[Newmom]

We will be getting our new puppy April 16th and I was wondering about what people would suggest for a good food. We do live in rural Nova Scotia so we do not have a great amount of choices. I would love to hear some suggestions from all the experienced Basset owners. We now have a greyhound and feeding him is a whole different kettle of fish, no corn, only can eat lamb...extremely sensitve stomach...

 

[roscolaylamommy]

When I brought Rosco home as a puppy, I kept him on the same food the breeder was feeding him (I use the term breeder loosely because this was a farmer who had hunting bassets) and then gradually switched him over to Iam's puppy food. He did very well on that and didn't have any problems. You're going to get a lot of variation in opinions on what to feed your puppy (as to the quality of food) and I say feed him the best you can afford.

I think you're bigger challenge is going to be keeping your other dog with food allergies from eating the puppy's food. Congrats on the new edition and we can't wait to see pictures!

 

[Newmom]

The greyhound eats Iams lamb and rice, we have tried others even the more expensive lamb and rice foods but that is what he seems to do the best on. what ain't broke don't fix as they say lol. We will be trying the basset on that as an adult as it would be easier for both to be on the same food. I was also wondering about having him on large breed puppy food as well. That has been suggested before and is it something I should be looking for?

 

[Mikey T]

Iams lamb and rice, we have tried others even the more expensive lamb and rice foods but that is what he seems to do the best on. what ain't broke don't fix as they say lol.

that is the best advice when it comes to feeding each dog is an individual what works for one may not for anouther. With a Basset puppy I would reccommend an larger breed puppy food. They have reduced calories and calcium and phosporous ompared to other dog puppy foods all wich is important to mitigate nutrional cause of growth abnormalities. Contrary to popular belief most of the common growth abnormalities in larger breed dogs are the result of over nutrion, to much food, too much calcium and phosporus. Do not suppliment especial calcium.

In the olded days befor large breed puppy food many breeder recommend switch at 6 months some times earlier to an adult food. this has some of the same effects as feed a large breed puppy food.

Many question if a baset is a large breed, In regards to bone mass they are. The have the largest bone mass compared to overall body weight of any breed so even though there overall size is marginal for being called a large breed developmentally they are.

 

[Mikey T]

for more specifics see The Growth of Large and Giant breed Puppies

Optimal feeding of large breed puppies

In contrast to protein, excessive calories and inappropriate amounts of calcium have both been shown to negatively influence optimal skeletal development in puppies. While overnutrition in adult dogs leads to obesity and can lead to serious health problems such as cardiorespiratory disease, we recognize other problems in puppies that result from the same practice of overfeeding. It is necessary to feed the puppy enough to allow for controlled growth, but it is equally important to avoid overfeeding. Many people believe that a round puppy is a happy healthy puppy. However, maximal growth is not optimal growth. Adult size is principally influenced by genetics; however, the time ​

to reach adult size can and should be controlled by proper nutrition. Excess calories can predispose large breed puppies to developmental bone disease, including hypertrophic osteodystrophy (Dammrich, 1991).

Dog Diet Do's and Don’t's

​

According to Dr. Tony Buffington, Professor of Clinical Nutrition, Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, your puppy can be fed a regimen of specific caloric intake compared to his body condition score (BCS), using a simple one to five scale, from overly thin to obese. Using manufacturer feeding recommendations as an initial starting point, feed your puppy to a score of two and maintain this weight until he's fully grown.

...

​

2 = Thin - Ribs easily palpated and may be visible with no palpable fat. Tops of lumbar vertebrae visible. Pelvic bones less prominent. Obvious waist and abdominal tuck.

As you can see it is import to keep the puppy thin not the shape of the average basset you see walking the street.

 

[Newmom]

You have just described our greyhounds body, he is a great weight and we work hard to keep him that way. He is walked at least three times a day and has off leash runs in a totally fenced ball field at least twice a week. The puppy will be on the same regiment as soon as he is old enough. We do want to teach him to be active as we are. With a large breed puppy food, what age do you recommend him being on it until?

