I love big dogs too, and mastiff's are one of my favourite breeds.
I've worked in the vet industry for over 10 years now, and I guess I have some advice.... the biggest advice I have is puppy school and formal training for the first 8-12 months. Than informal training (at home) for life.... Great Danes & Bull Mastiffs are both stubborn dogs. What you don't want is to have an 80kg dog who is out of control and able to physically take over. I've seen it, and had to get great danes tranquilised with a dart gun in order to give a vaccination... its not nice for anyone. Having said that, Mastiffs are some of the most beautiful dogs, they are gentle giants.
Large breed dogs have issue with bones, all of them do. As well as GDV's or bloat. I would get pet insurance straight away. It can be very reasonable if it can be included in with your own health insurance or home & contents insurance. Also, diet. Start on a well balanced diet designed for large breed dogs. Diet is very important from birth for large breed dogs, and home made food doesn't have enough calcium and magnesium for them, unless you are grinding up the carcases for them to eat all the bones yourself. I would recommend a good brand of dog food for the first 8 months. Those are the most important for large breeds.
I second pet insurance! I wish I'd taken it out when we got Odin - he had an entropian eyelid (another thing to watch out for with the gorgeous droopy eyes), now arthritis, almost hip displaysia and is prone to demodectic mange when his immunity is low...
I reckon your pup will be a good candidate for blood donation, too, in good time
I'm glad I created a sook of a dog with the carrying - he is scary as all get out for new visitors (great deterrant!) and just a big softie as soon as you throw a ball or stick (he's yours forever if you throw him something).
As soon as MiL returns from her big OS trip and takes her dog back, I think I'll make noises about a rescue...thanks for the reminder
Thank you so much for the tips, esp. the feeding part, I never thought about that...I guess the whole time we have talked about a 'dog' and you know feeding it table scraps etc... we both have sort of missed the whole 'puppy' bit, and that it will take a bit of work to get to that stage =),
oh and MD I wanted to name it Odin!! I've always wanted a dog called Odin...dont know if we will cause DH isnt 100% on it =P
I'll look into puppy school, cause i think my having never had a big dog before, and my last dog was a puppy 15 years ago, and DH's longer we might learn just as much as the dog =) I do want to make sure its obedient from as early as possible, just so i know i can control it on walks etc.. and plus when we get our little kiddlets =)
thanks MD and Christy! I'm sure I'll be bugging your with questions as it gets closer =)
I think you have gotten some good advice but just wanted to add one thing. X breeds are not a guarantee against inherited problems. You could just as well get inherited problems from the mums breed and the dads breed. Although I would always want to encourage people to rescue a dog from a shelter, if you are after something specific like a dane then you may be better off going with a pure bred from a breeder that screens their breeding dogs for potential problems (e.g. like hip scoring for breeds that tend to hip dysplasia). Just something to think about Beautiful dogs though!
We have a 3yr old Great Dane X Mastiff. She is a SUPER natured dog, but is still a HUGE puppy at 3yrs old & hugely active. A friend told me once that 'Dane's fall in love with A person' & she was right, ours adores DF which initially led to some 'obedience' issues with me, so highly recommend you BOTH are involved in the training, otherwise you may end up with a massive, boisterous dog that doesn't respect you.
You are spot on with the coat, they dont shed alot, lol we dont brush ours as shes an outside dog. We have other big dogs (Bull arab x pointer & Lab x Rotti) & TBH she has the better nature, very forgiving & kind, so long as you put the training in right from the beginning. We made sure ours had good brand puppy bikkies from a produce (not supermarket), as they are such a big breed & have soo much bone growth its really important.
They don't seem to bark a huge amount & ours wouldn't hurt a flea, but she sure is intimidating enough to anyone who doesn't know her. Oh & she luuuurrvs water.
A friend had this cross and he had to have the tendons in his back legs replace with like rubber ones when he was about 18months old (i think it was something to do with the sheer size of him) and then afew years later needed his hips done like in the PP. So I also second the pet insurences!!
Ha ha, Odin loves water, too! Pity he has that Alsatian coat...poor love stays wet the rest of the day! He never used to love water until he realised that if a ball or stick went into water he'd go through rapids to get to it...literally...discovered it the first time we took him camping up past Mansfield!
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