrition as well. Treatment will include managing the symptoms with your veterinarian. Severe cases can result in euthanization as it is very painful. Pano is inflammation of the long leg bones. Also called growing pains. This is caused by increased pressure within the bone. Pain control is the treatment, it will resolve on its own. Lastly, OCD is where a cartilage flap forms during development. No directly known causes. Treatment depends on severity, but can range from pain management to rehabilitation.
12.**Spay/Neuter:** Great Danes should not be spayed/neutered until 18-24 months of age. This is to allow them proper time to grow and mature. There is lots of conflicted opinions on this subject. I will attach a picture to show the developmental differences in dogs.
13.**Gastroplexy:** This is a surgery that can be done at the time of spay/neuter or earlier if requested. It is the process of tacking the stomach so it does not flip. This is not a 100% fool-proof surgery. It does not prevent bloat. It does prevent the stomach from flipping (most of the time). This will buy you time to get help as well. Personally, I do not do this surgery. I follow a strict feeding and exercise routine. We rest for 10 minutes prior to meals then 30 minutes after. I watch for increased water intake and make them rest if needed. We do not feed with elevated bowls either. Thankfully, we've had 1 case of bloat and it was from breeding causes. We immediately recognized the signs and got him to the vet. You will recognize these signs pretty quickly if paying attention. Enlarged stomach, dry heaving, restless, pain/discomfort, and drooling. They may even become aggressive from the pain so be very careful.
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