Thanks very much, Shelly. Having reviewed your posts in
a previous thread, I will take your advice "Under Advisement".
No reply is necessary.

Cheers,
Puddin'

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:04:04 -0400, shelly
wrote:

Puddin' Man wrote:

I am similarly inclined. But there's no way for me to know
if 'maintenance' is better/worse for her than 'senior',
so I followed the vet's advice sorta blindly.

That's certainly your prerogative, but it's not something I would do.

I've *never* allowed her to eat from the yard/street.

Then who is allowing her to do so?

Have you heard of "Bonkers Brittanies"? She is a -very-
active pooch, her nickname is Crazy Birddawg.

So? She should be getting the bulk of her exercise by some other
method than walking, because walking will not even begin to put a
dent in her exercise needs.

She
naturally walks with her furry birddawg nose to the
ground: she can identify/chomp a morsel in about
.3 picoseconds. I walk her up to 4 times a day.
Normally she gets up to 16 feet of freedom
from the retractable leash, and loves it. To
prevent the errant chomp, I'd have to walk her
at a heel (very difficult for both of us).

Again, it's your prerogative to allow her to do so, but if it were
me, I would discontinue walking her on a retractable lead, and I
would work on "leave it" and "give." I'd also work on getting her
attention on me, and not scrounging for snacks.

But, if your are happy with things as they are, by all means, carry on!


Pease pudding hot,
Pease pudding cold,
Pease pudding in the pot
Nine days old.

Puddin' Man wrote:
Thanks very much, Shelly. Having reviewed your posts in
a previous thread, I will take your advice "Under Advisement".

Right back atcha. I'll be sure not to bother in future.

--
Shelly (Warning: see label for details)
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Puddin' Man said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

Thanks very much, Shelly. Having reviewed your posts in
a previous thread, I will take your advice "Under Advisement".
No reply is necessary.

Like it or not, her advice was bang on.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Rocky wrote:

Like it or not, her advice was bang on.

Thanks. I don't think he was really looking to solve his problem,
though, unfortunately.

--
Shelly (Warning: see label for details)
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

In article ,
Rocky wrote:
Like it or not, her advice was bang on.

I thought so, too. The one thing is that when you don't
have access to a lot of information and you don't know how
to sort through what you've got, relying on your vet isn't a
bad place to start (although I'll admit that I've been
spoiled by my wonderful vets). It's all about successive
approximation when you don't have the luxury of studying it
first and then applying it.

But other than that, definitely. Esp. the exercise part.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

Melinda Shore wrote:

I thought so, too. The one thing is that when you don't
have access to a lot of information and you don't know how
to sort through what you've got, relying on your vet isn't a
bad place to start (although I'll admit that I've been
spoiled by my wonderful vets).

Vets are definitely the best, first source of information for most
owners. What raised my eyebrows is the admission that he
acknowledged that he was following the vet's advice "blindly." He
had no other reason for changing feeds, and it doesn't sound like he
even discussed it with the vet. If my vet told me "You should be
feeding X," I'd ask why.

Maybe the OP thought the answer would be obvious ("Duh, the dog is a
senior.")? Even so, I would take that opportunity to talk more
thoroughly with the vet about the reasoning behind the advice.
Heck, I've even done so when the vet was recommending a prescription
diet. Why? What will the diet hopefully accomplish? How long
should it be fed? What are the drawbacks? Are there alternative
feeds available?

I've *always* got questions, and I take advantage of every
opportunity to talk to a vet. Blindly saying "Oh, okay," just
doesn't make sense to me, especially when you then turn around and
ask complete strangers the very same questions you *should* have
asked your vet in the first place.

But other than that, definitely. Esp. the exercise part.

Maybe the OP should watch St. Cesar?

--
Shelly (Warning: see label for details)
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

In article ,
shelly wrote:
Vets are definitely the best, first source of information for most
owners. What raised my eyebrows is the admission that he
acknowledged that he was following the vet's advice "blindly."

Fair enough.

Maybe the OP should watch St. Cesar?

Hail Cesar!
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

Much thanks to diddy, Kathleen, and buglady for exclusively
helpful info.

The problem now seems to be under control.

Some dialog from another group can be found below.

Cheers,
Puddin'

Foraging is a pretty natural thing for dogs and doing this does not
necessarily equate with hunger. It's pretty instinctive (from a
survival point of view) to eat anything edible when they come upon
it. That being said, with all the trash that can smell like food it
is better if they are not allowed to do this....especially in urban
areas. As Lisa suggested, you need to be right on top of this and
teach a "drop-it-leave-it".

This was taught long ago. Sometimes she is just too fast ...

Also, I agree that so-called "senior" food is just a marketing
ploy...older dogs still need quality protein and usually the senior
foods have just decreased the protein amount, which is in fact a
poor nutritional decision. In addition, Science Diet is one of the
poorest quality foods available. Some of their prescription stuff is
okay for limited times, but otherwise has little to offer a dog but
vitamins/minerals that have been added to junk

Much thanks. I should've posted a query -before- purchasing.

After this bag of Sci. Diet, I guess I'll put her back on Eukanuba
Maintenance. Or maybe get the EM and mix 'em until the
SD is gone. Can't afford to pitch the SD.


"A truly good birddawg, even if you never, ever hunt her,
is a Precious, Precious Thing! Mayhap ruin ya for
homo sapiens ..."