Dog Training School: Should you pack Fido a lunch?

I’ve talked about Vance’s separation anxiety issues on this blog before. And, Mr. Light of My Life (the hubster) thought it would be a good idea to ship Vance off to dog training school because he felt that *our* anxieties about leaving Vance alone were making Vance that much more anxious.

I actually did a lot of research to see what was available but I discovered that most dog training schools aren’t equipped to deal with behavioral issues–rather they tend to specialize in training dogs for absentee owners. Sort of like how I view boarding schools for kids, actually ;-).

So, instead, we decided to hire a dog behaviorist who came out to our home and was able to observe the three of us and give us tips for eliminating Vance’s separation anxiety. But, if it had just been that Vance needed to be trained, and we didn’t have the time to do it, I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable shipping him off to a dog training school. Partly, that’s because I genuinely enjoy training him–it’s a fun, creative time for us. But it’s also because I’m not sure how I’d go about doing enough research to feel comfortable handing him over to someone without being there watching how they were working with him. I know most dog training schools are reputable and treat dogs most gently, but that doesn’t mean all of them do.

What are your thoughts on dog training school? Has your dog been? Is it something you’d consider? I’d love to hear your opinions!

Feeding the BARF Diet

Are you considering feeding your dog the BARF diet? (BARF, in this case, stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods.)

Basically, when you feed your dog a BARF diet, you feed him all things raw and you have to get the percentages right and do all the nutritional balancing yourself. Your dog will eat things like raw chickens, raw eggs, and raw beef, along with certain veggies, cottage cheese, and other sources of protein.

In some ways, feeding a BARF diet is easier than feeding kibble–you’ll be able to pick up healthy, safe dog food right at the grocery store from your butcher–but it’s also more costly. And, if you have a big dog you may have to increase your trips to the grocery store. (For DH and I, I go grocery shopping every two weeks, when we fed Vance the BARF diet, I had to go every three days because he needed so much fresh meat–something we don’t eat much of around here.)

We tried the BARF diet to prevent dog ear infections for Vance, and he did enjoy it. But ultimately, it was just too much work and I wasn’t entirely sure that I was feeding him proper amounts of all the essential nutrients. So, we switched him to Canidae dog food and haven’t looked back.

If you’d like to try the BARF diet, though, Amazon offers a great book on the topic. How about you? What do you feed your dog?

Do dog allergies cause ear infections?

When Vance was about a year old, he started getting really bad dog ear infections. Even though I cleaned his ears once a week just like the vet told me to, he still seemed to get an infection once a quarter or so. It was awful (and expensive!). I worried that he was in pain or that his hearing would be damaged, and I *hated* putting the medicine into his ears as he’d whimper in that heart-wrenching way where you know they’re in pain but they’re trying to be stoic.

And besides, the medicine didn’t seem to work very well at all as the dog ear infections were lasting longer each time.

So I did a bunch of research online and took what I found to our vet. I asked her if it was possible that dog food allergies were causing the ear infections. She said Nope–that dog allergies are *not* related to ear infections and moreover the dog food couldn’t cause allergies at all.

I’m a pretty holistically-minded gal–a bit of a skeptic about some natural remedies and medicines, but on balance I believe that our bodies are a great big complicated machine in which NOTHING doesn’t affect everything else, at least to some minor degree, so to me it was a no brainer: of course the dog food allergies could exacerbate any sensitivities he might have and of course that could make his ear infections worse (or at least keep his body from being able to heal them properly).

Fortunately, I found some new research on vets and how often they discount diet in diagnosing problems, and so I took in what I’d uncovered (about the dog food-dog allergy-ear infection connection) and let my vet look it over. And then we talked diet and she conceeded that the science in the articles I’d found seemed reasonable and that it did make sense to try a new food for Vance.

And I spent the next two years researching and trying new healthy dog food. First, he went from Iams to Nutro Max and he did pretty well on the Nutro dog food. But then there was the dog food recall and while the specific food he ate wasn’t on the list, I decided it was time to switch brands again. First stop was Flint River dog food which he didn’t like, plus he still had his dog allergies including itchy paws immediately after eating and ear infections, and, let’s face it, that stuff is expensive! (I don’t mind paying extra for top quality dog food that keeps my dog healthy, but it doesn’t make sense to me to pay more for dog food that he was allergic to.)

And that’s when I found Canidae dog food. The thing about Canidae food is that, aside from being impossible to pronounce ;-), it’s almost perfect. It’s a great price (by far the cheapest of the “premium” dog foods) and costs us about $5/week.

It comes in several formulas but not several *hundred* formulas like so many other foods these days so it’s easy to pick one type and stick with it (Vance loves the lamb, but they’re all right around the same price). Vance all but refuses to eat the chicken (he eats it, but only after leaving it in his bowl all day waiting for me to dress it up for him), though, so try out the small bags before you commit yourself to a 40 pounder. It typically tops nutrition lists of dog foods right alongside Flint River, and Blue Buffalo, but it’s a fraction of the cost.

Vance’s coat has never been shinier, he’s got the energy of a two-year-old (he’s almost six), his teeth are healthy, and he gobbles the stuff down.

In addition to the tricky pronunciation, the other drawback of feeding Candiae is that it can be hard to find. I get it online because when I was single I *hated* hauling big bags of dog food out of the store, so even though I have a big strong hubby (hi hon ;-)) to carry them for me now, it’s become second nature to just order online every two months. The closest place that sells it locally is almost 40 minutes away, so it’s nice to be able to just click and check out instead of fighting traffic, standing on line, and carrying the heavy bags to the car. (Now if only we’d get a grocery delivery service around here!)

And the ear infections and dog allergies? Gone. Completely ever since we started feeding Vance Canidae dog food. So, it seems that it was definitely a case of dog allergies either caused or exacerbated by dog food leading to the infections.

What’s been your experience with dog allergies? Have they affected your life with your dog at all?