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Update to crazy puppy/kids, husband wanting to give him away
Hi everyone,
Thought i'd update...as I sit here Griffin is sleeping on my feet 
We signed him up for doggy daycare two days a week and that has been great! Only issue is he went friday and Saturday we noticed a cut by his eye. Hopefully he won't get too many injuries. I'll have a vet look at him tomorrow, it doesn't look bad though, and thankfully his eye itself is fine. I am also taking him to work at least one full day a week, usually two. Some days when I work a half day i'll walk him to work with me (about 2 miles), he stays in a kennel while I work then my husband picks him up on the way home and walks him home. Where I work he can play for a few hours in a fenced in area out back, usually another one or two coworkers will bring their dogs and they can all play together. We put them out to play for an hour or so, then bring them in for awhile, then back out they go etc. The end result being most days he is tired, and therefore good When he's not bouncing off the walls the kids aren't afraid of him, they even took him outside today and played ball with him, and no longer lock him away from wherever they are. Typically early in the morning he's at his most energetic and they are not in the mood, so oftentimes I separate them by putting him outside, but once he gets a bit of the crazies out they co-exist nicely.
We still have issues with him chewing, typically when he's REALLY tired he's not chewing but as soon as he starts to gain some energy he's back to chewing. I need to buy him some new toys as he's chewed through, and ruined many. Any suggestions for indestructible toys? So far his kong has been the only toy to survive. He's a large breed, so far he's 68 pounds (5 1/2 months), not sure what breed...
And he's a counter surfer, so we need to work on that, he's constantly stealing the kids food! I finally found a local puppy class that works with my work schedule so i'm going to sign him up for that. It doesn't start for a few weeks and runs in three week sessions so hopefully that will help us all as well.
Anyways, thank you all for your suggestions. We are working on it, and I can't wait until he outgrows this puppy stuff, but we are all putting in effort and co-existing much better!
Re: Update to crazy puppy/kids, husband wanting to give him away
Plus dogs love the marrow inside them -- it also keeps their teeth nice and white.
Nearly 6 months old should be fine for a raw marrow bone; ask your vet.:)
Don't cook them -- get them from the butcher section of your supermarket. People usually like to use them for soup; if they're too large, get the butcher to cut them into narrower pieces.:)
I'm so glad to hear this update! The "puppy stuff" might take quite some time to settle down, but it sounds like you have a good plan in place to keep him exercised. Do still get him training though. It's really really important.
Antlers are great for chewing too, and are less messy than raw marrow bones. And maybe try a Nylabone; not all dogs like them, but if he does, the ones for powerful chewers hold up pretty well.
Quincy and Dexter, new BFFs
I used to be kris216.
Ditto the Nylabone! We went with the chicken flavored one and my dog LOVES it. Also try freezing a carrot. My dog hates carrots but my friend freezes carrots for her dog and he loves it. I missed your first post but glad things are going well!!
I'm going to caution you on the use of marrow bones; these are essentially the weight-bearing bones of the cow, and therefore hard enough to support a couple of tons of weight. This means they're so hard that a heavy chewer can (and others have) break teeth on them. I feed a prey-model-raw diet, and the one thing experienced raw feeders caution against is feeding anything off the weight-baring bones of large unguates (ie, the leg bones of cattle), which is what marrow bones are.
I'd go with the big durable Nylabones (we just dogsat a couple of pit/mastiffs for a week, and our Boxer pup loved stealing their big durable Nylabones to chomp on, even when she won't give as much attention to a regular Nylabone) and definitely ditto on Antlers. Both of these will wear down more evenly and should last longer than other chew toys so you won't have any worries about chipped teeth.
If you want something for a real attention-grabbing treat every now and then, try beef rib bones. Sometimes you can find them cheap from a butcher, especially the ones that aren't particularly meaty (good for a dog not used to consuming raw); the beef ribs are hard enough to keep him occupied and chomping for a good long while even after he's managed to chew off any of the meat on it (yes, it's really fine to give it to him totally raw with some meat on, the only side effect likely being some bloody front paws from where he grabbed onto it, haha).
Also work on as commands as much as you can at home! Mental stimulation can wear out a dog even better than physical exertion can in some cases. A few 10-minute training sessions a day can work wonders! Go over "old" commands he's already learned to really get them down solid and work on training him on some new ones.
Good luck with him!
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6