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No bad deed goes unpunished....


ejano

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So, it's the holiday season...there's a lot of tempting food around (nothing with raisins in it!) so the mutts might be forgiven a little counter surfing here and there, the odd cookie...a crumb of this... but today, the bar has been raised beyond forgivable.

 

A number of pricier items have disappeared, among them a half of loaf of artisan bread AND the remains of the Christmas ham . (DH left it sitting on the kitchen counter to go answer the phone....) Naturally the Red Dog was earning the blame but he wasn't in the house when the ham disappeared and we now have discovered that it is Brodie, the quiet one who has, since we have been adding things like mashed potatoes and turkey gravy to his food to encourage him to eat (he's gained three whole pounds!), has developed a taste for "people food". Since we are no longer giving him a chance to stash his kibble, he is swiping the "people food", and hiding it but, the others discover and claim his stash - Whoa boy! Manna from heaven! Look at this! Ladybug came wandering out of the spare bedroom with the loaf of bread and Robin discovered the ham behind the wastebasket in the kitchen.

 

Poor Brodie....the thief, never got to enjoy his spoils and I am once again on watch for digestive problems for Robin as he ingested maybe three pounds of boneless precooked ham in one large gulp then bolted out the door with Brodie hot on his heels. Pity he didn't barf the whole thing up!

 

Does anyone else out there have a dog that exhibits this kind of eating patterns -- hoarding food/ eating just enough to avert starvation? He's happier now that I"m giving him mashed potatoes and gravy!

 

I'm also thinking about just feeding him once a day now as he rarely eats his morning cup of food and he seems to eat better at night - he'll eat a cup and a half at night and if he eats a cup and a half, I'm happy. He weighs forty pounds. (Up from 37 a month ago) but if I don't put some treat on the food, he won't eat it and his weight falls right off again.

 

Our Lucky girl would hide her food but I always thought it was because she'd been a stray....Brodie hasn't had a hungry day in his life. His mother hides her food as well and so does at least one of his sisters...

 

Liz

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Yikes! I hope the ham doesn't cause problems for Robin. I will say that Tundra, known as the dog with the stomach of iron, pulled over a crock pot and ate the ENTIRE Christmas ham last year. Other than you didn't want to be in the same room with her, she was fine.

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Yikes! I hope the ham doesn't cause problems for Robin. I will say that Tundra, known as the dog with the stomach of iron, pulled over a crock pot and ate the ENTIRE Christmas ham last year. Other than you didn't want to be in the same room with her, she was fine.

 

Thanks for the reassurance. It was about four PM and so far no ill effects.....he doesn't even smell funny -- it was a Hatfield precooked boneless, so there's not many spices in it. But... DH also gave him his DINNER and the darned dog ATE it!

 

I've got the ying and yang of Border Collies -- if I could take the weight off of Robin and put it on Brodie, I'd be very happy. Brodie zings around him like a mosquito when they play. Robin has put on about ten extra pounds and he just can't keep up. (That's how I know he didn't stash the ham -- we were over at the farm, running up and down what I refer to as "Cardiac Hill" down into the orchard. :)

 

We've got sheep coming in the spring! Got to get in shape, the Red Dog and me!

 

Liz

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I feel you're pain.

 

Jude doesn't eat if I try to feed him a meal, or meals. I tried the whole leave it out for a certain amount of time, do this, do that, he'll eat when he is hungry. But going on a couple days worries me way too much. He isn't a very food motivated dog anyway, and he's always afraid to miss something if he takes a minute to eat. No matter what I tried. So I just started leaving his food out like you would a cat, and he takes a munch here and there. Luckily he's an only dog, so this works for us.

 

People food is a different story though. I don't know if he was spoiled by his breeder (HIGHLY doubt it) or something, but after months of kibble not working out too well, I gave in and supplemented his food with people stuff. So between his kibble gobbles, bones, and "people treats", he's a healthy 50 lb monster.

 

I can't wait to be able to completely do raw with him, I know he'll be a great eater then.

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Have you tried raw? Making one raw meal a day (the other meal is kibble with some sort of topper) for my two really picky, practically non-eaters made a huge difference in their eating patterns. Neither one is ever going to be a Hoover, and Ranger is still thinner than I'd like, but they both eat better now.

 

If Brodie will eat cooked oatmeal (it's people food!), you could give him that for one meal a day. I've always found that oatmeal helps put weight on.

 

J.

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Have you tried raw? Making one raw meal a day (the other meal is kibble with some sort of topper) for my two really picky, practically non-eaters made a huge difference in their eating patterns. Neither one is ever going to be a Hoover, and Ranger is still thinner than I'd like, but they both eat better now.

 

If Brodie will eat cooked oatmeal (it's people food!), you could give him that for one meal a day. I've always found that oatmeal helps put weight on.

 

J.

 

I'm thinking this is the pattern I'm going to be following, except I'm going to try the one meal a day for awhile and see how that works. Neither one of them eat the morning meal with much enthusiasm.

 

I've been talking with the breeder and the pup she kept (as well as "Mom") is the same as Brodie -- very slim and also stashes food. She feeds mostly raw, with some kibble added as free food - We've both found that the Diamond Naturals lamb and rice works best for them (Robin and Ladybug seem to do well on anything). She leaves free food, but I can't do that -- Robin Hoovers up everything the other two aren't eating - So it's oatmeal, mashed potatoes and turkey/chicken gravy on his kibble for Brodie, but no HAM!

 

Robin BTW, is just fine this morning! Hope Kat continues to improve.

 

Liz

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I feel you're pain.

 

Jude doesn't eat if I try to feed him a meal, or meals. I tried the whole leave it out for a certain amount of time, do this, do that, he'll eat when he is hungry. But going on a couple days worries me way too much. He isn't a very food motivated dog anyway, and he's always afraid to miss something if he takes a minute to eat. No matter what I tried. So I just started leaving his food out like you would a cat, and he takes a munch here and there. Luckily he's an only dog, so this works for us.

 

People food is a different story though. I don't know if he was spoiled by his breeder (HIGHLY doubt it) or something, but after months of kibble not working out too well, I gave in and supplemented his food with people stuff. So between his kibble gobbles, bones, and "people treats", he's a healthy 50 lb monster.

 

I can't wait to be able to completely do raw with him, I know he'll be a great eater then.

 

Part of the reason Brodie hides his, I think, is because Robin is the "pick up man" for anything anybody leaves around....though I only feed in their crates and try to make sure the mudroom door is shut so they can't get back in there once they're let out. I have attached inexpensive salt horse feeders to their crate doors because Brodie would tip over his dish and hide his kibble under the mat in his crate. I made the mistake of putting a dish into the feeder containing his kibble and mashed potatoes and he tipped it over and proceeded to "concrete" the side of his crate with the food....arggh what a mess! He wasn't ready to eat yet, so he thought he'd "save it for later". Firm rule NO MORE FOOD LEFT IN THE CRATES!!!!

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