Puppy Aptitude Testing

What is it and what does it tell us?

Here at Fuller Boerboels we use the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test. The test was created to help pinpoint puppies that would be cut out for service work. I have included a link below for you to read through the thought process behind it and the test procedure itself. This test is just a partial picture of a puppy. Since it was not created for dominant/protective breeds, we have to take in some considerations.

• The test is administered by a person that the puppy has never met, in an area where they have never been. We use a ‘stranger’ that has experience with dominant/protective breeds. It is typically our cousin who is an ex K9 police trainer. We have also used fellow breeders and friends with training experience in protective breeds.

• Boerboels can be aloof with strangers. This is not necessarily a bad characteristic for a protective breed to have. The level of aloofness desired is any particular puppy needs to be decided by the potential owner. Do you want a dog that is friendly and outgoing or one who will not enjoy being pet by everyone they come in contact with?

• Boerboels are not retrievers. If the Boerboel does not return to the tester with the desired object, it’s ok. Are they interested in the item? Do they mouth it? Pick it up? All need to be considered.

• Puppies reaction to distraction, sound, visual stimuli are noted, but the focus is on the recovery. If puppy reacts, how do they recover?

• This test is only a small portion of what we need to take into consideration when matching puppies with families. We have to combine the test with what we experience everyday to get a full picture of each puppy’s personality.

Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test

Puppy Prep

It’s time to prep for your puppy to come home!

Below is a list of what you will need at home, during the trip and what your puppy is sent home with.

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What you will need for home:

Crate – I use a 42” for my girls and a 48” for my boys. It should come with a divider so you can make it smaller while puppy grows. Puppy should only be able to stand up, turn around and lie comfortably. If the space is too big, puppy will potty in the crate.

Food – Prepare RAW food for at least one week. Do not buy unfrozen meat off the grocery store shelf and feed immediately. It can carry unhealthy bacteria. Make sure you freeze everything for 2-3 weeks.

Toys – I avoid ropes as the strings can be consumed and wrap around the dog’s intestines. Balls – greater than 4”. As the pup grows, if the entire ball can fit in the mouth, it can get lodged.

Chew Toys – Antlers, Nylabones

Training Treats – I dehydrate my own. Liver, chicken hearts, anything works. Be careful that premade treats do not contain preservatives or starches/grains.

Area Rugs for slippery floor surfaces. Slippery surfaces can cause issues with growing bones/joints.

What you need for the trip home:

Collar/Leash or slip lead. A medium collar should fit well at this point. NO correction collars until at least 6 months old.

Water and Bowl

If driving, small crate or plan for sitting puppy at feet.

A bit of newspaper. Puppies are trained to potty on newspaper. You want to avoid stopping at areas that would have high dog traffic to prevent puppy picking up parasites. If in an airport, avoid the doggie area. Put newspaper down in the bathroom and puppy will potty.

What you will be sent home with:

·        Mercury Free Distemper/Parvo vaccine to be given between 12-16 weeks (if you choose to vaccinate).

·        Essential Oil for detoxing from vaccines

·        Your puppy will have a prepaid microchip

·        Exercise Booklet

·        Cuddle Pal (a small pillow that smells like the litter)

·        A meal or two for travel time if necessary.

·        A month supply of joint supplements

·        A tug toys

Benefits of Bone Broth

Prior to moving to Northern Idaho, I used bone broth when my dogs were sick or coming out of a surgery. Our first winter here, I noticed that the dogs did not seem to drink enough water on a daily basis. I started serving them warm bone broth every morning to get through the chill of winter. Since my adult dogs only eat one meal a day, in the evening, I now give them each a cup of bone broth along with one egg every morning.

The benefits of bone broth are many. It’s not just for occasional use, but a great addition as a regular part of your dogs diet. It assists in:

• Joint health - it is a great source of collagens and glucosamine

• Detox for the Liver - no matter how hard we try, our dogs are still exposed to toxins more often than we think. Grass, carpet, vaccines and much more

• Gut health - bone broth is full of gelatin which assists the gut in digestion. It is especially good for dogs with leaky gut syndrome.

• Dogs that are ill or coming out of anesthesia. Bone broth is just plain ole’ good stuff!

My recipe is loose and varies with each batch, be creative!

• Bones - at least one large marrow or joint bone. In addition to that, feet are great along with any other bones you have (they can even been from your cooked meals).

