Aso

Thank you LizT. My housemates have offered to look after him until I get back but I'd really prefer not. Only because I'm not sure what condition (physically & mentally) Tonka will be in when he arrives and I don't want any of the 3 boys (Tonka & my 2 housemates) to freak out when they first meet :)

Hi All, I have just confirmed that Tonka is not up to date with his C5 vaccination, which complicates his temporary accommodation, but, I'm working on it. My poor baby I should've dognapped him. I thought about it many times but figured that was just silly ... hmmmm, not such a silly idea now :laugh: Have called the ex and informed him of the options. 1) Vaccinate asap and keep him for 2 weeks before travelling so he can be kenelled upon arrival, or 2) keep him until I come back from overseas on mid Jul. The saying that it never rains, it pours is so true! My mom goes in for a knee replacement surgery as soon as I get back and she freaks out if I don't see her daily. So lucky that the hospital is very close to where I live. So, brainstorming time :-)

Thank you all so much. I am furiously taking notes for calls to be made tomorrow and a shopping list to be completed by the weekend. Just reading reassuring words are very comforting. Thank you all again. - Cath

When my ex & I went our separate ways a year and a half ago, I agreed to leave our 6 month old Dogue de Bordeaux puppy Tonka with him due to various reasons that I thought would benefit Tonka. I stayed pretty much out of the picture because at the end of the day, I see no point in doing so when I don't have any say on how he's brought up when I'm no longer around. The only thing I could to was stay in touch with the vet and keep his insurance up to date as my ex refused to keep it. Fast forward to now ... my ex has apparently moved to qld to take on a mining job and can no longer take care of Tonka. I'm quite mad since I've asked numerous times before this if he's okay with Tonka and if he wants me to take over, especially since Tonka had to have hip surgery while he was under his care due to rough play. I have never been so thankful for an insurance in my whole life when that happened. Anyway, I received the call 2 days ago and Tonka has to be removed from where he is now on the 27th of June or he goes to the pound. In the meantime, I'm going overseas for 4 weeks and will be leaving in 10 days so I'm running around like a mad woman trying to get organised and not sure if I'm doing this the right way. I also have Tonka's breeder jumping through hoops and doing everything she can to help. So basically, can I please have your thoughts and advise on any or all of the following? * Transport from Toowoomba to Sydney; * Dog boarding / temporary accommodation / foster care, for about 2 1/2 weeks while I'm still overseas around the Richmond/Londonderry area which is close to his breeder; * Vet care near Ryde / Putney area in Sydney experienced with hip dysplasia and post-op care; * Advice and help on introducing a 2 year old male entire dog to a new home, people & furry friends, K9Pro only available around September so will have to get a bit of a clue before then :-) * Basic necessities for a grown male giant breed dog, bed, crate, etc. * anything else you can think of please. * ideas on outdoor sleeping arrangement. I'm so very lucky that my housemates are agreeing to trial Tonka. He will have full run of the back yard and we're checking this weekend to make sure it's doggy proof. Although, I live in a big granny flat and I want him to be used to being both outside and inside. There is no shade at the back at the moment, but there is a paved area, so I need ideas on how to make him comfortable out there when I'm at work. My head is spinning on all the things I need to get him back safely and I can't wait to get him back. I have a week to try to organise everything, your help will be very, very much appreciated. Thank you in advance. - Cath

We feed raw meaty bones / prey diet from the day we brought our baby home, 9 weeks. He loves it and I can't imagine feeding him anything else.

I am one of those people who's 5 minutes can very easily double if not triple therefore I make sure that if I can't keep the aircon on and see what the little monster is doing, I don't leave him in the car.

Is he throwing up the mince or regrugitating? If he eats it again (yuck I know!) he's regurgitating and usually nothing to worry about. It happens now and again when they eat their food too quickly, etc. We feed our DDB puppy raw meaty bones and he still manages to eat these too quickly sometimes.

