Our new pup Maximus! This will be his photo album and our journal.
 

Hi all!

Well, Brianna and I went to the breeder yesterday and we picked out Maximus! We had a great time with the pups and we're really happy with our new pup. The breeder, my daughter and myself all agreed on the same pup as being the best fit for us!

The only thing that worries me is that he was the only one who was ALREADY in a landshark stage! lol The other two were very licky, kissey... but Max gnawed on my finger for quite a while, while laying in my lap and as you can see in the photo's, he loved Brianna's shoes and shoe laces. He has a good drive, good concentration and is very confident! I really think he'll turn out to be an incredible dog, but I can already tell I have my work cut out for me :wild:

So... here are Maximus's pictures from 1 week of age until yesterday, where he was 6 weeks and 1 day old. We'll add pictures each week and use this as our journal for Max.

Maximus at one week:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...us-1-weeks.jpg


Maximus at two weeks:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...us-2-weeks.jpg


Maximus at 3 weeks:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...us-3-weeks.jpg

Maximus at 5 weeks:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...us-5-weeks.jpg

And Maximus at 6 weeks. He's the one in love with Brianna's shoes and shoe laces :D Brianna had a blast with the pups. I fell in love with all of them :wub: I can see a 2nd pup in the future!


http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...-old-photo.jpg

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...-old-photo.jpg

I'm going to use this Max's photo album and also a journal on our progress. (as long as my fingers don't have too many bandages on them!)

8 more days and we'll be picking up Maximus to take him to his new home! :happyboogie:

What a cute, fat, little bundle!!!

I've been reading your threads for awhile Mog and compared our 'to buy' lists, but I'm really happy you're almost getting your pup! He's a cutie

That's awesome! I'm glad you and Brianna had a blast! Brianna is very adorable, BTW!
The pictures are great, I'll be looking forward to pictures and updates.
Happy waiting :D

Brianna is a doll and she is excellent with puppies. Very smart well behaved girl. I really enjoyed meeting you guys.

How exciting! I can't wait for more puppy pictures-he's adorable.
Brianna is pretty darn cute herself :)

Adorable little guy, hope that the wait goes by quickly for you.

Thanks Neko, luckily it's only the camera that makes him look chubby!

Mego, thanks. So are we :) And I actually sold my 42" kennel that I had in my bedroom on Craigslist and bought a 48" :blush: This way we won't have to worry about upgrading it later.

Thanks Bear! I'm not so sure how happy I'll be waiting though! lol Brianna woke up this morning and kept telling me "only 8 more days, it's not so long!" *laughing*. I'll keep busy this weekend puppy proofing the yard and house. Part of that will be re-sealing the grout in the kitchen... ugh. I'm a camera happy dad... so there will PLENTY of pictures to come :)

Birgit (AK9). It was a pleasure meeting you as well and thank you. She really is a great little girl... we're both really excited and I think this will be great for both of us. All 3 of us are going down to the Triangle SchH club the following Sunday to check it out.

Thanks holo; As I said, there will be plenty of pictures coming :)

Thanks Karen. I'm going to keep myself as busy as possible... but it's always the same, whenever you're waiting for something, time seems to crawl by :)

Okay, time for an official update :)

We brought Max home Saturday afternoon. On the drive home, he started drooling something fierce... looked like a St. Bernard. Guessing that was due to his stomach being upset. He threw up twice, shortly after that started. Once we got home and he got out of the car, his tail was wagging and he was a happy puppy!

So far, Maximus has been great. He had a couple of pee accidents in the house, but that was the handlers fault for not watching... I've been giving him more leeway than I should :D

He had a high prey drive and semi high food drive. The landshard stage so far has been minimial! Only when he goes into drive, does he bite. When he's relaxed, he gently mouths for the most part, so that's a huge plus.

He took to his RAW diet right away and has been loving it since. He started wolfing down whole chicken necks, which had me worried for a day until his bowl movements became regular... so now I hold them for him and he chews them well and breaks off small pieces at a time. I've been feeding them to him semi frozen, which didn't make a difference. He chews the chicken breast, but swallows chicken necks... *scratching head*

I noticed worms in his first two stools, so took him in Monday to see the vet. The did a fecal test and I should have the results today. I haven't noticed any more worms, but haven't dug in and looked either :) The Vet gave him another deworming and he should be good to go. Wondering if the worms were left over from the breeders deworming and just passing through...

Talk about velcoro... OMG! He will not leave my side. If I'm washing dishes, he's laying on my feet. If I'm not in sight, he comes and finds me. Again, giving him more leeway than I should, but either my daughter or I watching him.

He hasn't had an accident in his crate. But he whines like you wouldn't believe. I've done temporary isolation with him, etc... For example, when I gave my daughter a bath last night, he was in the crate in the living room and he cried/whined constantly. He's only been home 3 days now and he's getting better, but I hate hearing him cry like that... Any thoughts, suggestions or tips on how to work on that?

We haven't done any training yet, just letting him get adjusted to the new enviornment and house breaking. Well, we've worked on a sit a little... but that's it.

The hardest part of it all is the 2 hour potty trips all night long! Between Maximus and Brianna, I feel like I haven't slept in days :wild: He's good though, he wakes me up when he has to go and lets me carry him outside before he goes.

I'm sure there's more I could add, but again, I'm a tad tired :)

Pics below :)

Well... I'll add the pics later... just received a call from the vet. Maximus tested positive for Giardia and coccidia .... *shaking head* So glad I brought him in to the vet asap... off to the vet for meds.

Sounds like things are going great so far (except for the worms, giardia, coccidia thing, ugh)
The only advice I can give you for the whining in the crate thing is...head phones :D
I think if you've taken him out and he doesn't have to go then he just needs to whine it out while you do other stuff, although I said the same thing when I was trying to get my kids to sleep in their cribs when they were babies....I caved every time :)

Can't wait to see more picture updates!