EPI * Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Hey everyone hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and hope you all have a fantastic and safe new year!

Just a few questions about puppies/dogs that you may be able to help me with.

Charlie turns 1 next month but is still obsessively chewing anything he can get his mouth around? Previous dogs i've had stopped chewing before this age. Just wondered if/when this would stop as we'd like to be able to leave him roaming the house when were out instead of him been in his crate. He's exercised plenty, fed well and has lots of rawhide that he can chew but seems to prefer things he shouldn't have - is this just his age or more of a behaviour issue? (charlie is non epi)

Also when is a puppy considered a dog? I can tell Charlie still has plenty of growing to do as the skin on his back is still very loose and his legs dont seem to match his body if that makes sense lol. What age do they usually stop growing?

Also Charlie gets plenty of exercise and is fed two meals a day yet is still gaining weight - hes quite chunky now although its hard to tell if its muscle or fat lol. Is weight gain still normal for his age? I was expecting him to grow upwards not outwards lol

All in all he's doing fantastic and i'm finding it terribly hard to understand why he wasn't wanted - only thing i can think of is his size but hes so gentle with it and never throws his weight around. (excuse the pun :))

Charlie's lazy eye has also been improving since we've had him - we've been playing lots of games to help it improve and its worked a treat you can barely notice it now unless your looking close enough. He's also finding playing fetch easier and isn't bumping into furniture as much.

Oh forgot to mention (not sure if its relevant to the questions) Charlie is a border collie x great dane mix. (do great danes ever stop growing??? lol)

Hi there!  I always wondred about what age a puppy is no longer a dog as well.  Actually, my 8 year old asks that so much that it made me wonder.   My dog just turned 2 and I think of her now as a dog.  In my mind I guessed that at about 1 1/2 she stopped getting taller.  Unfortunately, she is an EPI dog so her weight has never been consistant so I don't know about Charlie 'growing out'.  Does his vet say he is overweight?  Are there thyroid issues?

Blue had to stay kenneled for over a year before she stopped chewing.  Now it's a matter of keeping food off the counters or she'll go up and get it.  Have you ever heard for Bitter Apple?  You can spray it on things (or wipe it on) and the taste sucks so it makes them stop.

Good luck to you!

Thanks for the reply - Charlie is borderline for his weight were hoping he doesn't go over - Vet said he seems happy and healthy so not to worry about his weight too much as it may be "puppy fat".

We've given the bitter apple a try before we crated him - he found it more fun as he then had the challenge of finding bits we had missed lol - hes very clever and constantly out smarts us lol.

If he has another 6 months of growing then i'm going to need a bigger house!!! lol

hi mandy ...and happy new year to you, your family and all your wonderful 4-legged companions...and charlie too!.

i don't know when the 'real' date is for puppies to become dogs but, i am with angie...... none of my dogs really seemed to have emotionally 'matured' until they were past 1.5 years old.... and then some took even longer.

i do know that physically, some breeds are not fully mature (body-wise) until 3 yrs of age... but i do not know what the maturation age is for the various breeds.

charlie sound like he is doing wonderfully.... and is ver happy... you are a phenomenal 'mom'!!! i love reading how you brought him along!

regarding the chewing of inappropriate things... from reading your message it 'sounds' to me that charlie may have a wee bit more energy than what you suspect .... maybe you can give him 'jobs' to do... like teach him to get your shoes for you... or something..... i find that if i do mental games with my dogs when growing up....they 'listen' better.............

Mandy:

Good morning...I know that you probably aren't feeling this way with Charlie's chewing, but your post made me chuckle.  The chewing will go on as long as he has a need to chew, whether it's from being bored, his teeth or he's just a chewer.  I know you said that he seems to want to chew mostly what he's not supposed to have, so try to re-direct him every time you see him even looking like he might start chewing on something he shouldn't.  Make sure he has plenty of bones and toys around to chew on and mouth.  You might work with him using the world "leave" or "leave it," every time he is chewing on something that he shouldn't, and then give him one of his chew sticks or something that is "his" to chew.  The bitter apple works wonderfully one some dogs...and a few others seem to almost like the taste yuk!  

Different breeds mature earlier than others just as different dogs within each breed does but kind of a standard rule of thumb is that it takes between 2-3 years for a large breed dog to fully mature.  It always amazes me when someone says..."my dog is a year old and should have stopped doing puppy things by now."  It's very often around that age and up that they will start testing you...and in human children, we call it teen years.  They will test their boundries, how consistant you are, their place within the family unit and so on.  Sorry...but you're not quite done with puppy yet.  

Your vet is probably right...I don't remember what you're feeding but is he still on puppy food?  If so, this may be a good time to switch him.  I think I'd do a bit a research to see what is suggested for the Dane part of him and work with that. 

The news about his eye is wonderful...just keep up the exercises you're dong with him!

I'd love to see pictures...

Thanks for the advice - Charlie is physically and mentally drained at every opportunity. Its like right now hes laid quietly but you can see him scoping the room for something to chew lol toys - bones and rawhide are on the floor - he knows the leave command and it does work for a short period of time - then he finds something else lol. We play hide and seek - we go over his tricks and training 3 times a day or more - the kids play fetch and tug of war for hours on end - he has 3 walks a day with his back pack and one run around the tennis court late afternoon to finish the day.

Now i've read that back it sounds exhausting lol and yet he still keeps going lol

He is on puppy food at the moment were changing him onto adult food mid Jan - I'll have a look at what people are feeding large breeds.

I love Charlies energy - he certainly keeps me occupied whilst the hubby and kids are at work and school. He's going to be great when hes out the "puppy stage"

Mandy:

It sounds like he does have tons of energy...believe it or not, you'll miss that one day!  Akira is sort of a wild child and has lots of energy but nothing like she had when she was younger.  I had one dog...a German Shorthaired Pointer who had tons of energy her whole life and she's the one dog I've had who was a chewer and her chewing had to be re-directed often.  She ruined a few things when she was younger but her chewing is something that certainly got better as she got older. 

Its nice to know they do grow out of it!   Before we started crating him he damaged quite a few expensive things - my iron got chewed when he ransacked my cupboards then he chewed the plug off my carpet cleaner when he broke into my closet he had a gnaw on one of my dining chairs - luckily we had a spare lol I hate crating him but i know its safer for him and my pockets lol

Daisy barely chewed anything that wasn't hers - the only thing she did like chewing was my kids stuffed toys. She did once destroy my lino but that was my fault as i accidentally shut her in the bathroom without realising till 15 mins later lol

She was out of chewing anything by 8 months but when we tried to leave her roaming the house she got panicky so we put her crate back up and left the door open. 

Daisy did seem to be quite a lazy dog though - she'd rather have laid under my feet than play. I can certainly see the difference between a low energy and high energy dog lol

hI

One of my shepherds destroyed my bed and a couch

He eventually grew up when he was about two  

They crack you up dont they???

Jz

EEEEK!!!! 

Now thats a dog that likes his home comforts!!!

Akira has been my most destructive gsd.  I had a couch I really, really liked that she ruined ~sigh~!  I had been spoiled I think with all the other gsd puppies I'd raised.