Need advice on getting a new dog.

[cubby31682]

My husband and I are going to be moving in a little over a month. We plan on getting a baby doberman in the early the mid spring time. I plan on buying the toys cage and so on ahead of time, so I have everything I will need before I get the dog. I would like to know what kind of food everyone would recommend getting, and what kind of toys. Such as larger toys since it will be a large dog, or smaller toys. Bones or the soft bone things that aren't really bones.

What kind of food? We want a high quality of food that will help the puppy's growth and immune system. We don't really care about the price, we just want to make sure the dog will be happy and healthy.

Thanks in advance.

[Aspen and Misty]

I personally recodmend Chicken Soup for Puppy's, it is one of the best foods out there, the best in MPO. :)

As for toys, I don't give my dog's stuffed toys unless I am RIGHT there out of safty. I recomend getting Kong type of toys or non destructable toys. This way your dog can have them while in the kennel and when your not around.

Ashley

[binka_nugget]

I feed my boys Chicken Soup. The ingredients are great! The results we're getting from this food are the closest to the results we got with raw. Price is decent, quality is amazing and most importantly, the dogs are doing very well on it.

Some other ones I've heard good things about are: Wellness, Canidae, Go! Natural, Innova, California Natural, Bil Jac, Back to basics, Eagle Pack, and Flint River.

Kongs seem to be great toys for the more destructive dogs. My boys could care less about their kong toys so we have a bunch of stuffies. I've also heard Nylabones are pretty good.

[kingrattus]

Here in Canada the top food was Nutro. I'm not sure if its still the top food anymore, haven't had a dog in almost a year, but Nutro is a GREAT food.

Heres a quick tip for buying dog food.

1. By-products are BAD. The dog wont get enough meat per meal, & as we all know, dogs are meat eaters.
You want something that says lamb meal or lamb (same goes with other meats).

2. You want the meat to be the first word in the ingredients. It goes by what the highest quanity in the food.

3. if you see sugar listed high up, its bad food. Lots of dog foods have sugar list very very high up in the list. & that'll rot ur pups teeth & the dog is onl;y eating the food beccause its sweet.
Would u feed ur kids sugar as a meal? not I.

4. If you can buy the food in a human store its bad dog food. The high quality foods r only found in pet stores & the bed pet store I've found is Petsmart. It has a HUGE selection of dog foods & a WHOLE section on Nutro!!!!

Heres the nutro website (http://www.nutroproducts.com/dog.asp)

Nutro has 2 brands of food. Nutro Max the lower & cheaper quality (its still a very good food) & the Natural Choice the higher quality & more costly food.

I support the Natural Choice 100%. RB Max was on that after the crap my mom fed him nearly killed him because it was all sugar & had nothing nutrional in it.

Buring Max's 9th summer, he had to see the emergency vet (these r the on call vets at night/off hours). Dad thought he was having heat stroke.
The vet saw Max & asked if Max was about 5 ish, only because of the greying face. The vet thought my dad was joking or lying when my dad said no he's nine going on 10 this xmas, we had him since he was a pup. The vet said his muscle tone was of a younger dogs, older dogs don't have good muscle tone like that. The vet said what on earth are u feeding that dog? & my dad said Nurto. That vet now recomends Nutro, because of the great results.

[Trish]

We feed our dobergirl Solid Gold, she is 7 yrs I got her as a rescue so I am not sure what to feed as a pup. Depending on what color dobe, they are prone to skin problems so make sure as they are out of the pup stage they are getting Omega 3 fatty acids. Also welcome to wonderful world of owning a doberman. They are such a wonderful breed with such wonderful qualities my Nala is the center and love of our lives.

[LorraineO]

As a mommy to my dober girl.. I suggest for toys,, KONG toys,,,, Our Dober girl has THE strongest bite,, they are the only type of toys that can hold up with her!!!

food,,, something with next to no soy and fillers....... read read read the labels!!!!!

[cubby31682]

Thanks everyone. I am making a list of all the foods all of you have suggested. Maybe this weekend or next I will go out and get a kong toy, and a few nylabones as well.

[dappledoxie]

I like Chicken Soup for dogs too, it's a great food! Good luck!

[wolfsoul]

I really like Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul -- but it has a very very low caloric density, which means that the dog will end up having to eat more to obtain enough calories, and so you'll end up spending more. But I like the ingredients.

[Samantha Puppy]

A word of warning about Chicken Soup - if your dog proves to be finicky, you may want to mix feeding it Chicken Soup with other food. Samantha loved C.S. at first but being as it only comes in one flavor, she quickly got tired of it and then refused to eat it. Right now I have her on Pedigree and she seems happy with it and her coat is lovely, soft and shiny.

I also agree that Kongs are wonderful. And make sure you provide your pooch with lots of different toys - balls, stuffed animals, rope pulls, etc.

[manda99]

When I could could get it and afford it easliy I fed my large breed dog Natural Blend dog food. We really liked it. But now I feed him Purina One or Beneful dry food and Alpo wet food (the only wet food I've found +that doesn't upset his tummy).
As far a toys - Kongs and rope toys are good for strong jaws (I have a pitbull so I've tried everything... including imitation KONG toys) But then again, he has a blankie and one easily ripped up ball that he adores and won't destroy for anything...


Good luck! Just make sure he knows not to bite YOU too hard! :)

[shotzi]

congratulations on your decision - dobies are great! haha not as good as rotties - but we won't discuss that!
My vet put Roodie on "Professional" brand dog food - Roodie was way overweight when we first got her - (at the spca) and she had so many health problems - it took about 4 weeks and her skin is now perfect and all problems seem to have disappeared - it's not too expensive either - :D

[cubby31682]

congratulations on your decision - dobies are great! haha not as good as rotties - but we won't discuss that!

My neice is a rottie. I do love rots, they are beatutiful and friendly. :D


Good luck! Just make sure he knows not to bite YOU too hard!

I told my husband that they only way he could get a larger dog is if, we take it to obediance (sp?) classes.

I am a bit afraid of dogs, after watching my brother get attacked by one as a kid. I wasn't able to do anything to help him except scream this dog was a very nice dog and my brother reached down and patted it and the dog jumped on him and started attacking him. Now just for the record I do not believe in harming an animal, but I was screaming and my dad had to come over and kick the dog to get it off of my brother. After my dad kicked the dog, the dog got off of my brother looked at my dad and went and laid down in the grass. We took sean to the hospital and when we got back we got out of the truck and the dog ran up to my brother to attack him again.

Nothing happened to the dog. He wasn't put to sleep or anything which kind of made me mad.

I will go out this weekend and get a Kong for our puppy that we will get later.

Thanks everyone