Morning hun, he sounds like he is thriving.

Not sure how old he is now 6 week? hope you don't think Im interfering but you might benefit from slowly getting him on 4 meals a day soon, he won't suffer overnight if his last feed is at 10 or 11pm, as he has a lot of weight.

My own thoughts on his playing rough is to ignore him, and for him to have a place of time out, Im not sure how your home is set up but if open plan then maybe a small crate covered over would be benefical.

Hand reared pups are alot different from those brought up by Mom, we do not correct thier behaviour as Mom would,(I know I've handreared a fair few ) we tend to think Awwwwww rather than like Mom who would nip his ear to make him behave.
Also handreared pups do need socialising asap with other dogs, they can become needy otherwise with the person who reared them (something I found through trial and error) due to loosing all the play and teachings of thier siblings and mother.
They can become in time a dog that you can not leave and they can loose thier natural behaviour(being so dependant on you) again which they gain through siblings and Mother.
Maybe worth when he is vaccinated to see if you can find other pups and dogs for him to play with, and leave him on regular intervals in the crate (if you get one) with toys, starting with 5 mins and building up.
Hope you don't mind me saying all this Im not critising, but this is something I have found with single pups who are handreared.
If you had his siblings things would for him (not you ) be an easy transistion.

But he looks beautiful and I think he'll be a lovely dog when grown

Hi youngstevie,Thank you for that,any tips and idea's will really help.No offence believe me,this is a first for me and (my hubby who has never owned a dog other than my last little treasure).
Our home is very open planned.We had 2 playpens delivered from the UK from Pet Solutions.They are great you can make small enclosures or join them all together.I did have a small cage in the bedroom(covered in towels) and a much larger one in the living room,he hated them both.I have now set them up in the garden so that he has a constant run to some grass from the living room.I left him with my maid last Sat and she said he just cried all the time so let him come out and go to his bed under the table(or his real fav under the sofa).I don't like to think of him being shut up but had wanted to have him sleep in the bedroom in one.My mother had a dog which had always been in a crate when she got her and in fact would not sleep without going into it. I watched my maid with him today and she is quite rough when playing with him (not enough to hurt him)and he seemed to love it!He certainly sleeps well when she leaves lol
He's 6 weeks on Wed and we are taking him to the vet on Thur for his first injection(not sure if that is rabies).Can't wait till he is old enough to take him out and use up some of that energy The good news is that our neighbour breeds Ridgebacks,they are very well behaved dogs and she takes everything in her stride.As soon as Lucky has all his jabs we intend to introduce them. My maid also has 3 dogs which we intend to introduce to him as well.
Tonight hub's and I are going to stay up together(he goes to bed to take over in the early hours but always fails to wake up before me!).That way we shall be singing off the same hymn sheet.I've told him he may get a bad hour till he settles but he is going to stay in the bedroom!I might even warn him to put the light on before he gets out of bed LOL
The good news is the gardener put the fence in today,we shall jet wash the patio area tomorrow and he will have a large part of the garden to explore.Our next problem will be when he is bigger as we have a low wall all around that part of the garden which is a man made wall with a drop the other side!Looks like our cancelled air fare to Cayman will be spent on LOT'S of FENCING.
Had to change his food today to Junior Pedigree(couldn't get the other sort anywhere).He knocked it back so at least he liked it,now just got to hope his tummy does as well. Any tips on when I can put him on to dried food? I know the biscuit the vets gave me is a complete food but she also told me to mix it with tinned food.We have trouble with fly's here and dried would be a lot easier,also for when we are traveling. Again any tips on a time line for that would be a great help.
Will post more photo's soon and thank you everyone for all the support and help,this is a great site for animal lovers.
Many thanks Eileen X

Sorry, forgot to mention he is already on 4 meals a day,Can go anywhere from 5 hours to 7 between meals.
X

Its sounding good hun.

Not sure about the dried food as I don't realy use just dried, mine have it like your little man does but I put fresh tripe in too or chappie as one of mine has a sensitive tum and the other needs to be watched for constipation.

As he is on dried I'd probably lessen the meat at he gets towards 8 weeks, do it in slow stages till he is on completely dried.

I know how the flies are there, we were there a couple of years back, and they can be dreadful cann't they

He's a lucky boy and Im sure he will benefit alot when mixing with other dogs, if he gets too rough Im sure they will tell him off.....in a nice way of course
You will have to do the AHHHHHHHH!!! when he bites to hard, so he learns that this is alittle to rough....and he will if you keep inforcing it xxxx

OMG Lucky is so cute!

I have a 2 year old rescue dog. I was told by the rescue centre to growl at him if he does something he shouldn't because it would mimick what mum would do. The manager there did it when we visited and he immediatly stopped and looked at her. With her it worked a treat, she has the growl down to a T! With me, I clearly don't because most of the time Joe looks at me, mid bad behaviour, as if to say 'You idiot' but when I get the growl right, it works

Good morning all,It may look as if I've had a bad night posting at 4 in the morning but in truth it was better than OK.
Lucky's meal times moved a bit yesterday and he ended up wanting his late feed too early in the evening.He ate at 9.30 so I played with him and then put him to bed by 10.Thank you for the great advice about the growling at him.I played a bit rough with him and when he got a bit nasty started to growl,(being a smoker for the last 46 years believe me I can growl).He stopped and calmed almost straight away.Put him to bed in the bedroom and and he was off in a few moments.He woke at 1 and was very quiet,just wanted to have a cuddle and after about 10 min's he was back to sleep.No crying or tantrums.RESULT! All I have to do now is get that last feed back to about 10.30 and a good night's sleep will be had by all.Won't mention the husband who was in bed by 6.30 and is still snoring.
Have a great day everyone
Eileen X

Morning Eileen, so glad things went well, now your using ''his'' mothers language I growl at my 4....although I have to admit Tess our youngest takes no notice what so ever, but the other 3 do

Pleased you got some sleep well done xxx

Oh good, I'm really glad the growling worked for you I wish it would for me! LOL!

Thanks for the update so glad pup's doing so well look forward to hearing more later