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Permalink Reply by Kelly on November 9, 2008 at 12:18pm

I walk Gibson about a 1/2-3/4 a mile in the morning and again at night, and he's 4 months old. When he was 11 weeks I walked him a lot less,only a block in the morning and at night. Do you only feed her twice a day? I've always heard to feed 3 times a day until they are 6 months old.

Permalink Reply by Cindy & Jeremy & Caden too! on November 9, 2008 at 12:54pm

Caden is 4 months and we live in a building, so when we take him outside for potty, he usually gets a 1/4 of mile walk (around the block). I wear a pedometer, so I want to say he walks 3-4 miles total each day, for the last 4 weeks. Breeder started us out on 1 1/3 cups (2/3 cup, twice a day) on Royal Canin, but we made the switch to Innova and feed him 1/2 cup, twice a day (at 7am and 1 pm). Innova has 200 more calories than the Royal Canin, so thats why we reduced the amount. I think he eats about 500 calories total of Innova and I usually add some sort of veggie or yogurt. We don't keep track of how many treats we give him, since he is a pup, but I think once they get to full size, 20-25 lbs, thats when you take it day by day, check to see if you can fill the ribs to adjust the food or exercise. I think it's most important to watch out for the intensity of exercise when they are a pup, not alot of jumping around, etc, which can stress their bones. I read not to start agility training until after 9 months - 1 year.

And the number of feedings is up to you, what works for you, as our breeder and vet told us. But definitely twice a day, which works with our schedule. We tried doing 3 times a day, and it would jazz him up and he would go to bed later.

How much does she weigh? I think the very general rule is number weeks=number of pounds, but boys are a bit heavier. Caden has been consistently been gaining a 1 lb a week. He's 18 weeks, and clocked in at 17.4 lbs yesterday. But the breeder told us his sister is around 13 lbs and his brother is also 17 lbs.
So, I'd guess that Bindi should be around 9-11lbs.

Remember you can weigh yourself and then weigh both of you, to get her weight. I weigh Caden every week, to get in the habit of checking it when he gets older. I'm in the nutrition field, so I'm worried about dog obesity as well as human obesity :-)

Permalink Reply by Bindi on November 9, 2008 at 2:41pm

Okay - I just weighed the little girl (on a food scale in a dutch oven on the kitchen counter!) I wish I had enough hands to take pictures of her too! :)

I took her to the vet on 11/3 (at 9+ weeks) she weighed in at 5.13lb. Just now she weighed 6.6. If she's supposed to be 9 - 11 lbs, I might be doing something wrong. :(

Permalink Reply by Kelly on November 9, 2008 at 2:53pm

You may be excercising her a little too much for her age...does she look skinny? She should be a little pudgy. (just to compare, Gibson weighed 6.2lbs at 9 weeks, 9.6lbs at 12 weeks, 12lbs at 15 weeks and is 15lbs now at 18 weeks) Does she sleep a lot? Do you know how big her parents were? If she seems heathy and happy she is probably fine. The only thing I would worry about is hurting her development by overdoing it.