New Giant Schnoodle! (Jean Luc)

[yentna]

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?p=167464#post167464

Here's a link to the thread where I was asking about goldendoodles and other dogs, and deciding what dog to get, yadda yadda, if you're interested. Otherwise, the same photos there are below so far...... Anyway, we've decided to adopt an 18 months old Giant Schnoodle (snicker, I can't say that word with a straight face, you try it!), Giant Schnauzer / Standard Poodle mix. A bit of a strange one, but he's so cute too!

Brad and I are driving to California tomorrow to pick him up, we're so excited! Brad just as much as me - he almost left me behind to drive out alone this week to get him, grin. We've done a lot of shopping for the dog - Jean Luc will be spoiled for sure!

Just look at that face!

And those snowshoe feet......

PS He's on Purina One right now, but I want to switch him to a better food, what do you think of Innova?

 

[poeluvr]

cutie!!!

 

[Ash47]

Innova is a great food. Are you adopting from a shelter? Or from a breeder? Either way, he is cute.

 

[juliefurry]

He's TOO cute. Yes Innova is a REALLY good brand of dog food. I feed Eagle Pack which is a good food, but Innova is actually better than Eagle Pack, I'm pretty sure. Ofcourse you know we are going to need more pictures the second you come home...right??? Have fun picking up your puppy.

 

[yentna]

Oh yeah, there will be more pictures! I can't wait to have him....leaving tomorrow morning around 3 or 4am since it's a long drive from Utah to Santa Rosa (to visit my sister and neices for a day), then picking him up Saturday afternoon.....too many hours to wait!

And we're adopting from a shelter, not a breeder - this particular baby, well, 18 month old, was actually dropped off at the pound in Missouri because his family moved and "couldn't keep him." He was pet of the week a couple times, but is an odd breed and everyone out there seems to love puppies only! So, after he didn't get adopted for a longish time, a woman affiliated with a CA rescue but lives in MO found him and flew him out to the CA rescue where he's been for a very short bit. The CA lady fattened him up a bit and after a bit put him on petfinder, and we were the first ones (I think) to apply, we saw him a few hours after he was posted. His profile was cute, the lady is a good writer! "Life is just a bowl of cherries without any pits to Jean Luc....." and it just went on like that.

His favorite toy is a pink squeaky slipper....can't you just see that?

Juliefurry, we bought a bag of the Purina (blech) and are going to mix in the new food - for Eagle Pack do you use Premium? Holistic? What is better? Though I'm leaning to the Innova, comparable price, well, sort of. Once you hit $40, there's not a lot of difference to $50. Sigh. I think I'll be cooking up a batch of food every week to supplement it too (been reading the food threads on here.)

 

[juliefurry]

I feed the holistic select chicken meal and rice formula for adults and puppies. I wanted to feed Innova but after my husband saw the near fifty dollar price tag he almost had a heart attack so we stuck with the Eagle Pack. I don't know which is really better though between premium and holistic. I add raw meat and bones to their diet as well and they love it. Well, Lily hasn't really gotten the hang of eating raw meat but Hannah will devour hers almost instantly. I like the food that I am feeding them now because Hannah has a real problem with the lamb meal and rice formulas and gets sick so the chicken meal and rice has helped her a lot. The breeder we got Lily from fed a brand that was similar to the Eukanuba small bite and suggested we get that and fortunetely we couldn't find and and it wasn't even suitable for puppies either. Lily would not eat ANYTHING besides what we brought home from the breeder until we got the chicken meal and rice Eagle pack food and now she will eat all that and pick the food from the breeder out and throw it aside.

 

[Barb04]

Congrats on your new dog! I can't wait to see some pics when he gets home!

The holistic Eagle Pak is a very good food to use.

 

[yentna]

I wanted to feed Innova but after my husband saw the near fifty dollar price tag he almost had a heart attack ..... and now she will eat all that and pick the food from the breeder out and throw it aside.

Grin, to both of those! That was Brad's reaction to the price tag on the Royal Canin we almost bought the other day, then after a minute or so he shrugged and basically said we'll do some research and if that's the best to feed Jean Luc, so be it. So we've been researching today and it seems like Innova will be the best, but I hope what they say about dogs needing to eat less of it is true! Cringe, pricey, but hey, it's for our dog. We wouldn't feed a child crappy food, would we?

Also, I love that Hannah picks the breeder food out and throws it aside! Grin. That is so cute.

Additionally tentatively planning on one of those recipes I found in another thread: the meat and veggie mix, a simple stew, with eggshell powder ( ), to throw on the dry intead of canned food.

PS Sorry for the long posts! I'm just excited and looking for info.

 

[Mikey27X834]

Congrats. I find those fancy names to be annoying though personally, 'cos there's no breed standard for a Schoodle if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, I'm sure you'll love your dog. Schnauzers are the best. I can't wait until I get my Mini.

 

[juliefurry]

Yes, Innova would be best most likely for your dog. You do feed less of it though too. Hannah eats about two and a half cups of food a day with the Eagle Pack and is doing good (we fed Nutro for a little while and she would of had to eat twice that much). Plus if you feed raw or a cooked diet for your dog as well you'll feed even less of the Innova. Make sure you mix it slowly though, I didn't have enough of the breeder's food to introduce Lily to this new food slowly but thankfully she didn't get sick though. We're probably just as excited as you are, anticipated getting pictures of your new boy. You never have to apologize for long posts, we've all done it.

