Owning a Snobruk Puppy

Your Puppy

Just as expectant parents prepare a nursery for their baby, so should you ready your home for the arrival of your Snobruk Puppy. If you have the necessary puppy supplies purchased and in place before the puppy comes home, it will ease the puppy's transition from the warmth and familiarity of his mum and littermates to him new home and human family. You will be to busy to stock up and prepare you house after your pup comes home that's for sure!

Imagine how your puppy must feel being transported to a strange new place. It's up to you to comfort him/her and to let your little pup know that he is going to be safe and happy with you.

Click here to read our Do's and Dont's when owning a puppy!

Food and Water

Your Snobruk puppy has been raised on Skinners Lamb Field and Trial Puppy which is specifically formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of puppies and young working dogs during their first and most crucial stages of development. By feeding Skinner's Field & Trial Puppy from weaning up to approximately nine months of age, you will ensure that your puppy receives all the proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and oils essential for steady growth. Field & Trial Puppy is wheat-gluten free. It also contains MOS (Mannan Oligosaccharide), a natural digestion enhancer derived from vegetable sources, to help maintain a healthy digestive system.

Generations of working dogs have been raised on Skinner's foods. Field & Trial Puppy draws on unrivalled experience to meet the particular needs of all breeds of working dogs.

To find your local Skinners Pet Food stockist please contact Skinners using their online contact form.

Your puppy will need separate bowls for his food and water. Stainless steel bowls are generally preferred over plastic since they sterilize better and pups are less inclined to chew metal. Heavy duty ceramic bowls are also popular but consider how often you have to pick up those heavy bowls. When buying food and water bowls we recommend buying adult sized ones as your Snobruk pup will grow in to them before you know it!

Collar & Lead

As your Snobruk Puppy will grow so fast we recommend getting a normal puppy sized collar at first as he will grow out of it quickly. As your pup begins to grow you will need to change the collar according to his size. Once your pup is nearing adult size we recommend getting a semi-slip collar or a Limited Slip collar. These collars are a combination of slip collars and quick-release collars. They are adjustable collars designed to tighten around a dog's neck, but to stop tightening before they actually constrict around the neck. Made from a very strong webbing material, these collars are stronger than chain or leather and it does not damage the coat.

We purchase our collars from either Snowpaws but you can buy these collars from most large pet shops.

The Dog Crate

If you think that crates are tools of punishment and confinement for when a dog has misbehaved, think again! Here at Snobruk Mals we recommend a crate as your puppies home. Because dogs are natural den creatures that prefer cave-like environments, the benefits of crate use are endless. You can use your crate to aid the house training process as well as all round puppy training. The crate provides the puppy with his very own 'safe house', a cozy place to sleep, take a break or seek comfort with a favourite toy.

Crates are available in many sized and types however for an Alaskan Malamute we recommend a heavy duty metal crate which stands at least 36" high. Again we recommend buying an adult sized one from the very beginning as your Snobruk pup will soon grow in to it.

We use the Savic cages, you can purchase a crate from Petplanet an online retailer who we regularly use here at Snobruk Mals.

To make the crate more inviting to your puppy offer his first meal or two inside the crate, always leave the crate door open so that he does not feel confined. Keep a favourite toy in the crate for your pup to play with. Never put him in to his crate as punishment or as you are scolding him, since he will they associate his crate with negative situations and avoid going there.

Bedding

Your puppy has been sleeping on vet bedding, a very long lasting, machine washable, hygienic, non irritant and non-allergenic bedding material with excellent drainage properties that comes highly recommended by vets worldwide.

You can purchase vet bedding on the internet, or if you can get to a Championship or Open dog show there is usually stalls that sell them there.

Puppy Toys

Just as infants and older children require objects to stimulate their minds and bodies, puppies need toys to entertain their curious brains, wiggly paws and achy teeth. Provide plenty of chew toys for your puppy that don’t resemble items that are off limits to him (eg. don't give him an old slipper because your puppy cant tell the difference between your old pair and your new pair). Make sure they are safe and not something he can choke on. Good choices may include toys that can be filled with treats and rope toys. You may wet and freeze rope toys to help relieve sore teething gums. Rotate his toys on a regular basis so he doesn’t become bored.

