Well not exactly new but...

[2 Danes Now]

I will still like to thank all those who helped me with my 1st Dane(Ceasar), he is now just 1yr and has been such a fantastic addition to the house. He is doing just great, matter of fact we went back to show him to the people we got him from and let him play with his dad,mom and a new litter of his bro's+sisters. Unfortuatly after talking with them for a while(the people not the dogswe learned that the mother had quit taking any intrest in the litter and had not sleep or fed them in a week(now only 5week). This is what brings me back to you all for the help once again.When we were there my wife and I just fell in luv with the little girl puppy sitting alone and after talking to them for a few hrs we ended up coming home with her, I know I will probally take a few slams for taking her so young but I thought what will it hurt my wife is at home during the day and can feed her a few times a day. I just mean that the mother is'nt doing anything and I can. Does anyone have any suggs.

Thanks to all that helped before and those that help now,
Dave

[Queenacres]

RE: Well not exactly new but...

We ended up adopting Grace at 5 weeks under similar circumstances! I really really really worried about socialization and skills she would have learned from her mother and littermates; but we are fortunate in that we have a 9 1/2 year old GSD that adopted her and is teaching her many of those things. I much prefer to wait until 8-10 weeks on big dogs, and 12-16 weeks for toy dogs; but sometimes there are special circumstances that prevent that. I would never recomend adopting one so young, but it's not the end of the world.

Now you have to think of how a 5 week old litter of puppies interact and try to help her learn. There are some simple things...like not walking off of high up places, keeping her bed clean, etc that her mother and siblings would have taught her that you are now faced with. She won't even be close to housebreaking for a few weeks, but you can help by confining her and giving her a very clean bed and a place away from her bed to potty.

Grace will be 11 weeks old tomorrow, we adopted her August 1. She is about 3/4 housebroken, and is only in her crate at night now. It's been a couple of weeks since she's had any accidents in her crate. Granted, I have an advantage of having 5 other dogs that are housebroken; and I am home 99% of the time.

Susan