My Dutch pup Jax

[DanLu5]

Not sure if you've tried Orijen yet but my guy is crazy about it! I can even use it for training treats he's so into it.

[Owned-By-Hendrix]

If you can find it, green tripe is also a miracle worker for transitioning foods, as well as goat milk/yogurt. Some speciality dog food shops will carry these, or if you have a Trader Joe's they have a container of goat yogurt. While goat products will give your pup gas and in some cases dire-rear if overfed (I think it's like 1/2 tablespoon - 2 tablespoons based off weight/what your dog can handle), green tripe smells nasty but dogs go insane for it. If I bring a bag home, OMG stand outta the way as my guy will come galloping and try to open it, and that's still while sealed! They're all a good source of probiotics.

There's a few raw feeders on here and I believe some threads about it too. If you do an advanced search you should be able to find them.

I've also found using mealtime as training time (so handfuls of kibble, coated with whatever, or bits of apple, or whatever he likes if you can stand handling it) will also increase interest in meal time. If he stops working he stops eating. Doesn't matter if he gets a handful or twelve as there's always another opportunity to eat, whether at dinner or in a few hours. Within a few meal times I see my guy starting to be more interested in food and eating. Sometimes I think they get bored, not of the food but of the act of eating from a bowl, so switching it up with puzzle feeder bowls/toys, training, or making it a game can help, especially with young dogs.

[BryanKSchraven]

Wow I just gotta say you guys are awesome. I really appreciate all the info. I do set meal times. Once a little bit after our morning walk and training. Once in the afternoon again after our longest walk and again around 8pm. I pretty much leave it there until he finishes or I just cant get him interested. He is teething, losing teeth left and right. So the more variety of soft food I can get in there the better. We do have a Trader Joes though Ive never been, so Its definitely on the list now. This is the third food he has been on. He came home on puppy chow and his poop just wasnt right and his coat was very lackluster so I tried Rachael Rays Zero grain because I heard some good things about it. He was not impressed. Then the blue buffalo wilderness. I did a 1/4 cup a week progression with both and had zero tummy trouble. He always finishes his food just usually not until his evening meal. I will definitely try the training. He loves training so maybe that will spice it up for him. I do have a few different kong toys and have been looking at the puzzle feeders. I have certainly heard about the Orijen and was planning on trying it as well. Ive never fed can food before but that might be an idea that would work to. Thanx again for all the input. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

[Owned-By-Hendrix]

Just an FYI the goat's yogurt is insanely easy to miss - it's a really simple blue and white container that usually sits right next to the blue and white greek yogurt container. I usually have to carefully read all the labels for a minute before I can find it and have been known to buy the wrong stuff. It comes in a somewhat large container - not in the individual size yogurts we're used to - unless your TJ is way more awesome than mine lol. I swear by the Genius Mike toys from Kong, as well as the Busy Buddy Squirrel (I think they make one other similar to that?) and there's a post somewhere on here about different type of slow feeder/puzzle feeders.

On the days my guy is just being a high energy brat, I'll take him for a walk, we chill for 1-2 hours or play or run errands or whatever low key, then I use his morning training time as his meal time. My goal is to make it short and fun, exactly like any other training session. I've had sessions when he was younger where I'm holding his bowl handing him small handfuls of yogurt-kibble goop and it's disgusting but he's having fun licking all the stuff off my hands.

You can also try setting down his bowl for 20 minutes. He eats whatever he eats and if he doesn't finish, it's taken up and he doesn't eat again until next training/mealtime/treat time. He's, what, 4-6 months now? May just be him testing the rules/boundaries/what he can control you with - not that that's a behavioral or a bad thing, they all do it at some point like kids (toddlers and their "I'm not gonna eat it because it has crust/not on a blue plate/it's green randomness). Simple things like turning it into a training session or taking up food after a set amount of time diminishes the problem. It can also be a "wet kibble clump" issue; I feed my guy kibble with a nutritional supplement "gravy" and once he licks up all the gravy, he's left with clumps of kibble he can't get off the bowl because they sorta fuse to it and I have to really put some effort into breaking it up. He started eating less and less and I thought he was getting bored of the gravy when I tried a plate one day and BAM, ate all of it because it was so much easier than fighting with the curve of the bowl and his kibble clumps. You shouldn't have that problem with yogurt but just an idea it may be something as simple as the bowl is hard to eat out of and these guys are smart enough to know when to stop fighting.