Our puppies love frozen carrots, especially in the summer months.

Grooming

Your Snobruk puppy should be given a 5 minute brushing daily. Your dog will shed heavily once a year and bitches twice a year during their seasons. For the grooming process you will need several different tools, please ask Jane or Craig about the different tools available on one of your puppy visits.

While Grooming your puppy it is a good opportunity to clip a little off their nails regularly, and get them used to being handled.

Insurance

Your Snobruk puppy will be supplied with his very own Kennel Club registration number and 5 weeks FREE insurance with Petplan. To activate further free insurance for your puppy you can go to the Kennel Club website. To ensure that your insurance is valid, you will need to transfer the ownership of you puppy in to your name. This can be done online on the Kennel Club website . After the four weeks free period if up you will need to find the perfect pet insurance policy for your Snobruk Puppy.

Home Safety For Your Snobruk Puppy

The importance of puppy-proofing cannot be overstated. In addition to making your house comfortable for your Snobruk puppy's arrival you must also make sure that your home is safe for him before you bring him home. There are countless hazards in your personal living environment that a pup can sniff, chew, swallow or destroy. Many are obvious; others are not. Do a thorough advance house check to remove or rearrange those things that could hurt your puppy, keeping any potential dangerous items out of areas to which your puppy will have access. Electrical cords are especially dangerous, since puppies view then as irresistible chew toys. Scout your home for tiny objects that might be seen at a puppy's eye level, remove things from low shelves, decorative items on the fireplace half. Keep medication bottles and cleaning supplies well out of reach and do the same with waste baskets and other trash containers. It goes without saying that you should not use rodent poison and things such as slug pellets or any other toxic chemicals in any puppy area.

Once your house has passes the 'puppy test' check your garden. Look for areas of weak fence panels, holes that your Snobruk puppy could squeeze through. Although Alaskan Malamutes are not known to be climbers or fence jumpers, they are very athletic dogs, so a 5 to 6-foot-high fence is necessary to contain an agile youngster or adult.

The garage and shed can be hazardous places for a puppy as things like fertilisers, chemicals and tools are usually kept there. If your puppy sees you 'playing' with a small garden fork, the next time he sees it laying on the floor he's probably going to want to play too. Antifreeze is especially dangerous to dogs as they find the taste appealing and it only takes a few licks to kill any sized dog.

First Night In Your Home

The day you bring your puppy home is a very frightening day for your puppy. It's the first time he's been away from the comfort of the breeders home and its the first time he's been removed from the litter. He's had what is probably his first car ride, he's met his new human family and any other family pets that you might have. He's been on a new adventure exploring his new home and garden, he's had two or three meals in his new home, he's played new games and discovered new toys. Surly that enough to tire out an eight week only puppy...or so you'd hope!

It's bedtime...

Your puppy will object his confinement and the fact that he's all alone. He will cry and whine. This will be a stressful time for you and your puppy, its important that you remain strong and don't let your Snobruk puppy out of his crate to comfort him. He will eventually fall to sleep. If you give in to your crying puppy he will learn that when he cry's he gets what he wants and he will continue this habit, similar to a spoilt child. At Snobruk Mals we have found that leaving on a radio or playing music in the same room as your puppy sleeps helps soothe your puppy and get him to sleep.

All our puppies leave us with a puppy blanket, with mum's smell to help them settle in their new homes.

Identification

You have fallen in love with your Snobruk puppy and you want to keep him safe. You always keep him on a lead when out in public and your garden is surrounded by a sturdy high fence. If your dog is not properly identified, then you are overlooking a major aspect of your puppy's safety. It is now a requirement that all dogs should be Microchipped and have an identity tag containing details such as your Postcode and House number and your contact telephone number. Please DO NOT add your puppy's name to the disk, If your puppy is stolen, the person who has stolen him/her now knows your puppy's name. In addition to an ID tag we microchip ALL our puppies before they go to their new homes. A microchip is a tiny scannable chip that is painlessly inserted under the dog's skin. The number of the chip is registered to you so that if your puppy ever lost, when found he can be scanned to retrieve your contact information.

Jane is a registered microchip installer and all our puppies are chipped before going to their new homes.

All our Adult Dogs are Microchipped and DNA profiled.