Help needed with Dog Food

beansybeansy

Hi, I recently adopted an 11month boxer puppy. She was found near my work and not micro chipped or tagged. We searched every which way to find her owners but now has a loving home with us. She is the most loving and friendly dog you could hope for and we are giving her the best care we can with a thorough exam by vet, had her innoculations, microchipped, plenty of toys and minimum of 4 x 30 mins walks a day with lots of play. So we are doing everything to help her develop and bond

At first she was underfed so she ate anything we put out but now we are migrating her to a dry food diet she is just not getting on with it. We are on our 3rd brand, started with Pedigree puppy dry food, then another brand I cant pronounce or spell! and now Burns Organic but she just leaves it.

So in summation, anyone have any tips on getting or to take dry food or is the simple solution to keep trying, no treats no alternates and eventually it will take or is there somethng else we can do?

Sorry for the long post, but we really want to give all the info as we are trying to make sure she has the best possible care.

andreac

4 x 30mins walks a day??:eek: Thats far too much for a young pup.The most you should be walking a young pup isabout half hour to an hour max.

Boxers can suffer with joint problems so you need to be very careful with over exercising at a young age so i would def cut back those walks for a while yet.

Regarding food, you need to be tough and strict. Dogs are very clever, and will hold out for something more tasty if they think there is something else.

Put the food down for about ten mins then take it away. Offer nothing else, not even treats until next mealtime. The dog will soon get the message that if it doesnt eat up, it gets nothing else until its next meal. You can also try soaking half the meal in some warm water, this helps to make it more appealing to them as the flavours come out a bit more.

lorebringer

Cheap foods (like Pedigree) tend to be the equivalent of feeding dogs McDonalds or other fast foods - tasty, but not so good for them. As a result, most dogs will devour cheap, low quality brands. Switching can be tricky but very doable!

First thing - find a good food. Burns is perfect! Other good brands include Royal Canin (have a specific Boxer food, but not necessary to feed this), James Wellbeloved, Pro Pac, Arden Grange, Select Gold, Clinivet... the list goes on and on! There are as many good foods out there as crap so do some research to find a good brand. www.zooplus.ie is a great website to find foods and tends to be a little cheaper then at the vets or in pet stores (their UK site is even cheaper at times!)

Next - the transition. Gradually is the key to preventing a dodgy belly and to slowing introducing the dog to a new taste. Gradually increase the new food and decrease the old food until it is only the new stuff in the bowl.

Your method of feeding is very important for getting your dog to eat - free feeding (that is, leaving the food in the bowl all day and fully accessible to the dog) is a bit of a no no and only works with a very limited number of dogs. Having set meal times (for example, 7am and 7pm) will give your dog an eating routine and she will be far more likely to eat. Place the food down for 15/20 minutes, if she does not eat take it up and (here is the important part) don't feed her anything, not a scrap, until the next meal. Don't stand over her or try to encourage her, just leave her do her thing (you can stay in the same room, just not hanging over her). This will ensure she has a hungry belly when it comes to her next meal. Don't let the big, sad eyes fool you - dogs are not stupid, they will eat if there is food available and she won't let herself go hungry. It may take a few trys, or even a few days, but she will eventually eat.

If you want to do a little enticing to get her to have a taste of the food, soaking it in some hot water (and allowing it to cool before you give it to her) will make the food smell stronger and be a bit more palatable for her. Reducing the amount of soaking time gradually (once she is eating!) until the food it totally dry will wean her off this method.

The real issue with getting dogs to eat, particularly dogs that are used to a low quality diet, is persistence. It is really important that she has an empty belly when it comes to her meals. Once she is eating regularly, giving her some treats or whatever between meals is ok (just don't over do it!). She is not stupid - if she is hungry enough and there is food put in front of her, she will eat it. If she knows that holding out will result in her getting a few bits and bobs (resist the begging!), she will hold out!

