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First time EM Pup Inbound

Zee

New Member
My wife and I are very excited/nervous on this new endeavor. But after several months of looking at a bunch of breeds and breeders we always came back to the EM. This will be our first dog together in our new home.

I look forward to getting as much information/tips on nutrition, training, and enrichment to make our fawn mastiff's life the best! We are also big on Tennis, F1 racing, road cycling and mountain biking glad to be here :)

If there's anything tips off the bat please do let us know...cheers!
 

Kyle S

Well-Known Member
Hi there and Welcome to the forum!

Lots of good information here passed around and lots of beautiful dogs you’ll see.

Be sure to take lots of photos of your puppy as everyone here loves photos!

Feel free to look at my post , I have an OEM myself and he turns 4 months old on the 22nd and already weighs 77lbs!

As far as nutrition goes you’ll get mixed opinions saying keep protein low, for slower more optimal growth. Then others that say high protein for maximum muscle development. After tons of research I decided on my EM to go high protein. Low fat.
With these dogs they do tent to bloat and also tent to be overweight. You want low fat content and under no circumstance any soy bean. The food I decided on overall is Acana Large Breed Adult. It’s the perfect formula that promotes growth, muscle development along with healthy hips and joints. My little guy being nearly 4 months old eats 10 cups a day of that. About 4000 calories a day. So be prepared to spend the big money on food. I spend $210 a month Canadian on food for my guy.

Training wise you have to be extremely laid back because these dogs are on Mastiff time. They don’t do anything in a hurry. The best way I found my guy to learn was by treats obviously. He loves his freeze dried liver. I let him smell it , so he knows what he’s getting. Then I give him his command. To initially teach it. I would let him smell the treat. Make him sit, lay down, etc. Then give it to him and say good boy! He learnt that was what I wanted him to do. So he did it when I told him to. They’re very stubborn but listen well with food. Even now when he’s outside playing and I tell him inside he won’t always go. But I show him the treat and say inside, he’s going!

These dogs sleep a lot. Eat a lot. And poop a lot. They don’t need much exercise at all. Don’t run them at all and no long walks till they’re over 2 years of age as their growth plates don’t close till then. Avoid letting your pup jump as well. Not off the bed. Out of the vehicle. Always assist them getting down or getting up as their joints are growing so much. My pup gains over a pound a day in weight. I can only imagine what his body is going through.

hope that helps! Anything else feel free to ask. I’m sure others will chime in :)
 

Loverboy Skyline

Well-Known Member
It looks like Kyle and I are in full agreement, even though I think fat is a good thing and the evil is carbs, so I go for low carbs. You would think we would pick different foods, but I rotate between different brands and flavors and my favorite is Acana Regionals (Grasslands and Wild Atlantic are my dog's favorite recipes). This is slightly different from the stuff Kyle gets because he lives in Canada and I live in the US. Champion Pet Food, the makers of Acana and Orijen, buy the majority of their meats locally because it minimizes shipping time (good idea I think), so their Canadian food comes out of their Canadian facility and the US food comes out of their Kentucky facility. Their Canadian and US recipes are equally high quality but slightly different because of local sourcing.

Even the treats we use are similar. I'm doing some training with my almost 9 month old Bullmastiff, and the best training treats I tried are the freeze-dried beef liver. I might try other freeze-dried meats for treats to add variety later.