Katie’s Beer

I haven’t written for a few days. That’s probably because Kirby the dog has been Kirby the great black beast. We’ve been dealing with terrible behavior! Nipping non-stop, hyper in the evenings, hungry all the time and just general naughtiness! A 10 week old ball of flesh and fur has driven me to tears and anger more than once in the past week. HOWEVER, I think I’ve found some solutions and his behavior has improved some. Actually, a lot.

First, food. I don’t remember if I mentioned that we began making his own food due to his bout of vomiting and recovery from roundworms. The vet had me give him brown rice, chicken and chicken broth. I also added in cooked carrots. It was the first food he really showed interest in and the diet had such a remarkable effect on his well-being and appearance that I decided to continue the diet. To make sure he got all his nutrients, I added back in some dog food. Well, then we were back at square one - he doesn’t like dog food. He was hungry all the time. He’d tolerate the dog food in his beloved rice and chicken, but still ended up hungry. This was not helping his already difficult puppy behavior. I did some research and decided to try NutriSource Large Breed Puppy, based on our vet’s recommendation to try a large breed puppy formula. I don’t know if it was happiness or pre-menopause, but I bawled when he chowed down that first bowl. What a stupid load of worry off my mind! I didn’t even follow the practice of gradually switching him to the new food. He had only very minor loose stools in the sudden switch. I do still add a little whole milk to his food, but will phase that out. Also, I changed up his feeding schedule. He eats at 6am, noon, and then I split up his supper into two parts 5pm and 7pm. He eats 1 1/2 cups of dog food with a little milk in it. Splitting the supper into two parts was the vet’s idea to keep him more satisfied in the evening.

Second, sleep. It amazes me how someone who reads as voraciously as me remained clueless into the daily expectations of puppy life. I have found very little in books and online about how much my puppy should sleep. Finally, though. We have a schedule. He goes to bed around 10pm and wakes up just once to go outside. The sun is coming up by 5am right now in Minnesota, so I’m doing good just to get him to stay quiet until 6am. He goes outside for a little bit and then is ready for breakfast! After breakfast, I try to get him to relax a little while his breakfast digests and I attempt to get a little computer time in. At 7am we head out for our walk, stopping at Starbucks for a small mocha latte (me, not him). By 7:45am we are back; he heads to the kennel and I get ready for work. He sleeps until noon, eats lunch, plays a little and then goes back to sleep until 4pm. He plays some more and I feed him when I get home. For the first couple of weeks, I felt like I had to keep him up from 5pm to 10pm to make sure he slept well at night. My mom, who has raised four labs, suggested that I lay him down again around 6pm and walk him again at 8pm. This new schedules really helps in keeping him from getting so wound up at night.

Lastly, biting! He is finally responding to “no bite!”. Good thing, cuz that wasn’t earning him any points with our family. Smart move on his part.

Tags: dogs //