11-Week GS Puppy; Finicky and Lean - Page 3

Thanks.

Over the last 2 days, I've observed that she's prone to cleaning her bowl in the A.M. (around 6:30), then somewhat able to do that at lunch time (between 1:00 and 2:00), and eats a fair bit less at dinner (between 6:00 and 7:00); all with the same contents as mentioned earlier... the 1/3-cup of Diamond brand lamb meal and rice puppy formula, with about 3 TBSP of chopped roasted unspiced chuck roast, about 1-1/2 tsp. organic yogurt, and a splash of hot reverse osmosis water from the tea kettle. (Still looking for someone to cook a similar breakfast for me.... ;^>)  )

She still looks quite lanky and lean, but I at least know now that she's eating some amount of food, so I'm not as worried as I was.

My son (Quoia's primary owner) is looking for his memory card for his digital SLR camera, so he can post some better quality pics, but no luck; I'll try to pick up a card or two for him when I go into town today.

Perhaps they can do a trade; Quoia can help him find the things he routinely misplaces (she seems quite gifted at locating objects thus far), and he can, in turn, cook increasingly better meals for her.. Just a thought; that would resolve two issues at one time..

BTW, she apparently loves to play fetch. Though most of the time it's with sticks outdoors, she's taken a liking to my black leather shoes when indoors...

Alarm bells!   Sticks can be very dangerous, if they lodge in the ground the dog can run onto them and they can end up going right through the roof of the mouth or down the throat!  Get a large ball on a rope, or any thing that is not sharp enough to stick in the ground.  Balls should be bigger than tennis ball size, as they can also lodge in the throat and you can't shift them before the dog chokes.

Yes, thanks. We've seen that with the smaller sticks she picks up on her own, at random, on walks around our property in the woods. I already took one out of her mouth when it was just the right length to prop itself between her tongue and the roof of her mouth.

The sticks my son typically uses are roughly 1" in diameter, and perhaps eight inches in length; older and such. So far, that's not been a problem.

She has a stuffed toy polar bear she loves to shake, from which we've removed the eyes and other choking hazzards, and she loves to shake it around, or just wrap her mouth around it and stare at you; sort of an invitation to play tug-of-war at that point. It has no beads in the filling, which is fiber based, so there's significantly less for her to choke on with that.

She also has a chew toy for her teething, which is continuous throughout the day.

She's literally willing to put almost anything in her mouth at this stage, including the rose hips, which have already been frosted and snowed upon several times, but are still clinging to the wild rose bushes on the property. They're high in vitamin C, and while she 'eats' them, she's equally interested in their branches, dead leaves, spruce bark, etc.

She's also taken a liking to the late-picked green tomatoes of various sorts, which are laying about the house in fairly substanital numbers, ripening in bags and boxes after the final harvest.

I'm constantly taking things out of her mouth throughout the day; legos, pencils, shoes, you-name-it. Until my son gets home in the afternoon, I can hardly get any serious tasks done, for having to watch her like she's an infant, or put her in her kennel, which I hesitate to do if I or another person are home, and it's not night time.

For what ever demands she creates, she's a joy to have here. But it's clear that the learning curve for both humans and canine will be steeply uphill with -this- pup.  

I've been rtying to upload pictures from my computer (a 56k dial-up system, due to telephone lines in our area not supporting high-speed internet of any kind), and I'm not having any luck.

Can someone please tell me how to go about this.

Each time I try to upload pics to the server, it takes a great deal of time, then the preview shows a red 'x' in a box, indicating there's no picture.

Thanks.

have you resized the image?  email it to me and I'll post them if you like
laurelty4@aol.com

Thanks.

We're still working on down-sizing the other pictures, but this one is small enough that I hope it won't overload the server, while still being large enough to get a view.

Hopefully I can upload the picture(s) looking down on her back to see the indentation of her waist line.

On the positive side, she's eating 4 (smaller) meals a day for the moment.

Here are two more pics of her; one facing the camera, and one looking down on her waist line. I may post them separately so that I can arrange them without leadng off to the right of the page..

She looks fine to me, thanks for posting the pictures!

I think sable colored GSD's appear to look thinner than the black & reds, cause of their color,
their ribs seem to show through that color, maybe cause sable GSD's have mostly tan hairs that have black tips on the end, so what your seeing is alot of their undercoat.

I also wouldn't change your pups diet to much, make it simple & stick to it, too many changes can lead to soft stools.

 

Your pup is beautiful!
 she sounds really smart, make sure your son takes her to obedience school begining with puppy kindergarten!

Give her marrow,soup bones from the supermarket, and she will stop chewing on the other stuff, my dogs LOVE marrow bones, keeps them busy & quiet so you can get things done around the house!

             Paula

Thank you. ... for both the compliments as well as the advice.

We've used formal obedience schooling in the past, and, for the most part, now do much of that at home ourselves.

My wife studied experimental psychology decades ago, and is pretty good with administering consistent rewards and discipline where critters are concerned.

My son's not nearly as consistent, and I've 'barked' at him more than a few times recently about the necessity of the command and the result being linked to each other in close proximity or time-frame if he's to receive the desired results, adding that Quoia's 'English to German Shepherd' Translation dictionary or thesaurus isn't yet what it might become later.... And that the degree to which she understands expectations is, in large part, a result or reflection of his consistency and delivery.

I've noticed that her already-narrow hind-quarters are given over to an even more lean appearance by having the dark highlights framed in the cream-like colored fur around it, Some of that is perception, but she is, indeed, a bit lanky.

Numerous folks who've seen her believe she'll have a somewhat larger than average frame, though not necessarily big-boned, making for a 'leaping leemer' of a pup in the woods as she grows.

I'm usually leery of giving pups actual animal bones. Certainly we've had -lots- of moose and beef bones pass through our house (and pups), as we used to harvest a couple of moose and a half of a locally-grown angus each year for our family in the recent past.

I absolutely -never- give either pork or chicken bones to critters, and even got to where I wouldn't give beef bones as a rule, though boiling may make them a bit safer. Still, the prospect of splintering is there (and I've seen a variety of results from such occurences...  potentialy nasty outcomes when that rare occasion arises...)

Quoia trapped another vole last night on her evening walk; they cause great damage to our potato crop here when they're in increased numbers/density, but we haven't had a cat around here for over ten years, and I don't miss them a whole lot. Some of them are o.k., but most have personalities W-A-Y different than a canine's, which I'm more accepting of. Dog's are more obviously aware of who feeds them, and more bonded to their families/handlers.. So having a dog that keeps voles at bay is like getting an added benefit in multiple ways. Not to mention the entertainmenrt value in watching her 'nose' after them in a spruce log pile. She's very intent on catching her prey when she's doing that.

 Thanks again to everyone who gave advise or shared personal experiences. Quoia's now eating all of her food, four smaller meals a day, and though not fat by any means, the more notable indentation in her waist is not so abrupt, and I'm less worried for her...

Now I'm looking for someone to prepare fresh chicken or beef (and garlic), with lamb meal and rice in yogurt sauce for me  four times a day, and I'll feel even better. :^>)