 

[bubbad]

Becareful exercising your puppy .If you go hiking do not take him,till he is ,in my opinion,about a year old. Take him for short walks and for scocialization periods.His bone growth is important especially in his legs.The joints can be overworked easily.Just take care and use some wisdom. Are you getting him Pat Kennedy? Just curious.

 

[Newmom]

I do plan on taking it slow with him, he will not be going anywhere too far for the first year, just like you said short walks and the ball field. The greyhound will be happy to have some company at the field. We are not getting him from Pat Kennedy although I would love to have a Newfie puppy lol. Go back to my roots lol.

 

[mhvonalmen8908]

We just fed both of our pups Iams puppy food. Doppler was four months when we got him so we didn't do anything special with his food. But Virga was 8 weeks old when we got her and her breeder suggested that we wet her food down to soften it until she got bigger. But both of our dogs are on Iams food and they're doing well on it.

 

[SophieB]

Becareful exercising your puppy .If you go hiking do not take him,till he is ,in my opinion,about a year old. Take him for short walks and for scocialization periods.His bone growth is important especially in his legs.The joints can be overworked easily.Just take care and use some wisdom. Are you getting him Pat Kennedy? Just curious.

Bubbad, you have said exactly what I would advise through being a lifelong Basset owner (third generation of having Bassets) and vets and reputable breeders have told us the same thing... do not over-exercise Basset puppies and keep them off stairs... going down stairs puts too much weight on the front leg joints!

Obviously your greyhound will be so nimble and agile compared to your Basset and possibly doesn't eat like a Basset would!

Have loads of fun with your new pup! Lots of pics too please!!

 

[Mikey T]

will be so nimble and agile compared

Depends on how you define agile. on an agility cours a basset would actual fair better. The racing greyhound breed is good in a straight line not so good with a lot of quick tight turns a bassets low center of gravity allows it to run a tight turn at the same speed it has on the flat.

There is nothing special about 1 year of age that all of a sudden allow for no limit on exercise vs any other age there are still growth plates that are not closed at that age for the average basset. the thing with exercise is being reasonable for the dogs age and conditioning and body condition.

keep them off stairs... going down stairs puts too much weight on the front leg joints!

actual the amount of stress on the fron limbs from strair create a problem with the front joints is remote even a lot of stairs.. however given the clumbsy nature of basset puppies a fall in the stairs is a very real and traumatic form injury potential. And to further show the problem with such blanket statement with suporting facts is this. I tought Toughy to do stairs at the age of 1g weeks Take the step one foot at the time and the same for going down Instead of the bunny hop most basset use, When he beacem and adult he contuied to climb and decend stairs this way which greatly reduces stress placed on the fron legs. If I tried to teach him when he was olser it would of been much harder to do because as the body lengthen it makes the one foot at a time method harder to execute by the dog and involved a prolong training process. So can a basset be taught to do stairs in a much lower stress wat, it is easier much eaiser to do when the dog is young. Can everyone train any basset to do this probably not but it is the problem with such blanket statemens as no stairs etc. It is not realisitic for every situation and the can be even better solution that allow stairs.

 

[SophieB]

I'd rather listen to what vets and good breeders have said, which is to keep them off stairs as it's not good for their backs as well as their front joints, especially going down because invariably they seemingly don't go one leg at a time (like say an agile Husky does) Bassets want to 'hop' with two legs at a time.

Some time ago, a friend (120 miles away) who moved to a flat up two flights of stairs and had a very heavy Basset, paid thousands of pounds for back operations/treatments as her huge Basset fell down 10 stair steps, injuring himself as she thinks his body was just too big and long as he seemed to have stepped wrongly and bumped, falling heavily and her vet really wasn't happy at such a breed living two floors up as they are impossible to carry....

Each to their own... but having had many Bassets of various ages for many years (adoptees too) we have never had any back or leg problems and have had stair-gates to keep them down stairs and kept them off sofas as they shouldn't jump off anything higher than themselves (apparently)!