• Veggies: Celery, Carrots, Garlic, Herbs (there is a link below that has some herbal suggestions)

• Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice - this is important as it draws out the minerals in the bones

• Cook at a low temp for a long period of time. I go 24-48 hours.

In the slow cooker above, you see a hog head and a few hog knee joints that I picked up free from the local butcher shop; carrots, kale, parsley, oregano all from my garden, celery, and an apple (because I didn’t finish eating it). ACV was added in the amount of 3/4 cup. When it’s done cooking, I strain it, toss all the ‘stuff’ and chill the liquid. The next morning, skim off the fat on the top and you are good to go!

Switching Your Current Dogs to RAW

Many people getting a puppy from us want to follow our holistic approach with the dogs they currently have in their home. Switching to RAW can be scary, but there are some great guidelines in the article link below. Don’t give up! You’ll see a big difference in your dogs overall health and wellness no matter the breed!

preymodelraw.com

Resourcing RAW

Knowing where to look for your RAW foods is probably the most difficult part of RAW feeding. Once you have that down, it becomes a simple part of your household chores.

Many families order their food by the case and pre-package meals one month or one week at a time.

· Here in North Idaho, I order many proteins through the butcher counter at my local grocery store (Super 1). These include:

Chicken: leg quarters, legs, breast, backs, necks, feet, hearts (I do not use chicken livers)

Beef: Kidney, liver, sweet breads (thymus gland)

Pork: tails, cushion meat, liver, kidney, sweet breads, feet, brains

Turkey: wings, necks, feet, gizzards

Fish: whole mackerel, smelt

· You may have access to Asian or Mexican Markets in your area where you can get organs, feet, heads, etc.

· Wild Game butcher or Small, local butcher shops.

Here we have a small butcher shop that caters to farmers and hunters. They do not sell meat to the public, but we can go into their scrap freezer and take anything we want for free. Some of the things I have been able to get are:

Lamb bones with scraps attached

Organs from various animals

Large beef bones that I use for making bone broth and recreational chewing.

· Ranchers. When we lived in Mariposa, we had rancher friends that would call us if they had cattle that they couldn’t take to auction. We gave them a small monetary amount and we would butcher it ourselves or send it to a butcher. We have raised our own hogs as well and love using that meat for ourselves and the dogs.

· Local ads and local social media groups

Put out an announcement about taking peoples freezer clean out, ranchers’ scraps, etc. You’ll be surprised at what you might get!

Think out of the box! Take a chance, ask where you might not otherwise. Feeding your BB is in art and can be tailored to whatever you can get your hands on.

Balancing Calcium and Phosphorus

The most common scare tactic vets will throw at new puppy owners regarding RAW feeding is that the puppy will not get the proper balance of calcium and phosphorus. The article link below will walk you through the ins and outs of how RAW provides a better balance than commercial foods. This article includes the break down of bone percentages and how to calculate if your dog is getting enough.

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/bone-food-values-for-raw-feeding-dogs/

Feeding 2-5 month Olds

10 oz. meals

Guidelines: Remember that balance over time is the best method of feeding. Your BB needs a variety in protein sources but it’s not necessary to give that variety all in one day. Think of the variety over a one week period. Purchase for that week and take an hour of your weekend to prep the meals for that week. Once you get the hang of it and the pup goes to two meals a day, you can prep for a month at a time for ease.

Week 1 you might use beef and chicken, with fish 2 days of the week; Week 2 you might use chicken and pork. You can switch out the chicken for turkey anytime.

Bone sources for the young pup will mostly be Chicken thighs, legs, feet. Duck feet work well too. As the pup matures they will handle larger bone such as pork, lamb, goat ribs, pork feet, chicken leg quarters, small turkey necks, ect.

Wild Game: freeze for 3 weeks before using, but this is a great resource that’s typically free.

I no longer give fish oil, but use whole fish instead. Fish oils can go rancid. I add phytoplankton for Omega 3's a few times a week. 1/4 tsp. for adults.

I still use Joint Health Chewables for all of my dogs!

Sample Menu

5 Days of the week:

Breakfast: Chicken leg, chicken hearts, liver

Lunch: Ground beef, Egg w/shell

Dinner: Chicken thigh or leg, choice of excreting organ

2 Days of the week.

Breakfast: Chicken leg, hearts

Lunch: Beef or Pork, Egg w/shell

Dinner: Whole fish such as sardines, mackerel or smelt, can use any ground meat to fill up the ounces.

