Hello, thank you for reading this if you do and if you can comment I’d really appreciate it! So I’ve never had a dog before but my whole life waited and wanted one. I’m finally getting my gorgeous St. Bernard baby boy on the 9th August (he’ll be just over 8 weeks). I’ve done sooo much research! But want real St. Bernard owners advice on some of my questions: 1) Eating routine! His current routine with the breeder is, 5am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm and goats milk at 9pm - can I change these timings or do I have to stick with this? If I can, how do I go about this? As I don’t want him to feel really hungry and then eat to quickly! 2) Sleep routine! Again alongside his current feeding routine, do I have to get up with him at 5am or can I sleep through the night? Some experts say they need to adapt to their new lifestyle and others recommend to get up with them every couple of hours? 3) Do you have any crate toy recommendations? People say a heart heart noice and heat helps them sleep better? Thanks in advance. X
1) You will gradually take away the milk, and go to 3 feedings a day instead of 4. Remove the 5 AM feeding after a few weeks to get there. Then after a few months, you can go to 2 feedings a day. I do 8 AM and 6 PM. My Saint doesn't eat fast at all and will only eat until he's full leaving the rest in the bowl, which I take away until the next feeding after giving him enough time. 2) It's important he adjusts to your routine, but not until he is physically able to! Until he's 5 or 6 months old, he can't hold his pee. He simply doesn't have the bladder control. You must let him out to do his business often, that can be every 30-mins to 1 hour when he is only 8 weeks. After a couple of months, you can increase that to a couple of hours. But always get up in the morning with him when he needs to potty so he's not in pain and doesn't have an accident he will feel ashamed of. Probably by 6 months, he won't wake you up any earlier than you get up anyway.
Goats milk, raw goats milk is full of pre and probiotics that are really good for dogs. My dogs get 2 tablespoons on there kibble, every meal. When they don’t have raw goats milk I get goat milk kefir
You don't want a Saint to be too fat as a young puppy - just nicely rounded as opposed to roly-poly. I would be inclined to stick to feeding four smaller meals a day for the time being - just tweak the timing to suit your own lifestyle. Unless they are very greedy, (like my breed), puppies usually begin to be less interested in one of their meals. When this happens cut out that meal and increase the amount for the remaining ones.