 

[Newmom]

I have talked with his breeder at lenght about it as well and don't plan on anything other than short strolls for the first year. That also gives his big brother Hook the greyhound some Mommy time away from the youngster when we go for our long walks lol. I am going to be looking into what puppy foods are consistantly available around here. Hard in the country, not many choices. I am sure that I will find something suitable for him. Also putting the grey back on "feeding times" so it will be easier to keep everyone in their own bowls. He had that on the track so should not have a hard time getting used to it again.

Any other suggestions/advice are more than welcome though!!

 

[Wworm]

Congrats on the new puppy on his way-- you and the greyhound will have lots of fun with the new addition, I'll bet!

After reading about all the diets out there, we came up with our own (some combination of different diets). I guess the theme for us is variety, variety. He is 8 months now.

I feed him 3 times/day, the third meal is around 9 or 10pm, more like a "snack," sometimes we joke and call it "second dinner." Mainly because his tummy will be upset in the mornings if he is too hungry (you may see on the forum that other puppies have had this problem too...), so I give him some food before bed.

He gets dry dog food, a 1/2 cup, 3x/day. We have tried different types, and they all seem to be fine. He came in on puppy food, and his breeder said that when we ran out, to switch him to adult food. We did that, but then a lot of people and vets said he was too skinny, so now he is back on puppy dry food.

In addition, for breakfast w/dry food, we give him 2 spoonfuls of canned wet food. (May not be that necessary, but i'm sure it gives him some fat). We go through 1 to 1 1/2 cans/week. We've tried all types, and he seems to do fine and likes all of them.

Also, with the late night snack, we give him 2 spoonfuls of yogurt with his dry food (because his breeder said it was good for upset tummies, which he had initially).

For dinner, I boil chicken & veggies (usually carrots and celery, but have also added frozen corn, peas, zucchini) and serve with brown rice. Sometimes if there's a lot of rice, i don't give him the dry dog food.

So, I'm not familiar with what's available in Nova Scotia. Basically, we have a big bag of dry dog food, a few cans of wet food, and the rest is people food that we get at the grocery store. Don't know if this is helpful, but this is what we did...

 

[SophieB]

Wworm, when you first got your pup at say 8 or 9 weeks did you do like we did and feed four times a day?

NewMom, young puppies need feeding more often than older ones as they have a lot of growing to do. You're best finding out what the breeder feeds puppy and buy the same because if you suddenly change it, your pup could get an upset tummy. Our breeder gave us half a big bag of Eukanuba puppy (large breed) and we fed our pups the same, with a small amount of tinned Butcher's Tripe mixed in to give a bit of 'taste', four times a day from nine weeks until about 15 or 16 weeks and then three times a day until around 7 or 8 months of age.

When I tried to stop the lunchtime feed, and give food twice a day, they just kept hanging around the big storage cans as if they were starving, so I reduced it slightly at lunchtime until they were about a year old and at almost three years of age, they both still look for a snack at lunchtime, so they sometimes get some bits of dried food inside their ball so they roll it around and eat the bits that fall out!

If you're unsure on the amount to give your new pup, look on the bag of dog food for a recommended starting point and then use your best judgment to vary the amount to your particular puppy's needs... I was surprised at how much they eat, but when you consider the growth rate, they need a fair amount of good food... and of course fresh water to drink.

What my breeder recommended me to do when puppies are small and have small teeth, was what he did, to moisten the dry food with a small amount of warm water to soften it slightly and it's easier for them for the first few weeks.

We always give our dogs three or four dog biscuits before bed and as soon as they come in from their last wee, the three (elderly Cocker Spaniel too) line up in exactly the same place in the kitchen, every night and wait for their biscuits!

Hope this helps a bit more!

PS: Just thought of something NewMom... like you, we live in the country and get our big sacks of Eukanuba and tins of dog meat, treats, pigs' ears, etc etc delivered and order it online, so you may be able to do the same and get a better choice!