Vince32

If your using a Kibble or dry food, you need to demonstrate some tough love, and make the mental switch,
This is your food, when I put it down you eat it, if you don't eat it in 15 minutes, you won't get any more food (inc treats) until your next feeding time.

IF you allow the dog to call the shots, even on slightest on matters, the power dynamic shifts to its favour, and if you give an inch, you can bet your ass, the dog will take a mile.

You don't need to be mean, angry, shout, or frustrated, calmly and comfortably set the house rules and make the dog stick to it. It will never allow itself to starve, but make sure you are feeding a good product, i.e first ingredient meat ! protein 40%++ and ash 8-9% and a good range of vitamins + minerals

Lastly, your dog gets 5 minutes a day for a walk, per month of age, 5 months = 25 mins a day. Until fully grown at around 16 months, it's vital that you allow the bones to come in properly, a puppy's job is to eat and sleep. Sleep stimulates growth, they make a special growth hormone when they sleep, that with a little exercise everyday, along with basic obedience training will help the days and months pass until adulthood.

Hope you have a great time with your dog, and enjoy each other greatly, I know I do with mine, and you really do get back out, what you put in. Be patient, you'll have 10-15 years with your dog, don't go ruining it's hips with over doing it.

Vince

beansybeansy

thanks for the advice and will cut back on the walks am probably over compensating as I leave her alone for 4 hours in the morning and 4 in the afternoon when I am at work ( i come home at lunch).

Pedigree was fed for the first week but she has been on burns for 10 days now following the vets reccomendation. Will push on as your advice re-inforces what I have been told. One thing we are strong on is no scraps and no feeding "human food". No matter how much she gives us the puppy eyes. Thank you so much again

Outkast_IRE

beansybeansy wrote: »

thanks for the advice and will cut back on the walks am probably over compensating as I leave her alone for 4 hours in the morning and 4 in the afternoon when I am at work ( i come home at lunch).

Pedigree was fed for the first week but she has been on burns for 10 days now following the vets reccomendation. Will push on as your advice re-inforces what I have been told. One thing we are strong on is no scraps and no feeding "human food". No matter how much she gives us the puppy eyes. Thank you so much again

Theres nothing wrong with giving the dog dinner scraps such as leftover bits of meat/spuds/veg, in fact i would encourage it but what you do is put the suitable scraps into a bowel after dinner and mix with the dry food next time you are making it up .

Those scraps you throw away are better food than will ever be in the dry food. This is what i do and the dog will devour the dry food if you mix the scraps well into it.
Its a sin to throw such scraps out rather than feed them to the dog.

For example last weekend we cooked a turkey for easter, when we were done with it we boiled the leftover turkey so all the meat would come away from the bones, we got enough meat to mix with the dogs food for a week and she loves it.
Its win win

Another example when cooking chicken fillets if you cut off any undesirable scraps cook them up for the dog they will love it .

Burns is a grand food many dogs do well on it i just find it pricey from the vet , others may know better places to purchase it for better prices.

Vince32

Don't be affraid to change the food, do some research and find a food that suits your dogs needs, vets as good as they are, are running a business and they get free / discounted bags of food to sell to their customers, and they may be good foods, but in my limited experience, you should compare brands like "barking heads" and others, and look at the ingredients, when you know what food you want to switch too, if any, do it slowly over 10 days, adding 10% per day, 90/10 80/20 70/30 etc.

beansybeansy

We did give her some cottage pie I made the other day and she love it. There arent often scraps in our house as its just the two of us am cooking for.

We are using burns high calorie as she was underwait - from having been abandoned but will be shopping around once she hits her target weight. Gave the burns this morning, soaked it in warm water. She licked out the beefy water and left the food, so have taken it away. Will try again tonight. Hopefully in a day or so she will be damn glad for anything! Fingers crossed

andreac

To be honest, if shes being fussy with her food, then you need to stop feeding anything else until she starts eating her own food as she will just continue to get worse.
Cottage Pie will taste much better than her dog food so she probably wasnt fussed on her own food then.
Usually the routine of taking the bowl up after a certain time takes a few days to register with them so just give it another few days and she should be eating well.

