Grooming
Grooming is an important part of caring for your dog. Get your puppy used to being handled by gently touching their paws, ears, and tail — this helps prepare them for future grooming sessions. While in our care, your puppy has already been brushed, bathed, had their hair and nails trimmed, and their ears cleaned. You can continue this at home by brushing your dog every couple of days at home. When they are a puppy this is very easy and may only take a couple of minutes. Do it when they are in a calm state. You can reward them with treats so they develop positive associations with being groomed.
It’s a great idea to introduce your puppy to a professional groomer by 16 weeks of age, as this is an essential part of their socialisation. Ask the groomer for a simple bath and tidy to help your puppy build confidence and positive associations with grooming. Try to schedule a couple of these bath-and-tidy sessions before your puppy turns one. After that, most Cobberdogs benefit from a visit to the groomer every 8–10 weeks. Bring a photo of your preferred coat length to help guide your groomer — and remember to be kind; grooming is skilled, hands-on work!
If your Cobberdog’s coat isn’t brushed regularly and becomes long or matted close to the skin, your groomer may need to shave the coat. This is because removing heavy matting can be painful or impossible without causing distress. This is especially important to watch for during your puppy’s coat transition to adulthood. A short coat over summer will be more comfortable for your Cobber and make brushing easier.
Ear Care
A non-shedding, long, lush coat can increase the chance of ear issues. We provide lots of advice about preventing and managing issues in our puppy guide. Below is a summary of what is usually involved:
~ Monitor your Cobberdog's ears; notice signs such as shaking their heads, scratching their ears often or a strong smell
~ Provide monthly treatment with a product such as EpiOtic if your Cobberdog is prone to issues, as per your vet's advice
~ Keep hair very short underneath ears to improve ventilation
~ Dry ears after swimming and baths
Crate Training
It is important that puppies have a safe and secure place of their own, as well as plenty of rest time - up to 18 hours per day! Many trainers recommend crates for creating this secure resting place for puppies and dogs. They can also assist with toilet training and keeping your furniture and other items safe from puppy when he is not able to be supervised. Crate trained dogs are also better prepared for situations when they need to be crated (eg. at the vet). We begin crate training before 8 weeks, with puppies spending limited lengths of time together in a crate. We provide advice on how to continue this practice when your puppy comes home with you.
Training
Australian Cobberdogs are likely smarter than previous dogs you have owned, and it is
important to establish your leadership.
In the first 12 months of your puppy’s life it is critical to shape their behaviour with consistency and firm boundaries.
One of the most challenging and important aspects to puppy training is CONSISTENCY. You and everyone else in your family should have a consistent approach – using consistent commands/language with your puppy and consistent responses to their behaviour.
We recommend you take your puppy to training classes so that you can learn the basics of training and your puppy can meet other young puppies.
Socialisation
Socialisation of a puppy is the process of helping your puppy to feel confident and comfortable with a wide range of people, other dogs and animals, places, sounds, tastes and experiences. For your puppy there is a developmental window when they easily process and learn new things are not dangerous. It is important to gently and positively expose your puppy to as many new stimuli as possible in the first few months. Each new experience will help your puppy understand the world around them and to gain confidence. This helps to prevent fearfulness in the future. We begin this process at our place and provide a socialisation checklist to new puppy owners.
Raw Feeding
Research is positive about feeding a natural real food diet. Our puppies eat a variety of raw meats with bone, some fish, vegetables, organ meats mixed in with mince, eggs and yogurt. We believe that feeding your puppy real food is superior to processed manufactured foods such as kibble because it is as nature intended. We provide customers with suggested resources for learning more about raw feeding, such as www.thenaturalvets.com.au. Raw feeding does not need to be complicated. There are some commercially-made products we like, such as Big Dog and Leading Raw, which can be used on busy days, with raw bones added in.
Exercise
It is important to grade exercise for the age of your puppy. If repetitive exercise is sustained for too long in a growing puppy it can set the stage for repetitive strain and injury.
A general rule is that for every month of age add an extra 5 minutes of exercise. An 8 to 9-week-old puppy can usually engage in 10 minutes of exercise per day. A 6-month-old puppy can cope with 30 minutes per day. Once fully-grown, adult dogs can manage repetitive exercise for longer periods and can accompany you on a run or cycle. Just remember to give them some rests on the way.
Allow puppies to drive the play and notice when they have had enough, want to do something else or rest. Do take your puppy for a walk on the lead but remember to let them stop, sniff and mix up the pace.