[BryanKSchraven]

That is right on the money. He always tries to use his paws to eat all the time or dump the bowl. And hes getting his big boy teeth so I have noticed he is testing me a little. Sometimes I think he thinks Im his instead of the other way around. Haha! But I do make sure he works for he works for everything. Im gonna remember the genius mike. I have never seen those.

[Mobil]

Why am I not surprised he was sent home on puppy chow. I'm glad you're getting better food into him!

Also we need more pics!

[Raven]

for the Genius Mike Kongs. You'll wonder how you lived without them. We stockpile them along with other certain Kongs. And for leaving any meal down for X amount of time then pulling it. (That's never an issue in this house.)

[BryanKSchraven]

Heres a few pics that I could get to meet the file size.

[BryanKSchraven]

He seems a little large for 4 and a half months old. Its probably hard to tell from the pics but I got a feeling he is gonna be on the large side.

[BryanKSchraven]

I have another question. He seems to have sprouted 4 stark white hairs on his head and maybe 2 or 3 on his back. Any clue as to the reason? Maybe diet? I haven't really been able to find much online about it.

[Owned-By-Hendrix]

Hmmmmm..... not really diet I would think. White is a loss of pigmentation in a normal healthy hair if I'm remembering correctly. I would think it would go hand in hand with the genetic component of the alopecia. See if any of this could help http://www.doggenetics.co.uk/oddities.html

Some dogs will naturally grey early (my friend's 3 year old mal has a little white chin already) and it's just a normal part of aging. It could also be bits of the undercoat peaking out or just a stay grey hair. A friend's lab has random 4 white hairs over his body in different places. He is just like that.

[BryanKSchraven]

I was kinda thinkin it might be related to his hair "issue". HaHa!!!Im like a new dad.. even the littlest thing seems outta place Im ready to rush to the hospital! Thanx again. You really are a bastion of helpful information.

[BryanKSchraven]

The tan eye rims on that dog at the end of the article was really interesting. Never seen anything like that.

[Owned-By-Hendrix]

Just curious - how's his coat texture wise? Brittle? Dry? Soft? Silly? Coarse? Smooth? Did your vet talk about any special vitamins or supplements for him?

[BryanKSchraven]

Well its mostly soft around his head, chest and mane. Gets a little coarse on his back. But gets wavy on his rear and tail. His whiskers are also kinda wavy. The vet said he had never seen that. They gave him melatonin and that was it.

[Raven]

A lot of DSs get grey/white around their mouths very early on. (This was discussed in a thread somewhere on here.) I know mine did.

My present guy, adopted at 18-months, also had it when we got him. And he also had a few white hairs, clumped together, on the top of his head. He's six now with no further growth of white hairs.

He also has some waves between his shoulder blades. A lot of his hair was what I considered a bit course when we got him, though it was soft in certain places, like around his neck. His coat turned soft and super-shiny when I added coconut oil/salmon oil to his daily diet.

[Owned-By-Hendrix]

Ah okay. I've been shuffling through some of the research on alopecia and one about melatonin and it clumping near the roots caught my eye as a possible reason (besides naturally occurring) for the white hairs. Ironically it also mentions melatonin. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2671874/
As said before, it's nothing life threatening or dangerous. These pups give us enough scares as puppies as is! I remember one time H are a Lysol wipe after I threw it away... Then did it a week later because he liked the drugs they gave him to barf it up. Sigh. The vet still teases us about that.