Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today, I am going to recommend that you add fish to your German Shepherd Dog’s Diet. Even though a high quality dry-food will have a good source of protein at twenty-five to twenty-seven percent level, it is still highly processed and a lot of nutrients, amino acids, and minerals found in the meat have been degraded from cooking and processing. Your German Shepherd Dog puppy or adult will benefit from approximately 3 ounces of fresh protein daily.
Heidelberg’s Ekko Loves Mackerel
A good economical source of fresh protein can be obtained from canned mackerel. A 15 ounce can from Wal-Mart cost about $1.25 per can. That is only .25 cents per serving. In addition, to being healthy for them, your German Shepherd Dog will love eating fish. An added benefit for some is that supplementing the diet with fresh mackerel may improve the appetite of the finicky eater.
Because all fishes from the ocean are contaminated with low levels of mercury, I limit my German Shepherd Dogs adults to eating fish only two or three times a week. However, for my puppies, I feed them mackerel every morning until they are approximately six-months-old. I believe that if I were to feed fish every day to my German Shepherd Dogs that they may bio-concentrate dangerous mercury levels in their bodies later in life. Also, you should avoid tuna fish, because tuna fish may have significantly higher levels of mercury contamination than mackerel. If you really want to provide a treat for your German Shepherd Dog, try pink salmon, while more expensive German Shepherd Dogs absolutely relish salmon.
Try feeding your German Shepherd Dog mackerel a couple times a week, they will love you the more for it and they may be healthier.
Heidelberg Puppies Waiting On Their Mackerel Breakfast
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
I am feeling much better today, thank you. However, I am still not completely well, therefore, today’s tip will be short, but an important approach for improving basic obedience and socialization German Shepherd Dog training classes.
Make it entertaining for the owners of the German Shepherd Dogs, puppies and adults in the class and challenging for the dogs by incorporating obstacles while performing the heeling exercise. The perfect obstacle to add is a little jump where you can have the class start out a low level and then add height to the jump every few times that you heel around your training ring.
German Shepherd Puppies Heeling Through a Jump Obstacle
Increasing the Height of the Jump Obstacle
Notice how once the obstacle has gotten too high for the people to step over the boards, they simply go to the side and allow the German Shepherd Dogs to jump over the obstacle. Adding an obstacle to the heeling part of the class keeps the German Shepherd Dogs engaged and allows them to actually to perform better at the other class’ exercises. Once you have reached a certain level, you can find the champion jumper of the class by having elimination rounds. This is very exciting and gets the entire class enthusiastic and the German Shepherd Dogs feed off of this enthusiasm by performing better at all facets of the class’ exercises. Our best classes at Keystone German Shepherd Dogs have been when we have had added a challenging obstacle.
Try adding an obstacle to your class to keep the training exciting and challenging for the owners and the German Shepherd Dogs.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
I trust you are doing better than me today. I have come down with a bad cold and a pounding headache. You deserve better than what I can provide today, Therefore, I will post again as soon as I recover.
One quick note, I apologize that you must now log in to post, but the spam had become unmanageable, and this is the easiest way to slow it down.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
To wrap up yesterday’s discussion regarding neutering and how this could change your German Shepherd Dogs personality and physiology. If you neuter after maturity, the personality of your German Shepherd Dog may change very little, if not at all. However, if your German Shepherd Dog is neutered as a developing puppy, it is likely that their personality will be changed significantly.
If an aggression problem towards other males existed as competition for breeding rights to females, this behavior may be abated to a large extent by neutering. However, if your German Shepherd Dog has aggression problem towards other dogs and people based on fear or lack of confidence, you will likely see little change in this behavior. Correction of this behavior takes extensive training and most likely the assistance of a professional trainer.
In addition, it is common to see a slight decrease in energy levels. This may lead to weight gain in your German Shepherd Dog. Decreases in metabolism and increases in appetite may make your German Shepherd Dog fat without proper diet management. Overweight German Shepherd Dogs are susceptible to diverse diseases including diabetes. Research indicates puppies neutered before five-months-of-age are at greater risk of becoming obese than puppies neutered later.
A slight increased risk for neutered German Shepherd Dogs exists to develop cancers such as osteosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma. I would argue that this negates the decreased risk of testicular cancer after neutering. In addition, research has shown that German shepherd Dogs puppies neutered before the age of five-months are more likely to develop hip dysplasia.
I would never neuter a male German Shepherd Dog unless there was a good medical reason or in a situation where two males living together are competing for breeding rights.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today I am going to discuss Crate Training. Crate Training is not just for potty training your German Shepherd Dog puppy. Crates, well after your German Shepherd Dog puppy or adult has been house broken, provide a secure place for your German Shepherd Dog to nap or to just take a time out.
German Shepherd Dogs are extremely clean animals and have a natural reluctance to fowl their dens, and you can use this natural instinct to help potty train your new German Shepherd Dog puppy. To appropriately crate train your new puppy, you should feed, water, and make them sleep only in the crate for at least the first two weeks at their new home.
A 12-week-old puppy being crate trained
For the first two days the German Shepherd Dog puppy should be in the crate anytime, you cannot give them your full attention. The reason for this is to catch them in the act of trying to poop or pee in your house, so you may take them outside before they go in the house. You will not be able to do this without giving them your full attention. In addition, if they do go in the house you will be able to catch them in the act and apply a gentle but firm correction.