Karlitto

beansybeansy wrote: »

Hi, I recently adopted an 11month boxer puppy. She was found near my work and not micro chipped or tagged. We searched every which way to find her owners but now has a loving home with us. She is the most loving and friendly dog you could hope for and we are giving her the best care we can with a thorough exam by vet, had her innoculations, microchipped, plenty of toys and minimum of 4 x 30 mins walks a day with lots of play. So we are doing everything to help her develop and bond

At first she was underfed so she ate anything we put out but now we are migrating her to a dry food diet she is just not getting on with it. We are on our 3rd brand, started with Pedigree puppy dry food, then another brand I cant pronounce or spell! and now Burns Organic but she just leaves it.

So in summation, anyone have any tips on getting or to take dry food or is the simple solution to keep trying, no treats no alternates and eventually it will take or is there somethng else we can do?

Sorry for the long post, but we really want to give all the info as we are trying to make sure she has the best possible care.

Hi there beansy,

So, to start my post, I just want to say, well done and the best of luck with her! It's nice to see people care, there are so many neglected dogs out there. Do you mind me asking where you live?

I myself have a lab/staff or pitbull cross, he was a rescue, myself and Gimli go out with a pair of friends and their two boxer pups Nihla and Chancer, one male and one female. They are 11 months old this month and my god they have been through the mills with them.

Nihla more so was not putting on weight, even though she was eating like a horse. But, she got the exercise to cope with the amount of food. She became very very picky with her food. They went through about 10 different brands. But, eventually she just would not eat anything and lost alot of weight. They brought her to the vets and long story short they ended up in UCD or DCU vet hospital, not sure which one. Anyway, blood tests and scans etc were sent to the UK, turns out she had a parasite in her bladder and iritable bowl syndrome. (IBS is very common in boxers) she is on a very specific diet now and thankfully the little dote has gained weight and is now 23 KG, only 5 behind her brother. I am not trying to scare you, but, more so advising you to keep an eye out for it.

To be honest, at 11 months that amount of walking is fine, but I would suggest condensing it down to 2 X 1 hour walks, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.

In my opinion, keep well away from the "leading brands" of dog food you may see on TV etc. Such as bakers, pedigree etc. They are extremely low in Meat content and have alot of preservatives in them. Go for Barns, royal canine or maxizoo's home brand "multifit", I have Gimli on multifit sensative and he is doing great. High meat content (about 4 times the amount in bakers or pedigree) and as it is sensative, it is very low in salts and sugars and other preservatives.

Now, if your little gal is just plain picky with her food, DO NOT give her "people food" otherwise she might just want that instead. Which, you do not want her getting into the habbit of expecting it, some liver or heart is fine as a treat (GREAT for training might I add) but no dinner scraps.

If she has no interest in the dry food, see if she will eat the tinned wet version of the dry food (same brand and flavor etc.) and if she likes it, coat the dry food in it, and if she eats it, slowly reduce the amount of wet food you use to coat her dry food in. And obviously have plenty of fresh water around for her to have.

Also, with regards to your time, her being on her own for 8 hours a day, there is no problem with that, as long as she does have interaction, so for example, don't come home and go straight up on to your computer (might seem like a silly thing to say, but you never know)

Just another note, when your going out, don't make a "fuss" about it by saying good bye and hugging her and stuff, just ignore her, the "goodbye" is only for people, dogs dont care. When you come back from work, open the door and completely ignore her, no touch, no looking, no talking. This way she will interprate it as "this is normal", if you make a fuss about it when you come back home, you are telling her that "its ok, I am safe"...as if there was a danger of going out.

One other thing, "desensatise" her as much as possible. So, when she is tired, play with her feet, put your fingers in between her toes, stick your fingers in her ears and move them around, lift her lips. The reason for this is, it helps when you want to cut her toenails, put drops in her ears, brush her teeth. She will be used to the contact, also helps when vets are examaning.

