This page is full of information on how you can best raise your puppy! Please take the time to read it!
Your Puppy is a Baby
It is very very important that you realize that your new puppy is a baby and needs to be treated as such. I know he doesn’t seem like much of a baby, he is not crying after all, he knows how to eat and play and give kisses. He really doesn’t seem like that much of a baby, but he is. He will eat a lot and sleep a lot, just like a baby. Some of you call me worried if this is normal and I want to reassure you that it is.
Stress plays a role in your new puppy’s life, so make sure you read my Stress Page.
Some Good Rules to Follow
Give your puppy time to adjust to his new surroundings. We don’t want to overwhelm him.
Slowly introduce him to your children and other pets. Limit the amount of time your children spend holding him or playing with him. I have had quite a few families who have told me that their puppy is simply never put on the floor because they have kids who are holding him constantly. If you have small children, give him some alone time in his cage but don’t isolate him.
If you are worried that he is not eating or drinking enough, then count out 30 pieces of soaked dog food and measure out 1/2 cup of water. Later, you can count the food pieces and remeasure the water to check and see if he really is eating and drinking. Then, if you do feel you have to call me, you will have an idea how much he is eating and drinking. By measuring it, you will have peace of mind about it. You could do this for just the first day, if you are worried.
Please make sure your puppy get’s as much food to eat as he wants and water to drink. Please don’t ever follow feeding suggestions on a bag of dog food.
***Wait wait wait to let him have visitors or to take him visiting. This is the most important thing I could say to you. Your new puppy is adjusting to his new family but just go slow so as not to overwhelm him and to make sure he has the time to eat, sleep and drink. We do not want your new puppy to suffer any stress.
Food and Water
Puppies need fresh water at all times. I like the food and water bowls to be separate from each other so they don’t throw food into their water or something else in there! Yep, they will put their little tushies right over their dish and go poop!
Raised bowls are really important, it helps with their digestion to eat this way. There are some that attach right to the cage.
Your puppy needs to be fed 4 times a day or just leave the food out and let him eat whenever he wants. I prefer the food to be left out. It is important for small puppies to not go too long between meals as they can get hypoglycemia and this can be deadly.
If you find your puppy lethargic put honey on its gums or pure maple syrup. Contact a vet immediately. Read more about hypoglycemia on my Hypoglycemia Page. I have to add here that we never ever have this problem but when we were vaccinating, we did see it.
Distilled water is the best water for your dog (you too). Tap water has bleach and fluoride in it and it has been shown to cause cancer. (Some cities are even removing fluoride from their city water supplies!)
Which Food to use
I used to tell my customers what to look for in a dog food and not really make a recommendation, but I have learned through trial and error that they are NOT all created equal. Even the higher quality ones can be unhealthy. By the way, you cannot purchase a high quality dog food in a store. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. We use Life’s Abundance Dog Food. They deliver the dog food right to your door, which I love!
They have very reasonable prices too! You might even want to consider switching your cat to it too if you have one! You can order Life’s Abundance here, make sure it is the grain free one.
Some people buy a puppy from me and do not plan on doing immunizations or some of the other toxic things that vets like to do. This is great!
While I am very happy about this because you are not doing something that will weaken his immune system, I still have found that you need to be doing things to build up his immune system.
Some of you do not do anything to protect your puppy or to keep his immune system strong. You do not use any supplements and you cannot do this. It is not enough just to skip the vaccinations, heartwormers, flea chemicals, antibiotics, etc… How is your puppy going to be protected? If you do not understand something then please ask me.
This is pretty important.
Fluoride and Water
Fluoride is very very bad for your puppy’s health and for yours too. Fluoride disrupts the synthesis of collagen and leads to breakdown in the bone, tendon, skin, cartilage, lungs, trachea, and kidney. Fluoride inhibits the formation of antibodies in the blood, which cause a disruptive effect on various tissues in the body, which then confuses the immune system growth and the general cancer rate. Fluoride has been linked to cancer, low IQ genetic disorders and muscle degeneration too.
