got a wiemaraner pup

[pamike]

I just got a 4 month old wiemaraner pup on halloween. She is an awesome dog, already pointing and flushing. she is about 75% housebroke and when we go for a wanlk she stays right with me. I have no complaints. I just have to give her some obedience training and in the spring start her on hunting training. I just bough a book on ebay on training weimaraners. I was thinking about getting one of those training dummies and some pheasant and grouse wings to tie on and use that for starters. an advice would be apreciated.

mike

[Pheasant Hollow Farm]

I just got a 4 month old wiemaraner pup on halloween. She is an awesome dog, already pointing and flushing. she is about 75% housebroke and when we go for a wanlk she stays right with me. I have no complaints. I just have to give her some obedience training and in the spring start her on hunting training. I just bough a book on ebay on training weimaraners. I was thinking about getting one of those training dummies and some pheasant and grouse wings to tie on and use that for starters. an advice would be apreciated.

mike

Mike,

After 15 views at your post, I figured I would give you a respond. I had a 6-month-old Weimaraner male that was excellent as a bird dog and also great at holding rabbits on point.

The only problem with him was after 1.5 years old. He became a supper over protected family dog. He would challenge any and all dogs that came on the property and pin any human that came up to the house.

The other problems with this breed are twisted gut. If you have never heard of this look it up. Weimaraner' are prone to this due to the way their chest cavity is situated. My male died of this. Do not feed the dog any dog food that will expand more then 1/2 the original size of the dog food. Do not let the dog do any heavy running after it has eaten or has consumed large quantities of water.

The symptoms are bloat ness pale gums, tongue, and excess breathing. If this happens, take the dog to an emergency dog clinic immediately. Surgery is the only option. If not the dog will die. They will have to right the stomach back into the original position, and stitch a flap to the side of the stomach so it will not happen again.

Best of luck!

Steve
Pheasant Hollow Farm

[CharlieHorse]

I had a Doberman Pinscher when I was younger that died from this.  I found her in the dog house all bloated. She was so big, I could not get her back out the door(I was about 14 and only one home, didn't know what to do). She ended up dying in the dog house before anyone could get there to help. Nothing unusual had taken place, other than she had chased us kids back through the woods on motorcycles earlier that day. Not a pleasant site.

[Pheasant Hollow Farm]

I had a Doberman Pinscher when I was younger that died from this.  I found her in the dog house all bloated. She was so big, I could not get her back out the door(I was about 14 and only one home, didn't know what to do). She ended up dying in the dog house before anyone could get there to help. Nothing unusual had taken place, other than she had chased us kids back through the woods on motorcycles earlier that day. Not a pleasant site.

Chuck,

I is not a pretty sight. I didn't find out about it until I looked it up. At first I though he got some rat poision or ate a dead rat, but none of the rest of the dogs had any problems. I learned of the twisted gut from our mailman and then check it out on the internet.

Steve
Pheasant Hollow Farm

[pamike]

I have been doing alot of research on weimaraners for the past few days and I know about thos problems. I only feed my pup about a cup of feed at a time 3 times a day. I do not walk her except for potty times for 2 hours after feeding.

I will have to watch for the agressive behavior when she gets older.

mike

[big_mike]

Mike,
I'll try not to overwhelm you with too much detail.

I am a Weimaraner breeder in the UK and also hunt over my dogs. I also run a forum for people who work their HPR's (what we call them in Europe, I think in the US you refer to them either as versatiles or bird dogs?)

Firstly Male Weimaraner aggression, unfortunately as the dogs were bred for a couple hundred years as guard dogs as well as hunting companions they certainly can become very territorial esp. from 8months to about 2 yo when testosterone levels are at their highest but IF you put the correct training and effort in your dog WILL come good (my boy is a couple days short of his second birthday and is turning into a lovely companion) The Weimaraner was one of the three breeds used in the foundation stock of the Doberman Pincher. Aggresive behaviour in the @$$$@ (toward humans) is much less common. You have to remember that even now to breed from a Weimaraner in Germany it has to pass a test for man "sharpness" and cat "sharpness".

Secondly bloat. Their is an awful lot of mis information / disinformation put out about bloat.  One of the US universities has produced a lot of good information about bloat and the causes of bloat.

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/bloat.htm

Yes the type of feed your dog has can influence the likelihood of bloat, stress has an effect, one of the biggest effects is the speed the dog eats at (so you can put a stone in the feed, chuck the feed out on the grass and let her eat. Basically anything to slow her down) Don't feed her from raised bowls as the dramatically increases the risk of bloat.

Hope I haven't banged on for too long and some of the info is useful!

All the best with your pup and enjoy her growning up, it doesn't last long :)

Regards,

Mike