Hi there, It might be better to consult with experts of the breed if your baby is of show quality or not. I have a DDB too and the more we research the breed, the more we realise how little we know! You might find it more useful to ask others who breed and show their DDB's in regards to the "show" quality of your baby. The dogueclub should be a great place to start. Good luck - Cath

Hi dogmate ... How is your dog going with the new diet? How is she with chicken now, still okay? Sometimes the allergy may be mis-diagnosed, i.e. it wasn't the chicken she was allergic to, something else in her system at the time might have been causing the reactions. Are you feeding a raw diet now?

I was wondering what I should try if he does try to eat the bones whole? I can imagine my boy would try that. I've tried chicken wings before but he was not that successful with it, although it was when he was younger...so I will try that again. Thanks for your response I appreciate the advice We mostly feed our little monster Tonka (5mth old dogue de bordeaux) raw meaty bones and the only thing we have to make sure of is that it's not small enough for him to swallow whole. So with him chicken wings & necks are definitely out. From experience, when Tonka doesn't chew his food enough (greedy guts!) he ends up bringing it up again for a do-over! We've never had a problem with him and bones besides that. Just please stay away from weigh bearing bones as they can chip / break their teeth.

Your puppy is gorgeous !!! We have a giant puppy too, a Dogue de Bordeaux named Tonka and he's 5 months old now weighing in at a very healthy 29kgs. What diet did you finally decide on? We are feeding Tonka a raw meaty bone diet based on Tom Lonsdale's recommendations and we started him on this diet the day we got him, at 9 weeks. He loves it! The problem with having a giant breed puppy is that they grow so quickly! Enjoy!

Now I'm tempted to do that ... ... please don't give me any ideas!

What a great thread! We have a 5 month old black mask Dogue de Bordeaux puppy and here's ours: . No, he's not a Bullmastiff or a short wrinkly Boxer. . Yes, his head is supposed to be that big. . No, we do not need a huge yard. 90% of the time he's either eating, sleeping or "resting". . No, he doesn't slobber as much as Hooch in the movie Turner & Hooch. That's egg whites and not slobber that you see. . No, he will NOT eat us out of the house. It's surprising how little Tonka eats. . No, he's not stupid, he's ignoring you because you're annoying.

We can never walk Tonka, our Dogue de Bordeaux puppy, anywhere in a hurry. Everyone wants a pat and a chat. We always get asked "what is he?" ... we haven't come across any Bordeauxs in our area yet so I think he's a real sight with his broad muscly chest, thick legs and large paws at a tender age of 4 months :-) He moves like Simba and has the best temperament, even with aggressive little dogs and naughty little people

Hi Shelby, Try pork hocks, we give Tonka a hock every Saturday and that's the majority of his meals for the day. The ones we get here are about 1.25kg each from the butcher but remember that the bone in that is pretty hefty, thus the weight. They're quite cheap here, about $2.50kg or cheaper when we buy a dozen a time. I used to "ribbon" through the hide & meat, just cut horizontally & vertically through it so it's easier for Tonka to get his teeth through. I only did that a couple of times and now he just goes for it and absolutely loves it. Pork is great and we always buy human grade, not only is it easier to source it's actually CHEAPER than pet stuff! Unbelievable

We feed our DDB puppy a raw diet based on Tom Lonesdale's mainly prey diet model. At last weigh in he's about 16kg but we only feed him just a bit over 1kg of rmb plus treats a day. If he's getting a bit too thin we feed more, if getting a bit chubba, we feed less. We try to vary his food as much as we can but it all depends on what is on special. His main diet is chicken since we can constantly get that cheaply then the rest depends on the market :-) He usually gets, in a week, chicken quarters eggs chicken hearts / giblets / liver lamb necks lamb shanks salmon heads or canned sardines His favourite is the lamb neck ... he will not leave it alone until it's white with no meat left and I have to take it away!