Do a google search on it, it is really bad stuff!
Rawhides and Chewies
Rawhides are not safe for a puppy, or a dog. They chew them to a certain point, they get slimy and slip right down a puppies throat. We fished one out of a choking puppies throat before! They are also hard to digest! No Greenies either!
Which Crate to Use
A small wire crate is best. Please no plastic ones!
In the plastic crates, your puppy can’t see what is going on around him and he will feel separated from his family. In the summertime, your puppy can get quite warm in them.
They LOVE their cages, the wire ones that is!
It is like their bedroom; it’s their special place and it makes them feel secure and happy. We have seen many open one with their little paws, adorable!
We like to use 24″ x 18″ cages.
♥ ♥ ♥ Below I have just a little information about immunizations, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t missed as I think it is very important. Make sure you read my Immunizations Page, be forewarned though that it is quite lengthy. Please read it, besides reading the little bit that is here.
“The first thing that must change is the myth that vaccines are harmless. Veterinarians and animal guardians have to come to realize that they are not protecting animals from disease by annual vaccinations, but in fact, are destroying the health and immune systems of these same animals they love and care for.” Dr. Charles Loops D.V.M.
Veterinarian Pat Bradley DVM says, “The most common problems I see that are directly related to vaccines on a day to day basis are ear or skin conditions,such as chronic discharges and itching. I also see behavior problems such as fearfulness or aggression. Often guardians will report that these begin shortly after vaccination, and are exacerbated with every vaccine.
In a more general and frightening context, I see the overall health and longevity of animals deteriorating. The bodies of most animals have a tremendous capacity to detoxify poisons, but they do have a limit. I think we often exceed that limit and over-whelm the body’s immune system function with toxins from vaccines, poor quality foods, insecticides, environmental toxins, etc. This is why we’ve seen such a dramatic increase in allergies, organ failures, and behavior problems.”
Combination vaccines are especially bad too.
Most of them carry 5-8 diseases in just one shot!
It is just way way too much for a puppies developing immune system to handle.
Too many viruses in one shot confuses the immune system instead of stimulating it!
Too many can actually cause a dog’s immune system to shut down!
This information is not just my opinion, it is what many many vets are saying.
Too many people have told me their dog dies within a few days of being vaccinated. Actually 4 days is the number I always hear most often.
I don’t immunize my puppies as I feel it compromises their health. Vaccinations alter the DNA. This is a good reason, just by itself, not to vaccinate. Altered DNA can be passed down to off spring. My puppies come from multiple generations of non vaccinated parents, grand parents, etc…
Please go to my Immunizations Page for more information.
There, you will find quotes by vets and many stories too.
Read what Veterinarian Falconer DVM has to say about skipping the vaccines: “I get this question more often than I used to:This is what I was talking about, above, you need to have your pet on a preventative program. Some of my customers are nervous about giving their puppy supplements because they think it will be too hard but later, they tell me it was easier than they thought it was going to be and after about a week, they had it down. Remember, you get lifetime support from me, I always try to be there for my customers.
“If I’m not vaccinating my animal against parvo and distemper (or ______), do I need to avoid contact with other animals?” The norm has been for my patients to come to me already vaccinated, so the easy answer, based on duration of immunity, was no, the immunity should persist for “years if not the life of the animal.” Now that people have thought more about the dangers of vaccination, it may be that some are choosing not to vaccinate until later in life (pups at 12-16 weeks old, for example), to be sure the minimum number of vaccines will give long-lived immunity. They may be using homeopathic nosodes before that, or may be opting to not vaccinate at all. What to do for these guys? Keep them in a bubble, away from all exposure to possible disease causing germs? No. That’s impractical, and, unless you have a strictly indoor cat, not much fun. The goal is to have an immune system that can defend the animal against exposure to parvo, canine or feline distemper, kennel cough, FeLV, strangles, flu, Rhino, etc. If you opt to have the strongest immune system possible without the risks that vaccines confer, use the preventative program that keeps the immune system strong safely and efficaciously, and without risk to the animal.”