Anything else you need help with, feel free to ask and I will do my best.

P.S. Socialise her with lots of dogs and people, especially kids. And

andreac

Karlitto wrote: »

Hi there beansy,


To be honest, at 11 months that amount of walking is fine, but I would suggest condensing it down to 2 X 1 hour walks, 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.

P.S. Socialise her with lots of dogs and people, especially kids. And

Sorry but i disagree. At 11 months the dog is still very much a pup and two hours a day is too much, especially for growing joints. If you over exercise as a pup you risk damaging joints so i would def not walk the pup for this long everyday until its fully grown and developed which it wouldnt be at 11 months.

_Lady_

Vince32 wrote: »

Lastly, your dog gets 5 minutes a day for a walk, per month of age, 5 months = 25 mins a day. Until fully grown at around 16 months, it's vital that you allow the bones to come in properly, a puppy's job is to eat and sleep. Sleep stimulates growth, they make a special growth hormone when they sleep, that with a little exercise everyday, along with basic obedience training will help the days and months pass until adulthood.

Vince

Hey Vince, about the exercise guideline that you offer here? Can you tell me where you got that advice or how reliable it would be for different size dogs? Just thinking I've probably been overdoing it with my guy if that holds true and should probably be cutting back a bit so to make sure not to push him too hard. Not a boxer - a lab retriever/poodle cross but they're prone to hip dysplasia as well I think. Ta

Vince32

As far as I know, that guideline is for all sizes, from toy, right up to XL.

But the reason for the caution is because at such a tender age, the bones and cartilage are still forming, and can be very weak, compared to adults, but the main risk in over exercising is Hip Dysplasia and osteoporosis, with dysplasia the femoral head on the leg joint slips out of the hip socket and causes a lot of pain, and it's very expensive to have repaired with surgery.

Now Don't panic, chances are your guy is fine, run a google search on it, and you'll get more details on it than I can provide.

If your guy is bouncing off the walls, you can make two walks a day if it's really needed, in the morning, and evening, spacing out the exercise, which won't do any harm, a lot of high energy dog owners will walk twice a day, but take it slow, there is no race to the finish line, enjoy the walks, take in the scenes and relax, there will be plenty of time for running and hiking and all that jazz, when he's adult.

Like I sad before, a puppy's job is to eat and sleep, up to the age of 16 months, when he becomes a juvenile you can ease into some light running and cross country, then at 24 months the dog is considered adult and if the first 24 months went well, you'll have a great life together, and enjoy each other greatly.

That said, at 11 months, 11x5 = 55 mins a day, or twice a day, spaced out by 5-6 hours is fine, there are no hard and fast rules, each owner has to tend to the individual dogs needs.

_Lady_

Thanks Vince, have done some googling on it but hadn't come across such a clear way to look at it/figure it out. Might take him to get looked over anyway, because he's come out on plenty of jogs/walks that would have lasted easily an hour or so where he is always running laps of me - goes on ahead for a bit and then turns back at a certain distance every time to circle me again - so he's doing way more than I would be!

In fairness though, you can't beat that view as well every time he turns to run back towards you - the little excited look as if he hasn't seen you in months - ears back and flapping, all excited, full throttle four legged cuddle attack coming flying at you!!!

Might change it up a bit for a while and bring him out to the football pitch for a run for a shorter period of time rather than going on our specific walk route where you have to finish it out to get back to where you started!

Thanks again

Vince32

Yeah no problems, I had a hard time deciphering all the "dog speak" too at first, while all the information is at hand, translating it into something you can use as a guide is very hard sometimes.

It's probably worth getting him checked out, just to save your sanity thinking about it, but I would advise getting pet insurance first, if you haven't already, because they will not cover pre-existing conditions, so you will want your vet to discover any major problems only after full coverage starts - usually 14 days after initiation, or you'll be left holding the 2k bill !

but you probably know that already, just making sure you cover your butt on this one.