Izzy, Lenore, in the snow

June 30, 2008 – I’m starting a new feature on the Farm Journal: “It’s A Dog’s Life” talking regularly about issues relating to dogs, from managing a multiple dog household to eating, food and health care problems.
  I deal with a lot of dog issues, and I realized this weekend that I’m often too preoccupied gassing on about my life or farm crises, and sometimes forget to share my canine experiences, training discoveries, and other thoughts. That’s a mistake. Dogs are, in many ways, the heart of my Bedlam Farm experience.
 I hope to post “It’s A Dog’s Life” several times a week.
  This week I gave up canned dog food, wet food. I’ve been spending a lot of money getting high-quality canned food to mix with the dry kibble I give my dogs. One reason I did this was that I have a multiple dog household, and I need to encourage quick and efficient eating. Lenore would eat a chair leg if you put it in her bowl, but Rose and Izzy are pickier and sometimes wander around while eating. Rose could care less about food if there’s any work to do, and she often passes up a meal, and  I didn’t want squabbling or chaos while eating, so I started mixing in some wet food to encourage quick and efficient eating.
  Last week, it occurred to me that there was really no good reason for this. It is expensive, and (I checked with a couple of vets) usually completely unnecessary. Sometimes there are health and nutritional reasons for mixing the food, or for using wet food, but none in the case of Izzy, Lenore and Rose.
  So last week, I put down three bowls of dry kibble. Rose walked away at first, then returned. Lenore didn’t seem to notice and neither did Izzy. I’ve never heard of a dog starving to death when food was available, so I knew I had to patient and wait them all out. I did, and now we are eating dry kibble happily twice a day, and I am saving money, not having to worry about cans, and the eating process is faster and more efficient.
  There is a difference between what we think dogs need and want them to have, and what they actually need and need to have. I am still learning that. I dropped dental treats a month or so ago, as my dog’s teeth are quite healthy and nobody but some marketers in Ohio think expensive dental treats are necessary for dogs with healthy gums and teeth.