 

[yentna]

Make sure you mix it slowly though, I didn't have enough of the breeder's food to introduce Lily to this new food slowly but thankfully she didn't get sick though.

Heh, when we went to buy food, we just bought what he was on, since we sort of knew you had to switch them over slowly. Well, we didn't exactly realize how not-great that food was (after reading ingredients and doing comparisons on naturapet, yech and blech!), and figured he'd be fine for a while on the original food, so we got the 30lb bag! Oops, but MORE than enough to slowly wean him, sheepish grin.

And I'm sure the name Schnoodle isn't registered, but it's quite fun to say! And what else would you call him? A pwauser? Pause......well, that's pretty fun to say too! Just teasing.

 

[juliefurry]

We did that with our old pit mix. We bought a 40 lb bag of Iams and then I came on here and found out it was almost death in a bag so we switched him slow too. The name isn't registered but it's easier to say than a poodle/snauzer mix. I think schnoodle is a little funnier than pwauser though, just my opinion.

 

[yentna]

Death in a bag....Brad said something similar as he cringed while he read the ingredients in Purina, wow! I never knew, as a kid my parents always bought the huge cheap bags of random food for our dogs, 50lbs for $15.00, I didn't know it was so bad!

 

[RD]

Innova's really good stuff, definitely worth the extra money. (I think I only pay about $10 more per month to feed EVO than to feed grocery-store crap. They eat so much less of a good quality food.)

And your dog is ADORABLE.

 

[yentna]

And your dog is ADORABLE.

Glad to know the Innova is good, and THANKS! He really is cute. (Shivering with anticipation.....)

Alright, I'm off, talk to you when we get back! Wish us luck!

 

[Fran27]

I can't wait to see more pics and hear more about him

 

[juliefurry]

this is too suspenseful, now we have to wait to see more pictures. I'm too impatient. Hurry back!!!

 

[yentna]

Hi everyone! So, after a whirlwind drive to and from California, we have our newest addition! It was an awesome trip, got to see my sister and neices whom I haven't seen in about two years, we got to help them pick wine grapes a bit, my little nieces convinced me (I was tired and gullible, that's why, grin) to get up and jump in the icy cold swimming pool in the morning to do the "polar bear" with them, and it was a good visit. We left at 4:00am Friday morning and got to Santa Rosa by 5:00pm, including a lunch visit with my grandma in Reno, and spent Friday afternoon / evening and Saturday morning with my sister and family.

Then, yesterday morning, we set out from Santa Rosa and took these back roads to get to I-5 (to avoid Sacramento and to see beautiful scenery), and headed up to Orland, CA, to pick up our boy!

The rescue is pretty impressive, considering they don't have a lot of support / resources. They are farmers, and she runs the rescue on the farm pretty much by herself. Her friend in MO sends her dogs all the time, since out there they do a lot of euthanizing, and dogs like Jean Luc are more common there and thus harder to adopt out. The dogs were kept in large kennels, switching up roommates to keep them socialized, and not put on Petfinder until they are stable and healthy; they use an old house with a large fenced yard for "playtime" and to help with housebreaking.

Anyway, then we met Jean Luc. She picked him up and brought him to the play house to meet us and we played with him and he romped for about an hour to burn off energy before the long drive. He is so cool! He uses those big feet like hands, he bats things and reaches up with both front feet and will grab your arm, he gallops all around, lots of energy. In fact, this morning I took him on a 45 minute hike / jog, then he played around the house energetically for an hour, then another run, and he still had energy! He's finally sleeping now, tuckered out little boy. He also likes to give slobbery kisses, to sit on your lap (he's not a small dog!), and play with toys. He's going to be spoiled...

I've only got these two pictures right now, sorry, but we were using Brad's camera for most of the trip and I can't get the pictures off. He'll put them on my computer later, and I'll put them up here, his are more plentiful and more clear and more interesting than mine, but here's a couple teasers:

Here's a shot I took over my shoulder in the car of him sleeping:

We stopped at McDonalds a bit after picking him up (we normally NEVER eat there, but we were starving and desperate, grin), and the girl at the window thought he was so cute, she gave him a mini ice cream. Probably not the best thing for him, but he enjoyed it and it won't be a common occurance. Here's Brad feeding it to him:

Anyway, more pictures to come. I was just looking at Brad's camera and the pictures on it, they are awesome! Patience is a virtue....

Oh, also a question. Jean Luc has forgotten some of his housebreaking and so we're working on that, but he also doesn't lift his leg so there's no warning when he's about to go, is that common with big dogs? How can we tell he's about to go? He doesn't whine, circle, anything. So far we've stopped him mid stream and gotten him outside, but it's hard to catch him.

 

[Fran27]

It's hard to tell when they want to pee sometimes, and lots of neutered males don't lift their leg to pee I believe, the best thing to do is start housebreaking him like you would with a puppy, by letting him outside frequently (every hour) and praise him a lot when he goes.

I'm glad it went great, I'm looking forward to seeing more pics

 

[yentna]

Gotcha, my family lived pretty remote and usually didn't neuter their dogs until they were much older, so they'd learned to lift their legs. I guess I'm just not used to it. Anyway, he just went outside and we both praised him, and we'll keep on that tack.

Also just gave him a bath, the poor thing just stood there and looked miserable! But then bounded around joyfully and clean afterwards. Much better! I'll have more pics by tonight I hope.