Puppies can stay in the crate for up to two hours during the day, during normal family activity such as cooking dinner. If the house is quiet, puppies can stay in the crate for four hours. When you do decide to let the puppy out of the crate, take them immediately outside so that they can relieve themselves. If they go to the bathroom outside, tell your German Shepherd Dog puppy how wonderful they are in a silly high pitched voice. Go overboard with this positive reinforcement and make it fun for them.
For the first two weeks the crate should be in the room where the family spends the most time. This means at night the crate should be moved to the bedroom so the German Shepherd Dog puppy does not feel alone. If pottied right before bed, a ten-week-old puppy can sleep through the night in the crate .
As your German Shepherd Dog puppy becomes house broken, you may start feeding and watering them outside the crate. Once you have complete confidence in their potty training, you should have a designated place for their crate in the house. You will be surprised by how often your German Shepherd Dog will continue to voluntarily utilize their crate for naps and time-out from the normal hustle and bustle of daily living.
Mom is crated while a puppy prepares to go to its new home
This will make it very easy for you to crate your German shepherd Dog when you have guests over for a party, when you travel with your German Shepherd Dog at a hotel, etc. German Shepherd Dogs are big and many people are extremely afraid of them if they are not familiar with the true German Shepherd Dog temperament. When you come in contact with these types of people, a well crate trained German Shepherd Dog is invaluable. For example, while at a dog show several years ago, a customer had her two grown German shepherd Dogs in the hotel room. While she had two crates in the room, she felt it was safe to leave the dogs loose in the room because the room had been cleaned. What she didn’t know was the cleaning lady ran out of fresh towels and returned later. When the cleaning lady opened the door, she screamed and ran off at the site of these two German Shepherd Dogs leaving the door open. These two shepherds were almost killed as they left the hotel and crossed a busy highway. Fortunately, we returned to the hotel shortly afterwards and were able to get the two shepherds back to the room.
Please crate train your German Shepherd Dog, and utilize the crate in the appropriate situations. You will be a more responsible owner and your German Shepherd Dog will love you the more for providing them a safe place to den.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today I answer a question about why we use Victor dry-food.
Just curious, why do you feed Victor Premium Beef & Rice? How long have you fed it to your dogs? I have been doing a lot of research on feeding. Have you ever considered feeding the Victor grain-free formulas? Do you have any opposition to it being fed? I have kept feeding the regime you feed your dogs to Rain. This is what has prompted my researching thoroughly how to feed dogs and commercially prepared dog food. (By the way OMG!!!) Just in doing this I am switching my other dogs and my cats food also. My Local feed store is able to get me the Victor kibble at a great price which I am very happy about. Wanted to know if you had any pros or Cons on the Grain free formulas provided by Victor?
Hi Alicia,
We have used the Victor Super Premium Beef Meal & Brown Rice for All Life Stages formula for approximately four years. We are very happy with this dry-food. However, first I must explain what dry-food means for us and our German Shepherd Dog puppies and adults. We view dry-food as caloric base for our German Shepherd Dogs’ diet. We believe that all macro and micro nutrients essential for growth and maintenance and good health must be supplemented. The reason is because dry-food is cooked at such high temperatures and extruded at such high pressures that most nutritional value is lost. Therefore, we want a dry-food that is safe and with no harmful or indigestible ingredients, such as calcium carbonate or harsh chemicals preservatives like ethoxyquin.
Victor Super Premium Dog Food Beef Meal & brown Rice For all Life Stages
The Victor Super Premium Beef Meal & Brown Rice for All Life Stagesformula is basically grain free with the exception of the brown rice of course. We believe brown rice is safe and healthy for German Shepherd Dogs. Actually, if we have a sick or recovering German Shepherd Dog puppy or adult, we would feed it home cooked brown rice and cooked ground beef or ground venison to help it recover, just as we feed chicken soup to humans recovering from an illness.
We are strong advocates of grain free dry-food diets for German Shepherd Dogs. Especially avoiding corn gluten, which many German Shepherds Dogs may become sensitive and potentially develop allergies, hotspots, and certain autoimmune diseases.
The Victor dog food is preserved with vitamin E as an antioxidant. Any dry-food considered should be free of artificial chemical preservatives that could potentially cause cancer in German Shepherd Dogs.
We believe any of the Victor dry-foods are safe and of good quality so please use the type you and your German Shepherd Dog puppy like. But, as always with any dry-food, you need to constantly check the ingredients because dry-food companies do at times change their ingredients and an excellent dry-food today may be a horrible dry-food the next time you purchase it.
Because, we at Keystone German Shepherds feed a safe healthy dry-food that is readily digestible our German Shepherd Dogs have no “Doggie Odor”. This dog odor that everyone recognizes that is most readily noticeable when a dog is wet is from poor quality and indigestible forms of protein in the dry-food. Over the years, when our German Shepherd Dogs have developed an odor, we check the label on the dry-food that we were using and have found that the dry-food company has changed their formula and ingredients, forcing us to scramble and find a new dry-food to use for our German Shepherd Dogs.
Victor ingredients
Thank you, Alicia for your wonderful questions and I hopefully have provided reasonable answers for you.
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