 

[Newmom]

Mikey, I know that there will not be a magical transformation on his first birthday in regards to what the dog can do lol. I laugh and tell my husband the basset will be more his speed for walking. The grey goes for two to three 10-15 min walks a day and then one that is between 2-4 kms per day, maybe more, depending on weather and such. I figure the basset will join us for the shorter walks. And of course the off leash at the ball park. The grey tires himself out in about 10-15 mins there. There are no dogs on the furniture of beds at my house. There are dog beds almost everywhere you look lol. Both dogs will also be sleeping on the main floor as well. The cats do not let the dog in the bedroom now so that won't be a change for Hook. I know definately about changing of foods. With Greys anything out of the ordinary causes massive dietary upheaval. Not fun. We can't be having anything that is not on his strict diet plan. He does love cooked pasta though, another throw back from track life.

 

[Mikey T]

Wworm, when you first got your pup at say 8 or 9 weeks did you do like we did and feed four times a day?

when the puppy is small its growth is rapid it has a small stomach capacity but a large caloric need the 0nly way to to deal with that is multiple meal per day. I find that dogs tend to ween themselves off meal as they age ie not eat etc. There is a school fo thought that what you want to do is a match the number of feeding to the number of time s the dog deficates during the day. If you do this then the act of eating actually stimulates the digestive tract to eliminate. THis put house training more on a predictable schedual.

I'd rather listen to what vets and good breeders have said,

advice is only a good as the experience each has. If none have any experience with performance dogs and come at it strictly as pets or conformation their view will be skewed.

but having had many Bassets of various ages for many years (adoptees too) we have never had any back or leg problems

Fancy that , neither have I and mine engage in a lot more "dangerious" activies like competitive agility. It is not the activity that is dangerious provided the the dog is properly conditioned. The benefits and excerses as both a weight management tool and conditioning are well understood. unecessarly ristricting activity based on some misquided notion that the dog is too frail for activity only makes matter worse as they age not better.

especially going down because invariably they seemingly don't go one leg at a time (like say an agile Husky does) Bassets want to 'hop' with two legs at a time.

That is always going to be the case of the dog is introduce to stairs when its body length is such it spans multiple steps. If however, It is introduced when the dog is small this is not necessarily the case.

had a very heavy Basset,

Hence the real cause of the back problem, exessive weight. It is the single biggest thing one can do to prevent back problems and the one done the least with basset hounds. One that exercise can help with.

her huge Basset fell down 10 stair steps,

Which I clear state is the realy danger to stairs the traumaic fall not the stress form repeatedly desending stairs. Such accident can not be completely avoided and pretending they can is being nieve..

kept them off sofas as they shouldn't jump off anything higher than themselves (apparently)!

Again it is not factual they can repeatdly jump and land from hieght higher than they are if properly conditioned without injury, However an uncondition dog could easily be injure from a hieght half that. Those of us that have jumping hounds, condition the dog slowly over time by jumping lower hieght slowly remodling the joints creating a much stroger an larger joint that can handle added stress and in the end making the dog safer from the freak traumic accident no one could predict.

