December 2006 a wonderful little homeless dog named Cooper came into our lives.  Here’s a link to his story and a video(actually 2 videos on site) hosted by the Houston Chronicle, but that’s just to give you some background. Cooper’s video

Cooper has been a member of our family since January 2007 and he has blossomed and flourished with good food - the typical 2 squares a day, the everyday company of the love of his life, our black lab Sammy

The Love of Cooper's LIfe

and of course he knows he’s safe.  No more living on the streets, under abandoned houses,  getting out of the way of cars.  

Now I know that usually my post are always about dog behavior, dog training and all that other good stuff, but, it’s always at this time of year when we look at Cooper, it always warms our hearts and literally makes my wife get teary eyed.  So please put up with our sentimentality this once.  

We were laughing at Cooper the other day because he still has one character trait from living on the streets that he can’t see to overcome - hoarding!

Throughout the day Cooper will walk around the house or the yard and pick up what he perceives as “treasures”, anything from a stick, a piece of tissue dropped on the floor, a piece of fluff from a much played with toy, a ball, a sock.  You name it.  All of this is done very quietly and discreetly.  The funniest is when he will wait at the den door while the other dogs are playing with some partially mauled stuffed toy and when the dogs are done playing and they’re looking elsewhere,  Cooper will hop over quietly, pick the treasure up in his mouth and run back to his bed in our bedroom and make the deposit.

By the end of the day, there will be a mound of treasures in Cooper’s bed, so many that there’s no room for Cooper.  So, my wife will clear them away, put them in the den, knowing full well that the next day the ritual begins again.  Guess what Cooper’s getting for Christmas—–a shopping cart to help with his daily job!    Happy Holidays everyone.
Jim Burwell’s Petiquette

One of my clients has a 7-8 month old male Borzoi that is turning out to be a really fine dog.  We have taught his dog to sit, down, stand, stay, go to bed, wait when told, respect boundaries in the home and he won’t go into the street without a certain leash attached.  Pretty darn good huh!

After complimenting the owner and the dog, on a job well done I asked to what he contributed his success in his dog’s training.  The answer was exactly what I expected.  He replied, “a lot of hard work, consistency and repetition doing the training exercises you taught me Jim.”  ”It’s a lot like raising a child.”  

He also acknowledged that he didn’t know how people with full time jobs found the time (he’s semi-retired) to train their dogs.  This brings up a good point.

Prioritize your goals with your dog and  just work on them one at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed with doing everything at once.  Not only will you get frustrated, but your dog will become frustrated and he/she will begin to dislike training because you get impatient with them—again, like kids.

I am with clients for a short time out of the entire life of their dog.  My clients and you as dog owners have “the life of your dog” to work on training goals.  Take it slow but be consistent - and work on something every day.

Just like Mick Jagger says, “time, time, time is on my side yes it is”

The payoff will well be worth it—I promise. 

Jim Burwell

As we’ve talked about before, what your dog eats can affect his behavior.  We’ve also mentioned that high quality dog food will not be found in a supermarket, a convenience store, a discount grocery store etc.

I’ve listed below some things you need to look for when purchasing your dog’s food.  You read the labels on the food you purchase for your family—do the same for your dog he IS just as important!

First ingredient should be a good quality protein such as:  chicken, lamb, beef, turkey, salmon.  If the list begins with chicken meal, lamb meal etc those are also very acceptable protein sources but not quite as high quality.  This point is important: Ingredients are listed by weight,  if the first ingredient is a whole meat, say chicken— because there is a lot of water in fresh meat, there MUST be another quality protein source before the 5th or 6th listed ingredient or the food does not actually contain a lot of animal protein.  But if it starts out with chicken and chicken meal or lamb meal for number two or three on the list, chances are the product contains an admirable amount of animal protein.

No meat or poultry by-products!  Unless the fat (usually labeled animal fat) or protein (labeled meat meal) is identified by precise species of fat or protein that’s not good.

