My dog is a lean dog. He's got that perfect doggy shape where you can see his butt, legs belly and ribcage perfectly. Also, because he's an extremely active dog, you can even say that he looks rather cheetah-like while he's galloping across a field or playing tag with other doggies. We try to give him only the best food available. He gets exactly what he needs for his size, age, and activity level.
We didn't use to give him snacks but we broke down. He only snacks just before or after a walk and once again, his snacks are the healthiest we could find.
So..why is it that dogs will eat absolutely everything off the street? They eat tufts of grass, worms, sticks, rocks..and occasionally, I'll have to try to get him to drop a bottle cap he may have picked up. I just don't get this. They don't have taste buds so what are they getting out of this experience. Don't even get me started on what he eats out of my wastepaper basket in my bathroom. But somehow, everything goes in their mouths. They can't possibly be hungry! At least I don't think so.
This brings me to something strange I saw in my doggy. He has always eaten a particular type of dog food. But, we slowly started phasing it out and changed his diet to something just a little more healthy and suited to his lifestyle. It was a very slow introduction so that we wouldn't upset his tummy..(mind you, I don't know how we would be able to tell if an upset tummy came from the new dog food or the snails he was eating after a rainfall!!)
Anyways, once the phase out was complete, doggy ate this new dog food for about 3 days and then he stopped eating all together. I couldn't believe it. Here he was, ready to eat any garbage he could find, but he just wouldn't at his new food. I had to start slowly giving him his old food. I went back to the pet specialty store and told them my story. They suggested I buy 2 sample bags of 2 different types of meats. I had to put them side by side in 2 different bowls and I was supposed to see which one my doggy preferred. I could not believe that this garbage-eater was so finicky when it came to real food!! But, we tried it and it turns out he hates chicken, doesn't care for lamb, but is ok with beef.
And so it went, we started giving him the beef daily when all of a sudden he decided he didn't like it anymore. After about 2 days of hardly eating, I had to re-introduce his original dog food to the blend....and so it's been going. One week he loves the all beef flavour, and the next week he wants nothing to do with it. Remember, this is the dog that eats used Kleenexes off the street!! Somebody suggested to me it's because the weather has been quite warm and he's probably not all that hungry.
We'll see how it goes.
Which brings me to yesterday....We were at a friend's cottage for a BBQ. Tons of people and food everywhere. As I mentioned, my doggy only gets healthy food and never, ever, people food. But what did he do? As soon as we got there he jumped on a little 7 year old girl...tossed the plate out of her hand..and ran off with a ketchup covered hotdog!!! First time he ever has people food..and it's the worst kind around!!!
Oh yeah, and he never touched his own (good) food...
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They do have taste buds. Who told you they didn't? My God, have you ever seen a dog manage to get its paws on a lick of ice cream? With male dogs, the level of pleasure is... well, let's just say it shows. A lot. And they appreciate some variety in their food just like people do. I could go on and on with the subject of dogs and the unbelieveable things they eat.
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