Finding the leader of the pack

Dogs are animal living in a pack. In a pack of dog, there will be one of them who is the leader. When my doberman puppies were 7 weeks old, I tried to identify who was the leader of the pack.  

The first two photographs below was taken when the doberman puppies were let to go into the garden for the very first time. All the puppies has never stepped onto grasses before. The first two photographs showed that all the puppies hesitated at the edge of the garden for a moment. 

The third photograph showed the leader of the pack going into the garden. The last photographs showed the next in command of the pack.  

(1) All puppies hesitated at the edge of the garden

(2) A second later, all still feeling out for themselves

(3) One of them with the yellow ribbon explored out

(4) Followed by the puppy with green ribbon 

After the puppy with the yellow ribbon followed by the puppy with the green ribbon, the rest of the puppies followed to go into the garden for the first time. 

The second time onward whenever it was play time in the garden, all the puppies are so impatient waiting at the fence. Once the fence was opened, all of them would rush in and have a good time.

When the puppies grew older, the leader was confirmed when they played together. The leader would be running in front of the pack and the rest would be following the leader. Or, the leader of be the one running away with the ball and the rest chasing after it.

Feeding Doberman Puppies

We have 9 doberman puppies from my last litter. I was concerned that the bitch's milk might not be sufficient for all the puppies. From day 1, the puppies were attracted to the dame's breast nipple by instinct. It was amazing seeing how the puppies with unopened eyes smelled and crawled their way towards the nipples of the dame.

Puppies feeding naturally

I had to supplement with goat milk. I had to use baby feeding bottle to feed the puppies one at a time. The puppies loved the goat milk and grew very strong and healthy. For your information, do not feed your puppies or dogs with cow milk. Cow milk will cause the puppies to have upset stomach and loose stool. Goat milk is perfect for the puppies. But, goat milk is less available and it is much more expensive than cow milk.

Caution: We have to lift the puppy's head up (side-way) to feed with the bottle so that the milk flow too fast. Otherwise, the milk can choke the puppy or flood its lungs. Go to how to bottle feed the puppy for more detail.

  Feeding 2 weeks old doberman puppy with a feeding bottle

                             
The first four weeks was lots of effort caring for the puppies and the bitch. After four weeks, it was fun feeding and seeing the puppies playing with each other.

4 weeks old puppies self-feeding

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Docking the tail of Doberman Puppies

Doberman has very long tail. From the photo below, you can see that the tail of the puppies were almost as long as their hind legs.

2 days old puppies (Before tail was docked)

We had our doberman puppies' tail docked when they were 3 days old. According to the veterinarian, the puppies sensory nerve at the tail would start to develop after 5 days. Hence, there was no pain in docking their tail at 3 days old.

The veterinarian gave us some antibiotic cream to apply to the tail area of the puppies to prevent infection. In addition, we had to keep the space where we kept the puppies very clean. We had to clean the space every 2 hours.

Each puppy was given a name at birth and we used coloured ribbon to identify the puppies. 

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Trained Doberman Puppy - 7 weeks old

We have 9 doberman puppies from the last litter. Our doberman puppies was trained on basic behaviour including toilet habit. Watch the video below which shows Lady, one of our doberman puppies when she was 7 weeks old.



For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Whelping, Feeding and Nursing Doberman Puppies

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When the puppies were born, I tagged each puppy with a colored ribbon for identification.

During the first few weeks of the of the puppies' life to ensure the puppies survive I kept the puppies in a warm and dry place. I bought a plastic bin and installed heating provided by an incandescent bulb. The temperature within the bin was kept warm at 28 deg Celsius. The bin also protected the puppies from wind.


I was fortunate that the weather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was warm everyday, except some night when it was raining and very windy. Anyway, I kept the puppies indoor for the first 4 weeks.


Feeding and nursing the puppies
Fortunately, the dame has a natural mother's instinct of protecting, feeding and nursing the puppies. But, I have to earn the trust of the dame that I was helping her to look after the puppies.

The puppy sucked and is attached to the nipple very strongly 

In the beginning, the dame was reluctant to let me take the puppies away to the puppy bin. What I did was, I placed a new unfed puppy into the dame's cage each time I took a fully fed puppy away into the puppy bin. The dame learned very fast and trusted me.


The last litter was 9 puppies and I have to divide the puppies into 2 batches for feeding. The first 2 weeks was a lot of work changing each batch on an hourly basis. The last feeding of the day was done at 2 am and the first feeding was done at 6 am.


When the puppies was 2 weeks' old, the dame's milk was not enough for 9 of them. I have to supplement with hand feeding them with goat's milk. Please do not supplement puppies with cow's milk.

With bottle feeding, we have to make sure :-
1) the milk flow very slowly from the bottle
2) that the puppy is held up so that the milk will not rush to their lungs. Otherwise it can be fatal.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Well-Trained Doberman Puppies

Dobermann puppies are easy to trained. But, if you do not have a good understanding of the way dogs think and learn, training can be very difficult. You may wish to read my previous post on "Basic in Dog and Puppy Training".


This video below show a very well-trained dobermann puppy. Watch the way, command was given and how the trainer uses positive rewarding way to trained her puppy. Each time the puppy responded correctly to her command, the puppy is immediate given her reward and praise. Through repetition, the puppy respond to command is immediate.

Watch also this video, how the trainer walk in a commanding and lead his dog as a pack leader. No confusing command or action.

The basic in dog or puppy training is our body posture. Dogs read our body language. Do you have a commanding body posture as a leader? If not, your dog will look at you as a weak leader and would not take you as the pack leader.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Dobermann Puppy for sale, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My 7 weeks old dobermann puppy named Lady, well-trained in Toilet Habits and basic obedience command like sit, down, speak (to bark), quiet, come, home, etc.

Our Dobermann puppies are trained as early as possible so that you enjoy your pet. We do not just sell you a doberman puppy. Continuous training by new owners of our doberman puppy is needed and we will provide training guidance to new owners. We want the owners of our puppies to enjoy their pet.

We want to place our dobermann puppies with dog lovers who can provide them a good home.

Our dobermann puppies are pure breed with Malaysian Kennel Association (MKA) certificate and every puppy has micro-chip embedded for identification. Pedigree certificate and parental lineage of our stud dog and dame are from famous champion lines.

The puppies tails are docked but their ear are not cropped. We practice giving our puppies timely vaccination and deworming medication. The first dose is usually given at the sixth weeks and followed by 2 doses at a month's interval.    

For more information on puppy training, visit www.dobermann.com.my

Our last litter was born in July 2010. All 9 doberman puppies were sold out. We are skipping one heat for the bitch and will be preparing to have another litter in July 2011.

At this moment, we do not have any puppy for sale.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my