Expert: Delores Beck - 7/31/2009

Question



He usually growls and barks right after he has eating, also a little bit other times, and usually either when playing, or when I make him stop biting my wife or myself. I will do that next time he does though.

I will look for those types of food, but it’s a bit hard, my wife doesn’t like wasting food, even dog food, and doesn’t like the idea of wasting money when we already have dog food.  If you could explain why that type is bad, and those are better for him it would help me greatly.

We don’t really have a back yard, we have a place to just relax on top of the building, and I’ll look around Sunday for a good place to take him outside “Saturday I work 24 hours”.

Is there anything else I should look for in behavior that is bad? Thank you :^)


Answer
No need to waste food.  You add a bit of the new food every day and take your time transitioning him.

The reasons for needing a premium food is that nutrition is the key to keeping him healthy and avoiding vets :)  He's in a massive growth spurt right now and you need a food much, much higher in protein and a better quality protein.  Yes, better food is more expensive but you feed much less of it.

If none of these foods are available I can tell you how to easily add things to up the quality.
Simple things like a scrambled egg (no milk-no oil) or some plain boiled chicken (no skin-no bones).

Dogs basically need protein and fat - very little, if any carbs.  If you read the label on your bag you'll see about 5 different carbs and one protein.  

So buying cheaper food is a very false economy.  Far cheaper to keep him healthy :)

Now - when you say he 'barks and growls' right after eating - what is happening then?
The growling after a correction is what worries me.  They do "play at growling etc. when they're actually playing so that's not such a big deal.

Keep trying to back him off and if he's not paying attention over the weekend, then I'll tell you how to alpha roll him.  It's not rough at all but it's the definitive "I'm the alpha, little boy, not you!"  Very easy to do now - not so easy in two months!

And Mike, you can write me directly to save time (DeeBeck7765@aol.com)
Delores