7 week old male Malinois pup - Page 2

Hello,

I wanted to login and give a little status update. Chewy is doing a lot better, but he tends to be more submissive when he is hungry. So I got to thinking about the feeding process, he currently eats 3 times a day. We will run the drill until he refuses food. Is this the correct way? Because once he is full, he doesnt need to be "good Chewy" anymore, and I think he knows this. Should we not feed him until he is full, sort of keep him a little hungry (not starve him)? When inside he does much better then when we take him out, all bets are off outside, lol. Of course outside is new and so much to do, and after all he is a puppy. One thing he has gotten down is potty training. He will go to the door, whine a bit t lets us know he needs to go out. He can also make it through the night without needing to go outside, very happy about this!

 

Thanks

cordell

You dont push feeding, you simply feed him what he needs to eat daily, however much that is.
Start doing short training sessions using his food as reward, if he is responding to "watch me" every time. You can start with sit and down and stand, all with luring him with the food.
This will help him understand that listening at any time will bring him rewards, food, and not listening won't.
Outside he can be a puppy and you should also use food to tell him to watch you, that way he understands that focusing on you brings rewards.

I live right south of Houston and sold a litter last month on craigslist and found some great homes for my pups. Mal breeders keep their pups until 8 weeks. The pups need socialization with each other. My lines are slow developing and I really can't test some of them until 9 weeks. Sounds like your breeder is just in it for puppy cash. If the pup was in that bad of condition, no telling what condition the dam is in. It would have cost this guy minimal to worm the litter. You inadvertently made this guy successful in his backyard breeding.

Focus on getting your pup out and about and exposed to as many different things that you can think of. The major socialization window closes at 16 weeks. He is a mal and of course is easy to train. It's great that you are working on puppy obedience, but your main focus should be to expose and desensitize him. This breed is bred to be reactive/responsive compared to other breeds and requires more socialization than other breeds. They have to learn what is normal so that they will not react to everything. You need to play soccer mom with this pup and get him out. Somewhere or something new every day and repeat every 3 days. People, places, animals, sounds, water, car, isolation, crate, etc.

Use www.dogfoodadvisor.com for ratings on food. You can feed 2nd meal when you get home and 3rd late evening. Actually, you can feed the meals as training treats during your puppy ob. 

how much