Feeding

Puppies are normally weaned and on solid food by about 8 weeks of age.

Feeding a dry kibble premium diet specially formulated for puppies is recommended. For advice on an appropriate quality puppy diet, talk to one of our highly knowledgeable staff at your local Vet Centre. The brands we stock are fully balanced to meet all of the puppy’s nutritional requirements and do not require any extra supplements to be added. Dry kibble can be soaked in hot water to soften and then allowed to cool before feeding to younger puppies. Fresh water should always be provided and milk feeding avoided as this can cause diarrhoea in some puppies.

Toilet Training

Puppies have to learn where it is appropriate to toilet and this can take some time. You should never growl you puppy when they have an accident.

Behaviour Training

Puppy School is great for socialisation and learning the basics. Puppies should learn to sit, stay and walk properly in a controlled manner on a lead. If you are having trouble with training your puppy to lead, talk to your Vet Centre staff about using a head lead or harness. It is much easier to teach a puppy good habits than to train adult dogs out of bad habits.

Worming

All puppies need to be treated for worms. Puppies are infected with worms early in life so worming can start as early as 2 weeks of age. Use tablets, liquid or paste effective against roundworms. This should be continued every two weeks until 12 weeks of age. From 12 weeks of age, worm monthly using a broad spectrum wormer which is effective against tape and roundworms until 6 months old. Then continue to use a broad spectrum wormer every 3 months.

Fleas

Flea control is not just a summer problem. Many readily available flea treatments are not safe for use on puppies so care should be taken when choosing a flea treatment. There are a number of easy to use, safe and effective vet only flea control products available from our clinics. Please ask our reception staff about the best flea treatment for your puppy.

Desexing

Female dogs should be spayed at 6 months of age. Spaying before the first heat greatly reduces the incidence of mammary tumours later in life and also rules out the possibility of an accidental first litter.

Males dogs can be neutered from 4 months of age. Neutered males are less likely to wander and urine mark if neutered young but we recommend large breed dogs are left entire till about 12 months of age to allow further development as they take longer to mature.

We strongly recommend the desexing of all dogs that are not intended for breeding.

Vaccination

Vaccination significantly reduces the risk of disease. We recommend vaccination of puppies begins at 6 to 8 weeks of age against parvovirus, distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza and leptospirosis. At these visits your puppy will receive a thorough physical examination and it is also a chance to ask the vet any questions you may have. Your puppy should not be socialised with other dogs until the initial course of vaccinations have been completed. Annual booster vaccinations are then required to give continued protection.

Microchipping

A small ‘chip’ is injected under your puppy’s skin to give permanent identification. The chip is detected and read by a microchip scanner. Each animal has its own identification number that is stored on a readily accessible database. There is now a requirement for all dogs exempting working farm dogs to be microchipped.