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Welcoming a puppy into your home can be an exciting experience. Puppies need a lot of care and the right surroundings, routine and nutrition to become good, healthy dogs.
The Kennel Club advises that you feed your puppy four meals a day up until the age of four months, and then reduce its feed to three meals a day until it is six-months-old, when you can change to two meals a day, and keep him on this regime for the rest of his life. This is because puppies have high energy requirements, but small stomachs - therefore owners should feed small meals frequently throughout the day. A feeding routine is also helpful when toilet training and organising your life around a new addition to the family. Take your puppy outside immediately after it wakes up, following its mealtimes, and every hour or two.
Until puppies know how to behave, are reliably toilet trained and have gone through the ‘exploring by using their teeth’ stage (at about six months old) it is better to keep them closely supervised or contained in a ‘dog proof’ environment and with easy access to the garden. This could be in a kitchen or utility room, or the puppy could be contained within a room by a child-gate, or in a puppy pen or large mesh crate, and taken out frequently under supervision. Make sure your garden is escape proof.
Puppies grow 20 times faster than adult dogs, so a specially formulated diet for growing puppies is ideal. New Alpha Sporting Puppy is a carefully formulated puppy feed that uses only the highest quality ingredients that have been carefully cooked and fortified with a range of minerals and vitamins. Despite how well your puppy is bred, they cannot fulfil their natural potential if their diet does not provide their bodies with the essential nutrients they require for optimal growth and development. Alpha Sporting Puppy is specially formulated for sporting, working or racing breeds. It is a complete hypoallergenic food which is formulated to fulfil your growing dog’s every dietary need. It is balanced and nutritionally complete and scientifically formulated for health and vitality. The food contains the highest quality natural ingredients and prebiotics to maintain healthy gut flora. It provides essential Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and is 29% protein. It is easy to digest and highly palatable and it is wheat gluten free to ensure it does not irritate your puppy’s sensitive stomach.
Clean, fresh water should be available to your puppy at all times. Some puppies are not accustomed to complete dry foods immediately after weaning but will normally grow to like them with time. If your puppy does not seem to like eating dry complete you can try soaking the food in a little warm water to soften or mix in a little tinned puppy food, gradually reducing the quantity until he is fully weaned and accepts dry food.
All puppies are different, even puppies from the same litter may need different amounts of food. Quantities should be varied according to age, condition and the amount of exercise your dog receives.
Other things to bear in mind are vaccinations; all puppies need immunising against Parvovirus, Distemper, Hepatitis and Leptospirosis. Optional vaccinations are available against agents that cause Kennel Cough which is useful if you are taking your dog to shows or kennels.
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