A good start would be getting a good, healthy and quality puppy.
The best moment for getting a new puppy is when it is at least at the age of 2.5 months. This is the earliest moment because the puppy must achieve good immunity and be ready for a new environment.
In my opinion, by the age of 3 months a puppy should undergo deworming 4 times and should be vaccinated 3 times. Then, the puppy is on a good way to reach good immunity.
Of course, good immunity depends also on the food quality and supplements we use but also it depends even more on the puppy’s mom breeding preparation before the puppy is born and her care during pregnancy.
Deworming and vaccinations of females on time, vaginal cultures tests and the food those female dogs would eat will have a direct influence on their puppies immunity. A good start when raising a puppy is the most important thing and it begins with the mother care.
It is very important to buy a puppy from a good and responsible breeder and also, it is good to be educated before going to see the puppy. We must know what we have to ask the breeder about the puppy.
Either way, if we bring a puppy which is around 3 months old, we should do the deworming anyway and we should do the vaccinations after 7 days. Don’t be afraid, vaccinating a puppy twice in a short period of time would not harm the puppy in any way.
After the 4th vaccination, we need to deworm the dog every four months and to do the vaccination once per year (12 months after the last one).
Here are some tips on how to pick a puppy from a litter.
- Ask to see the puppy’s parents and their health tests or dog shows results.
- Try to see a few puppies together so you could see how the whole litter is making progress.
- Check the bite of the puppy. It must have the scissor-bite which means that, in a Rottweiler, the upper teeth must touch the teeth from to lower jaw and be in front of them just one millimeter, and not more than that.
The teeth positions which are not allowed: the upper teeth on top of the lower teeth (the level bite), the upper teeth behind the lower jaw teeth (the over bite), the upper teeth too much in front of the lower jaw teeth (the under bite).
Scissor bite Under bite Level bite Over bite
- Count the number of the teeth. There must be 28 baby teeth in total.
- The puppy’s legs must be straight without its paws facing inwards or outwards.
Correct not correct not correct
It is important to know that puppies at a very young age have a bit soft legs so we can’t expect to find perfect legs but yes, they must be as much straight as possible as it can be seen in the picture number 1.
Don’t be confused, some breeds can have quite different standard, so everything said here about the teeth, the bite, the legs, or the topline described as faults in a Rottweiler, can be acceptable and OK if we speak about some other breeds.
- The topline is also important since every motion is transmitted over the topline.
High topline in the back end – not good. Slopping topline – not good.
Flat topline – good Roaching topline – not good
- The last thing but a very important one is the temperament of the dog. Temperament is a dog’s nature and its response to the outside world. It reflects on how a puppy responds to stress. When you have a whole litter in front of you, clap with your hands, take some bottle and put some pebbles inside and throw the bottle among the puppies. It would be natural for puppies to pay attention to what is happening but after that they must go on with activities as if nothing had happened.
If you see a puppy scared by the event and one which is trying to hide after this, and if it feels insecure, that’s for sure a sign that the puppy is not brave and that its temperament is not a good one. Later one, this could lead to forming of a its bad temperament and many difficulties may arise from it regarding socialization and we would not want that to happen.
