Agility and more.

Question
Hello, i have a Great Dane puppy (Zeus) who will be 6 months old on 11-8-12. And I am going to be inquiring another one who was born late February of this year (Zooey).
They both have A LOT of energy, and besides taking Zeus on his semi-daily walks, I want to get them into agility.
At what age should I wait to do this? i know with their bone developement, that they have a certain age limit for a lot of different activities.
Also, when we went to visit Zooey and see if the dogs got along before we pick her up, we noticed she was extremely skinny, and had a rash on her tummy.
What could we do to get rid of the rash?
We are excited to get the new edition, and we just want them both to be happy and healthy.

Answer
Great Danes should not be actively participating in agility or forced running, jogging ect until after 18 months of age. I personally do not start agility with my dogs until after they are 2 years old. A goof way to exercise is walks and swimming.

As far as the rash is concerned, it would really depend on what the rash is from. There are a number of things that can cause a rash including but not limited to food allergies, seasonal allergies, bacterial infection and a virus. You would need to provide a picture of the rash so that I could best determine what course of action would need to be taken. As always your veterinarian would be the best source if the rash does not clear up or starts spreading over the body.

If she is extremely skinny then she is not being fed the proper amount for her age. Dependent on age and lineage a healthy Great Dane puppy at 8 weeks old should weight roughly 15-20 lbs, at 10 weeks 25-30 lbs and so forth. At 6 month of age the average Great Dane weighs between 75-100 lbs, again, dependent on lineage, size of the parents/grandparents ect. Puppies should not be fat but should have a good amount of weight and you should not be able to see ribs, hip bones ect.