Puppy training for a Dogue de Bordeaux

The first few months really do set the patterns for life — the right tools from the start make training easier and less stressful for both puppy and owner, and the wrong ones create habits that are genuinely hard to undo. A Dogue de Bordeaux that learns calm, settled behaviour at 11 weeks is a very different dog to manage at 50kg than one that never got those foundations. So tell me — what are you mainly trying to work on right now, and what does a typical day look like for your puppy?

That's exactly the right instinct — you're thinking about the 40kg adult while you've still got a manageable 6kg puppy, and that mindset will pay off enormously. The mouthing and the inability to settle are the same problem: he doesn't yet have a default behaviour for when he's got energy to burn. Where does he tend to go frantic — after meals, in the evening, when you sit down?

Classic overtired puppy tornado — Dogues are quite intense in short bursts at this age and evenings tip them over the edge. What you want to build is a conditioned settle response, and the best tool for that at 11 weeks is a Kong Classic stuffed with something he has to work at. You load it, hand it to him in his spot, and over time that object becomes the cue for calm. The Kong Classic is virtually indestructible — which matters because a Dogue's jaw pressure even as a puppy is no joke — and the size range goes up with him. I'd start with the Large (red) now rather than the puppy size; he'll outgrow the puppy Kong in weeks and you want him bonded to an object that lasts. Stuffed with a bit of wet puppy food and frozen, it'll hold his attention for 15–20 minutes and you'll see the settle behaviour start to form within a fortnight of consistent evening use.

It makes a real difference — it slows the whole thing down significantly. An unfrozen Kong a determined puppy can empty in two minutes; frozen, the same filling takes 15–20. That longer duration is what does the training work. The extended focus is what teaches him that settling with an object is rewarding, rather than just giving him a quick snack and leaving him looking for the next thing to destroy. Freeze a few at a time so you've always got one ready when the evening chaos starts — consistency is everything at this stage.

Yes, go straight to Large. The opening is still perfectly accessible for a puppy, and Dogues grow so fast that a puppy-sized Kong will be redundant within six to eight weeks. More importantly, you want him emotionally attached to the object he'll use at full size — rebuilding that association with a new Kong later is extra work you don't need. One good Kong, started now, is worth more than two Kongs in sequence.