Bone Remodeling, Osteoporosis, and Training

Running injury exercises - myths about running injuries

But before you believe it, bear in mind that the 'athletes' in this study were actually adult sheep, not humans at all (Radin, EL, et al, 'Effect of Prolonged Walking on Concrete on the Knees of Sheep,' Journal of Biomechanics, Vol. 15(7), pp. 487-492, 1982). The study's authors provided no clues as to whether the sheep had engaged in strength training prior to their 2.5 years of death-marching, and a sceptic could reasonably argue that loading forces - and the musculoskeletal responses to those loading forces - might be somewhat different in human knees, compared with what happens in sheep. Although we haven't fallen prey to the popular idea that sports shoes are 'medicine' against injury, we should at least also point out that the sheep in the study were not clad in expensive clodhoppers, but preferred to clatter about on unshod hooves.
However, we've saved the juiciest bit for last. Although the hard-walked sheep had shoddier cartilage, their knee-joint bones had remodelled themselves and were unusually strong! In addition, there was no real evidence that osteoarthritis was present, so the sheep had adapted pretty well to their marathon-a-day schedules.
Similarly, research with rabbits has also failed to link running with the progression of knee osteoarthritis (Videman, T, 'The Effect of Running on the Osteoarthritic Joint: An Experimental Matched Pair Study with Rabbits,' Rheumatol Rehabil, Vol. 21(1), p. 1, 1982).
'The runners did not have a higher incidence of severe knee and hip pain than the swimmers, nor did the runners undergo surgical procedures more often'
Better still, a follow-up study carried out with humans also failed to link locomotory movements on terra firma with long-term leg damage. Former college athletes from seven major US colleges were interviewed by questionnaire; 504 had been cross-country runners, and 287 were swimmers. The follow-up periods ranged from two to 55 years, with a mean of 25 years; the oldest subject was 77 and the youngest 23, with a mean of 57. As it turned out, the runners did not have a higher incidence of severe knee and hip pain, or even moderate discomfort, comp-ared to the swimmers, nor did the runners undergo surgical procedures for the relief of pain more often. In other words, there was no evidence at all to support the idea that running sports 'broke down the knees'.
The researchers also failed to link either running mileage or the number of years spent running with the development of osteoarthritis (Sohn, Roger S and Micheli, Lyle J, 'The Effect of Running on the Pathogenesis of Osteoarthritis of the Hips and Knees,' Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Vol. 198, pp. 106-109, September 1985).
Briefly, an even better study carried out at Stanford University determined that disabling problems in the legs were five times as likely to occur in sedentary individuals, compared to athletes who engaged in running. Shockingly, the Stanford researchers' data ran against the idea that more running meant more injury, finding that running 15 miles per week cut muscular and skeletal problems by 60%, compared with running five miles per week or less (Anderson, O, 'What's the Truth about Running and Bad Knees?' Running Research News, Vol. 11(8), pp. 10-12, October 1995).
The lesson? If you want your legs to fall apart, your best strategy is to do nothing. If you become sedentary, your leg muscles and bones will decline in function at a rather brisk and predictable rate. Despite what you may hear from the chattering classes, banging your bones and joints around a bit ends up protecting them, instead of wearing them down.

It is lack of excercise the over doing it on occasion that it the problem a dog that has regular exercise that is age and condition appropriate is much less likely to have joint problems than the sedentary, coddled over weight one.

Heck it is a lot easier to say don't do this and don't do that to protech the dog but in the end you are actual makeing longer term heath issue more likely. It is a lot harder to explain and promote an appropirate exercise program because it is not static and dempend on al lot of vriable but to dismiss the idea as if it is inappropirate is just plain unsupportable on on scientific basis.


Exercise in Puppies-Are there rules by a vet BTW

There are many dogmatic opinions available from veterinarians, pet owners, breeders and others concerning a common question owners of new puppies have, How much exercise is ok for puppies? This is an especially pertinent question for owners of large breed puppies, since these breeds have a higher incidence than others of developmental orthopedic disorders such as hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and cartilage abnormalities known as osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD). As is all too often the case, however, these opinions generally lack solid scientific evidence to support them. Very little is known about the precise risks and benefits of different types and intensities of exercise in growing animals

...
There are many more studies on the effects of exercise in children than in puppies, and though it is always risky to extrapolate from one species to another, some useful information can be gained by using one organism as a model for another, as long as conclusions drawn in this way are cautious and tentative pending better data. In general, while some intense and repetitive exercise can pose a risk of damage to growth plates in children, exercise is overall seen as beneficial in improving bone density and reducing the risk of obesity and related health problems.
...Therefore, a general principle of avoiding forced or voluntary extreme exercise is reasonable, but specific and absolute statements about what kind of exercise is allowed, what surfaces puppies should or should not exercise on, and so forth is merely opinion not supported by objective data. Such opinions may very well be informed by personal experience, and they may be reliable, but any opinion not founded on objective data must always be taken with a grain of salt and accepted provisionally until such data is available.

