Hi Everyone,

Hopefully everyone is having a great day, here is is raining and semi dark.

So we have a couple of questions hopefully everyone can help with.

First off our little guy is named Ranger I introduced us in the Welcome Mat area. He is 9wks old tomorrow and 11.5lbs. We got him from a breeder but he was born and raised outside in a kennel/run.

So to the questions.

1.) How much exercise (walking) can a 9wk old puppy safely do? I walk my girls to school which takes about 30mins 1 way and again 30mins back home. We are already training him to walk nicely beside the pram that my 4mth is in and he is doing well with it. Is it safe for him to walk 1hr in the morning, mid afternoon and then for an 1hr outing walk in the evening? Would this be too much exercise for him at this age???

2.) Crate training is going well, some nights we don't hear a peep from him once its bed time and other nights he will make a fuss for a good 5-10mins before settling down. He seems to be adjusting well to it, he is situated in the living room which is what the breeder told us to do. But we are wondering if we can have his crate in our bedroom during the night so he doesn't feel all alone??? We have his crate and a doggie bed for him so thinking we could use the bed in the living room and the crate in our bedroom. Until he is completely house trained we don't want him to be on the bed with us so this is a easy compromise.

3.) Diarrhea - When we picked him up she said that a couple of the pups where having some loose BM's she said it was likely from weaning from mom and onto the solid food (Summit). We got one of those pups lol She said he had been dewormed twice so far once at 6wks and then 10days later. We told her we would be switching his food over as it was likely something in the kibble they was providing that didn't agree with him and we wanted a more high quality kibble for him since I am still trying to convince DH to go RAW lol So we are slowly switching him over and from the watery loose BM's they have gotten better the more Orijen we add into the Summit mix. We gave him some steamed pumpkin last night (2 teaspoons) and it did a fairly good job of firming him up but not perfect yet as he still has a few more days until he is completely on Orijen. I gave him another 2 teaspoons today with his lunch. Is it okay to give him 2 teaspoons twice a day until we have completely made the switch so his BM's stay formed and semi firm???

4.) Outside time - Ranger loves the cold this week we have been ranging from -1 to 10+. We allow him to play outside on his tie down 30ft cable on a in ground post supervised by us and he seems to sleep to take a nap as well. Since he was born and raised outside in a run/kennel during the last part of winter where it got to -15 and -20 up north where he is from, we I feel this is partly why he loves been outside during our chillier days. But at his age/weight how long should we allow him to play outside and nap when it is still a little chilly???

5.) We do not want to over vaccinate our little man and the breeder had got his 1st set of puppy shots done at 7wks old, we know his 2nd shot is at 12wks and then his 3rd shot at 16wks when he is finished the puppy round. We back onto a reserve which is often visited by other dogs, raccoons, rabbits, coyote, foxes, squirrels and other animal/bird wildlife. I know the vaccine for puppy hood should last a good 7-15yrs so we don't need to booster him but we are wondering whether to booster the Rabies shot at 3yrs ( 1st rabies shot is required in our by-laws but we are thinking of getting the vet to only do 1/10th the vaccine mixed with saline so the puppy still have been vaccinated legally and we get our rabies tags still) Whats everyone opinion on the Rabies Vaccine? We refuse to get boratella, lepto or lyme since only a few strains are covered in etc.

I think that is all for now and sorry for such a long post lol Any help appreciated on the above questions. If you need more information your welcome to ask

I'll go ahead and take a stab at answering your questions. First off, a good rule of thumb for walking is 5 minutes for every month of age per walk. So, at 2.5 months old, you should be limiting it to 10-12 minutes per walk. Their growing joints can really be damaged by over exercising, so be careful until he's closer to a year.

As far as the crate training goes, we've had Ghost's crate next to our bed since day one and have never had any issues with it. We only recently started letting her sleep on the bed, but it's been working out pretty well thus far.

For the tummy problems, I'd say go ahead and keep doing what you're doing with the switch to Orijen, and then reevaluate from there. Something you can also do with the pumpkin is mix some plain (or plain greek) yogurt in. We mix up a 1 for 1 mixture and fill a kong with it, and then freeze it. Our dogs love the combination, and it keeps Ghost quiet for a little while.

I live in Florida so I can't really intelligently speak on the cold thing, besides to say I'm really jealous and I miss winter terribly

I've got very mixed feelings on the whole vaccination thing. I agree about not over vaccinating, but I still want Ghost to be protected. Rabies is definitely something I absolutely will not mess around with. We also do get lepto because it's pretty rampant down here. We also have huge problems with Parvo around here, and that can be really nasty as well. Ultimately it's up to you to decide what's best, but if it were my dog I'd want full protection against rabies.

Hope this helps!

I think Meredith covered it all pretty well, great post, just adding a few things.

1) Yeah thats a bit too much exercise for that young. You should tire Ranger out around the 40 min walk a day right now I would think (3 or 4 walks). When they are that young they get SOOOOOO much out of mental stimulation alone you don't need to push that hard. A simple 30 min round of teaching new tricks will poop your little guy out REAL fast.

Also Hard to do, but limit the amount of time Ranger is on concrete if you can at all. It's not ideal for their joints that young.... That being said it's not always practical to do so.

2 )By all means, there is no problem with that at all. It some causes it can even help with anxiety or to create a stronger bond. Your proximity alone can have a huge effect on your pup.

3) Ahhhh pumpkin, Natures miracle. Can't add anything to what Meredith already said. It doesn't sound like your overfeeding him.

4) They do indeed seem to be in their element so to speak when the colder weather hits. Just be happy you missed Coat Blowing season. His fur and chubby puppy weight should keep him more then warm enough outside. I wouldn't over do it, but somewhere along the lines of 10 to 20 mins is fine right now. They can last longer if they are playing or active. As with anything in life just keep an eye on him. My Rule of thumb is if I'm uncomfortable outside in a sweater, Tika probably is too. If it's cold for you, it's cold for him.

5) We avoid the Lepto shot like the plague, Tika is allergic to it. Even Rabies she needs a shot of Benadryl before hand. When it comes to Rabies I'm a firm believer in "Better safe then sorry". Thats just me, but try and always make sure the rabies is done at least.... all it takes is a lick sometimes and thats more then enough for me.

Best of luck and have fun
~Chris~

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