What I wrote below, is taken from another breeder’s website and I see this ALL the time. This is how almost every breeder raises their puppies.
This kind of care does nothing but set your puppy up for illnesses down the road, cancer, allergies, kidney problems, early death, etc… I can’t tell you enough, how common cancer or skin problems are.
I hear stories all the time from customers about their deceased dogs having had these problems. It is almost all of them, especially cancer.
Below is a breeders immunization schedule I found on line.
This is how almost all breeders raise their puppies.
“All puppies should be vaccinated at 6, 9, 12 and 16 weeks of age.
This was taken from one breeders website.
This is not the only website with this schedule posted,
there are many. All I have to say about this schedule is, “Oh my gosh!”!
Anyone who buys a puppy from a breeder who follows this schedule is going to have a very very very unhealthy puppy and eventually an unhealthy adult dog, if the poor puppy even makes it that far.
Sometimes people buy a puppy from me and tell me they are just going to do whatever their vet tells them.
When I hear this I always cringe inside and think they are going to have a sick dog down the road.
This will reflect on me as a breeder as my breeding abilities will be blamed, instead of the immunizations or chemicals they will be bombarding this puppy with.
All I can do is try to educate people and share my own experiences with them. The rest is up to them. I think a lot of it has to do with taking the easy road or not bothering to think for ourselves.
I have been guilty of this too.
Worming, Immunizations and Heart Worming mean three different things!
Our puppies are wormed staring at 2 weeks of age. Most people don’t realize that puppies have to be wormed. You would be asking for trouble if you didn’t worm them!
Worms can sometimes be tricky to get rid of, and it is normal for every mammal to have some in their bodies.
Read more on my Stools Page about this.
Check out my Worming Page too, very important.
This is very very important!
I think some of these “holistic” things that I talk about here, are getting over looked by my new puppy owners and it could very well have a negative effect on your new puppy. I do these things, because after over 30 years of raising puppies, I have learned much, sometimes the hard way. It pays off in the long run to take the extra time to give your puppy supplements and spend the extra money to purchase these.
For me also, it has been worth the many many years of research. Good health is not to be taken for granted and you want to retain the good health that your puppy has now. Look at the coat on my puppies,
this is how you can tell they have good health.
I have people ask me all the time why my puppies
look so bright, and pretty.
The answer is, they have good health.
I do know many of you are very pleased to find a holistic dog breeder and understand all of this, but some of you do not see the value of doing this, yet.
So please, take the time to read through my entire website and learn. I have spent many many hours working on this so people could have the information to help their pets.
It gets me right in the heart when I hear about a dog or puppy getting sick when it is very preventable. Many years ago, when I had no website and had to do a lot of talking, my husband would say, “just give them the shot and let them go”!
I couldn’t do it though, I knew the damage it would do.
Now of course, my husband has changed his mind. He has seen the difference, in not only the puppies themselves, but in the ease in raising them too.
No more are we nursing sick puppies, ’round the clock, back to health.
They are just healthy to begin with and a pleasure to raise!
So many breeders use antibiotics everyday while raising their puppies. Read what Richard J. Holliday, DVM says about antibiotics:
“Antibiotics disrupt the normal population of beneficial microbes in the gastrointestinal tract of all animals, these beneficial bacteria are the first fine of defense against most diseases, without them the animal is more susceptible to other infections.
Antibiotics depress the immune system by decreasing the number of circulating white blood cells. This lowers the animal’s ability to fight infections. Some antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol, can cause irreversible damage to the bone marrow.” Wow, look at the last thing this vet said about how some antibiotics can damage the bone marrow! Some antibiotics can cause heart attacks in people, I wonder what it would do to a puppy?