Print the chart below and take into your local butcher to see what they can order for you!

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Why is Natural so Important?

The most common response I get when I state the importance of RAW for a Boerboel is “I’ve feed my other large breed dogs such and such and they’ve done fine”. While that may be true, the Boerboel breed seems to be highly susceptible to health issue when we feed/treat/prevent with our man-made formula’s. Why is this breed so sensitive to what other breeds seem to have adapted to? I don’t have a real answer for that, but if you look closely at our pets overall, you will see a huge rise in cancer, skin conditions, joint issues. Ect.

What I can tell you is this: Over the past 6 years I have consulted with more Boerboel owners than I can count regarding health issues. Most of the time it’s because their breeders do not have an answer for them. I have walked these owners through Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Joint problems, Severe skin/allergy issues, issues that veterinarians cannot define and even aggression issues. A few times it has been with my own puppy owners and hearing one of my own owners/puppies go through the devastation of something like this is heartbreaking to say the least. I want to do everything in my power to prevent any of my owners and puppies from these types of issues.

In each instance, the root cause has been come back to 3 major environmental factors: Processed food, vaccines and monthly preventatives. In each case I’ve walked the owners through detox, immediate change to RAW and natural remedies to monthly preventatives. In a few cases it was too late to reverse the damage done, but in most of the other cases, major improvements were seen in as little as four weeks with complete healing for many.

Food: While you might not see any negative outward affects of kibble on your puppy, the unseen is happening. Swollen joints cause incomplete closure of growth plates, ingredients that dogs would not naturally consume are building up in the digestive track causing inflammation which, in turn, causes IBS and other severe digestive issues. In time the body starts to reject the ‘foreign bodies’ and builds intolerances that are labelled as allergies.

Vaccines: Vaccines are live viruses being put into your dog’s system. Each time this is done their immune system is attacked. With every attack of the immune system, your dog has less ability to fight off viruses that he/she would naturally fight off and opens them up for health problems. The veterinary world has done a great job of scaring us into vaccinating our pets for unnecessary ‘bugs’. We will vaccinate for parvo/distemper once only. Same with rabies (and only where required by law). After that, titers need to be done so your dog is not over-vaccinated.

Monthly Preventatives: Again, these man-made concoctions destroy your dog’s immune system. If you do some research on the systemic flea/tick meds, you will see that thousands of dogs have developed epilepsy and even died from these products. One of my owners almost lost her BB last year due to one of these products. There are many safer alternatives.

I understand that it is often more cost affective and convenient to go with these man-made products/foods, but the reality is, that over the life of your dog, you will spend far less on veterinary expenses and your dog will live a longer, healthier life.

Below are some links that I hope you will find informational.

https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/09/24/pets-gi-inflammation-treatment.aspx

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/dog-food-ten-scary-truths/

http://rawlearning.com/wp/welcome/the-problems-of-manufactured-pet-food/

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/pet-vaccination-risks-and-benefits/

https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/03/31/high-cost-of-pet-vaccinations.aspx

You can search the following websites for good, solid holistic approaches to just about anything.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/

https://healthypets.mercola.com/

https://peterdobias.com/

Out & About

Socializing, exposure, new experiences early on all lend to a stable, confident Boerboel. We live in a very rural area, which means taking dogs with us on every outing we can. Miss Tomi (12 months) and Miss Viper (4 months) accompanied us on our trip 'down the hill'. We went to Home Depot and then to a busy park on the lake. Viper's brother Goose, who lives nearby, joined us for a little playtime. I always take advantage of outings to practice obedience. You see Tomi on a long down stay in the park and Viper with her training vest on. The vest tends to keep people from running up to pet the puppy so I can work on sit/focus in a busy area. 

Flirt Pole Puppy Play

Flirt poles are a great tool for exercise and training with your Boerboel. The movement can mimic that of small prey, which works up their natural prey drive. It is both mentally stimulating and physically demanding. When using a flirt pole with a Boerboel who is still growing, it is important to be careful of the impact on their bones/joints. Keep the prey on the ground so they are not jumping up and coming down hard. During the tug portion, pull straight out or low, not up, to protect their neck. This is also a great time to get some training in. "Drop it", "Wait", "Watch It" ....all these are easily taught with the flirt pole. As your Boerboel matures and the prey drive increases, you will be able to teach an 'out' which means disengage immediately.