UNILATERAL HIP DYSPLASIA
from Breeder Vet

The kennel dogs, whose exercise opportunities are maximized, with several dogs of a similar age free to run and play all day and night in large paddocks, show us some interesting things.

• They grow much more slowly, because much of their food intake goes into play and running.
• They rarely (almost never) suffer an injury.
• They always have symmetrical hip sockets, even if they are very shallow.

Their litter mates in private homes, where exercise is confined to an hour or two of intense play or jogging when their owners return from work, provide us with a different set of observations.

• They grow very large, very fast.
• They often suffer injury.
• They frequently have hip sockets of different depths.

... Owners are cautioned that their puppy needs a good deal of exercise, but their work schedules often conflict with their desire to do this. The result is a period of intense exercise. A 3 mile run, or a half hour of Frisbee. When a single puppy who lies around all day welcomes his owners in the evening, he is ill prepared for either intense exercise, or the uncertainty of footing on slippery floors and his always changing joint angulation. His muscle tone is a small fraction of that of a puppy which plays with other active dogs all day long. The result is an injury.

Which is exactly my point it is not excersize that is a problem but the appropiateness of the actual exercise based on the health and condition of the actual dog involved. rather than limit owner induced exteme exercise it is more appropriate to increase all exercise oportunities for the dog. And educate the owners on how to progessively/slowly over time appropriate raise exercise levels. THer is nothing magical abouT 1 year that now makes it an appropiate age for a dog to engage in occasional intess activity because it likely to cause a problem at that age as in a younger puppy it is all about the appropiateness of the excercise for a particular dog given thats dogs fitness level and overall heath. but that is a lot more difficul sound bite than to just say No! but at the same time it is much more appropriate.

 

[Newmom]

I do want this dog not to be a couch potato and be able to do all the things that the grey does. I do walk every day and we do hike mostly in the fall. I just want the basset to be included in all activities. I know the issues with the growing and such but I also want to as the puppy ages to be able to increase his walks. I would never let him get overhwelmed or change distance greatly overnight. I would let him dictate what he is comfortalble with. I never thought of them as "fragile" dogs. I know there is care and consideration to be taken but I don't want to keep him in a bubble either.
I worked in the veterinary industry for 9 years and have been around dogs my entire life but I know each breed is different and I like to get the opinions of people who have expereince with the breed. In general veterinary practice you don't really get the specifics of each breed of dog. When we adopted the grey it also was a whole new learning curve as he had never been in a home. He has special needs in many ways that at home raised dog does not have, plus being a sighthound.

I am learning alot from what is said on here and will also be using a whole lot of common sense when raising the puppy. But all suggestions and thoughts are welcome from you guys who have lots of experience with the breed!

 

[Wworm]

Wworm, when you first got your pup at say 8 or 9 weeks did you do like we did and feed four times a day?

PS: Just thought of something NewMom... like you, we live in the country and get our big sacks of Eukanuba and tins of dog meat, treats, pigs' ears, etc etc delivered and order it online, so you may be able to do the same and get a better choice!

Hi Sophie B-- we got Worm when he was 15-16 weeks old, so he was older already, and I started him with 3 meals/day. Before that, he was free feeding with his breeder. But i knew we didn't want to do that with him. that is because previously, our wiener dog got overweight with free feeding, partly because he would stress eat whenever he was anxious or when we came home. it was pretty cute, he would grab a mouthful as soon as we came home and bring it to the living room, and dump it on the floor. then eat kibble by kibble. so cute that we didn't stop it, i guess. but i knew i didn't want this for my basset.

though the reason we did so, was because my dad wanted to be sure he had food in case of an earthquake (yes, earthquake country here...)... and with all the natural disasters, do people have thoughts on how to make sure your dog has food, in case we are not around to feed them....? hmmmm.... esp when they are in crates...?

ps. LOVE that you can get all the dog's stuff delivered, Sophie B! how clever...