We feed our 16 week old DDB puppy raw food (prey / Tom Lonsdale model) since we brought him home. He loves it and completely thrives in it. We try to vary the meat source as much as possible but our "main" diet is chicken. We also give him some yoghurt, whole eggs, some table scraps of rice / vegies / fruit. - Cath

We get our chicken quarters and offals from Baiada in Girraween NSW. We usually get: Chicken frames at $6.60 for a 6kg bag ($1.10kg) Chicken marylands (quarters) / thighs / drumstick are all $33.00 for a box of 12kg. Offals are $5.00 for a 2kg bag. We keep an eye out for specials for whole or boxes of chicken pieces which can go for as low as $2 per kg. Look them up on line, they're Australia wide too and are open to public. More importantly their chickens have NO growth hormones in them. - Cath

We went with Tom Lonsdale's books: Work Wonders: Feed your dog raw meaty bones I find this very easy to understand and simple to follow. Read this first before his other book: Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health This is a lot more in depth, but very informative. We feed our giant breed Dogue de Bordeaux puppy in this method and he is thriving. Very healthy, sustained growth and quite simple to follow, not to mention cheap. We monitor his progress regularly just to make sure since we are still new to this feeding method, but so far it's marvelous. - Cath

How long do you want? 33ft/10m lines: http://www.k9pro.com.au/products/Premium-L...ng-line%29.html (Both these places express post so you can have it by the following day) I got my 33ft premium long line from K9Pro and it's excellent, doesn't slip quite light ... and yes it came the next day

Thank you very much everyone! We think he's just absolutely gorgeous too, especially when he's sleeping ;) Seriously though, I think we're getting it pretty easy with him, he's been nothing but lovely so far. Then again, that's the nature of Dogue de Bordeauxs ... and the snoring comes with the territory too. For a pup he can seriously make some noise, he's actually noisier sleeping than when he's awake ;) Although, we're SO happy that he doesn't drool nowhere near as much as what we were warned about. We'd love to take more pictures of him but I think there's a special skill set needed when taking pics of animals, which unfortunately we are seriously lacking !!! Thank goodness for digital cameras ... out of 100 pics, one has to turn out right?! Hi Aziah, He's a black mask DDB, which is not that common in Oz but more so in Europe. He gets the black mask from his momma, the gorgeous Gabby of Beaurumba.

Hi everyone, Here are some pics of Tonka, our 16 week old Dogue de Bordeaux puppy, patiently waiting for the "ok" to have his dinner ... probably the only time he stays still so we can take pictures of him

Hi there, New puppy We crate trained our puppy as soon as we got him home and it was the best thing we ever did ... besides bringing Tonka home of course The main thing we did was to make the crate Tonka's favourite place on earth! In the beginning we kept the door open so he can wander in & out and we made sure that he always got his treats in there, he gets his meals, his favourite toys, pats, etc. Then when he looks comfortable, we started closing the door, then opening it straight away, when he's okay with this we close the door for a few minutes then open it again. Eventually we close the door for 30 mins at a time then let him out, but we don't fuss when we let him out and we don't let him out if he's whinging or barking. At this point we take the opportunity to take him out to "potty" too so essentially we do the house training at the same time as the crate training. Increase the period gradually and your puppy will show you how much by. Although, being a small pup maybe no longer than a few hours at a time, they won't be able to hold their bladder for that long and might soil their crate and they really hate doing that. All the best ... hopefully not too much longer until you get your pup, it's the wait that's the worst of it

Hi there, Our giant puppy came from a large litter so when we brought him home we bought him a snuggle puppy to keep him "company". It's a soft plush toy with no removable bits or stuffing so very safe for puppies, it also has a "beating heart" and a heat pack so he would think it's another doggie. We also crate trained him and keep his crate outside under the verandah so that he would have a safe place when we leave for work. Mind you, he used to howl like a full grown wolf when he was crate training! No barking, just very loud howling Then he got used to it :-) I think these two things really helped Tonka's transition, he's now 16 weeks old :-) All the best and enjoy your puppy

We have a Dogue de Bordeaux puppy and they're quite prone to heat exhaustion so our breeder recommends having those clam shells in the yard filled with water when it gets hot so he can wade in at his leisure. He's also an outside dog but we have an enclosed verandah at the back and he lies FLAT on the concrete floor when he's hot :-)