Butterfly Ridge Mastiffs - Berryville, Arkansas

Worming: Your puppy was up-to-date on its worming before you received it. The easiest and cheapest way to worm your puppy is to go to the feed store and buy SafeGuard – the paste for worming cattle. Give your puppy 2 cc’s once a day for four days in a row once a month. Add 1 cc per day as the puppy grows, up to 6 cc’s as an adult. You can continue this throughout its whole life. This worm medicine kills all worms, including tapeworms, except heartworms. If you suspect your puppy has an active worm infestation, worm it for 10 days in a row, follow up with 4 days in a row a week later.

Heart worming: Your puppy came from a heart worm-free home. Once the puppy is 12 weeks old, you can start it on HeartGuard. However, if you wish you can purchase Ivermectin from the feed store. Buy the clear liquid wormer for cattle. Give your puppy ½ cc once a month until it is an adult, and then give it 1 cc once a month for the rest of its life. This will keep heart worms at bay and also prevent other nasties such as mites and mange.

Feeding: Your puppy eats Purina Puppy Chow. Feed your puppy Purina Puppy Chow until it is a year old. Then switch to Purina Dog Chow (you may use whatever dog food brand you like, I prefer Purina).

Vitamins and Supplements: NEVER give your puppy any vitamins or supplements. Mastiffs grow extremely fast already, if you try to alter that, you will end up with an adult dog with HUGE problems. Heart and joint problems can occur very easily when you "hot feed" a mastiff.

Training: Your puppy will grow to be a very big dog. You will want to start training the puppy as soon as possible to establish yourself as the leader. Leash training is very important at this age. You don’t want a 180 pound dog that won’t listen to you. Start early, start young.

Exercise: You need to be very careful how much exercise your puppy gets. Mastiff puppies need so much energy to grow, that they don’t need very much exercise. A small fenced in yard is plenty of room for it to run around in. If you walk your puppy, please don’t go far, or you will be carrying back a 50 lb puppy. They tire very easily and love to take naps!

Socialization: This is probably the most important part of raising your puppy! The more your puppy is exposed to new environments, the better he will act. If you go somewhere that allows dogs, please take your puppy! Let him meet all kinds of new people and animals, hear many different noises, see lots of different things. The more he is exposed to, the better! However, always read his body language before you let someone pet him.　 Watch for body stiffness, rolling eyes, nostril flaring, ears held back, cowering, tail tucking, growling, and quick motions　as all these are warning signs!　 Also, make sure the person petting him is not rough or fast moving. You want as many GOOD experiences as possible for your puppy!

Please remember to send in your AKC Registration papers! If you wait until the puppy is a year old, you will pay high penalty fines!