No artificial color, flavors or preservatives.  Natural preservatives such as vitamins E and C which sometimes are called mixed tocopherols.  Just as an FYI did you know that Ethoxyquin (sometimes used in dog foods as a preservative) was developed by Monsanto to preserve rubber in tires! No corn syrup, sorbitol, manitol.

So, where does that leave you? More educated I hope.  Here is a partial list of good dog foods.  You can easily find good dog foods at quality pet resorts, private pet stores and  some of them you can find at PetCO and PetSmart.  You can ALWAYS go on the internet, look up the brand of food you want to feed your dog and they will tell you where you can purchase it.

Here’s a list of dog food to get you started:  Natural Balance, Nature’s Variety, Nutro’s Products, Solid Gold, Eagle Pack, Merrick, Wellness, Drs. Foster and Smith, Natura Pet Products, Old Mother Hubbard, Wysong and the one we feed is Canidae.  Just because I’ve linked some and not all does not mean they are better than the others.  I was just showing you how easy it is to find the food online and where to buy it.

I will not go into the Bad and the Ugly, BUT if you look at the labels and remember what information I’ve shared you can figure that out real quick.  Here’s another little tip for you.  There is a wonderful publication called Whole Dog Journal that is like the Consumer Reports for Dogs - subscribe to it!

Bon Appetite

Jim Burwell’s Petiquette

Here’s a question for you.  Has your dog developed bad oral behaviors such as chewing, pica (eating non-edible, non-nutritional things) stealing food or begging at the table?  I’ll bet there are a lot of YES’s out there.  Here’s some food for thought - pun definitely intended!

Dogs in the 6 to 18 month age range may no longer need growth nutrients as they enter this maintenance stage of life which requires only half of the growth nutrients of earlier months.  

As dogs enter this stage, owners usually experience the dog turning up it’s nose at the morning or evening meal so the owner begins to think the dog  only needs one meal a day when what it really needs is just half as much food.

If the dog is then only fed once a day, the dog is left with an empty stomach for most of its waking hours. This could cause hunger tension which in turn can cause chewing, stealing food and so on. See the connection?   Owners continue to mess up the equation by beginning to give the dog tidbits at the “missed” meal time. 

While some dogs do well with one meal a day, others do not. The difference is their metabolism rate—yup, the dreaded metabolism!  Other stressors in their environment like exercise and temperature can weigh heavily on a dog’s appetite as well.  When it’s hot a dog’s appetite can decrease.

It is still best to feed two meals a day and remember - require they work for their food by performing sits and downs before the bowl goes down.

Jim Burwell

Have you heard the old saying “you are what you eat?”  We eat what and when we want to eat.  Dogs eat what you feed them, when you feed them.  What you feed your dog could be contributing to his bad dog behavior.  

When I speak with clients about “out of control”, “rowdy” “jumping” dogs, one of the things on my check list is diet. Now, don’t get me wrong, here.  I am NOT saying “change the diet, fix the dog!”  What I am saying is simply this:  carbohydrates (wheat, flour, or corn) can increase the serotonin levels in your dog’s brain. Increased serotonin levels can cause excitability in dogs and you get a wild, rowdy dog.  

While diet can be one of the contributors to excitability and bad behavior in dogs, changing your dog’s diet can be “part” of the cure.  

Look for premium dog food that is high in quality protein and low in carbohydrates.  You CAN NOT find a healthy, premium dog food at the supermarket or Walmart or Sams!  I repeat, you can not find a healthy, premium dog food at the supermarket, Sams, Walmart or other such places.  Go to good Pet Resorts, private pet stores etc.

Don’t expect to see immediate changes in your dog’s behavior.  It can take from 4 days to 4 weeks to see change.  This is also assuming that your dog is getting adequate amounts of exercise AND you are working on dog training to redirect the bad behavior to good behavior.

Next post we will talk about feeding one time a day vs. twice a day.  I’ll also throw in some names of good dog foods and how to read the labels.  Stay tuned!

Jim Burwell, Jim Burwell’s Petiquette