The Conical Glass: Dog chow

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Dog chow

A little while ago, our dog, Hobie, started having some -- how do I say this delicately? -- rather unpleasant issues involving elimination. What's more, he often seemed uninterested in eating his food. For as long as we'd had him, we'd been feeding him an ultra-premium brand of dry dog food called Wysong that his "foster mom" -- the dog rescue person from whom we adopted him -- had recommended. Wysong is no supermarket brand; there are only a couple of pet food stores in the area that carry it. It's so packed with vitamins and minerals and omega 3 fatty acids and enzymes that I figured Hobie was probably eating a more nutritious diet than we were. But the fact that mealtime no longer seemed to be a highlight of his day worried me. Plus, he seemed rather lethargic. When I took him to the vet, he'd lost a little over three pounds, which is no small matter for a dog that only weighed about 21 pounds at his peak.

The vet gave us some antibiotics, ran some tests, and said to put Hobie on a bland diet of chicken and rice. After a few days of cooking for him (I don't even like to cook for myself), I stopped by the pet food store to see if there were any prepared chicken and rice options. After getting the vet's okay, I started feeding him Canidae canned food. Again, this is a super-exclusive brand -- "human quality meat," according to the web site. Yum! (At least it doesn't say "quality human meat," 'cause that would be gross.)

To say that Hobie enjoys the Canidae would be an understatement. After the tests confirmed that his insides were normal and he had finished two courses of antibiotics, I started giving him a 50-50 mix of dry and canned foods. Now I feel guilty for having restricted him to kibble for all these years. I have never seen a more enthusiastic dog. He may be around 11 years old, but he has the energy of a puppy. Unfortunately, this has been manifesting itself earlier and earlier in the morning. It used to be that given the opportunity, Hobie would often sleep in 'til 9 or 10 AM; now we no longer need to worry about setting the alarm on weekdays, because he wakes us up. I take him out, he does his business quickly, and then rushes back inside, because it's time for food! He bounds around the kitchen as I hurriedly put the kibble in his dish and top it with a couple spoonfuls of chicken and rice. After I put it down, he usually finishes it in 60 seconds or less. He is not a decorous eater.

In the late afternoon, once the sun begins to set and dinner time approaches, he goes out into the hallway and waits until I get up from the computer to feed him. In a somewhat futile effort to try and control his morning awakening, we decided to feed him on a strict schedule: breakfast at 8:15 AM, dinner at 7:15 PM. Today, I sat on the couch reading the newspaper as I waited for the appointed hour to arrive; he was practically vibrating like a tuning fork until I went to the kitchen at last. (Actually, it was more like 8:20 today. Hey, a girl's got to finish the Jumble.)

So essentially, I am once again the owner of a healthy, happy dog, but my sleep has been severely cut back as a result. The jingle of his collar tags in the morning has turned into an ominous sound. As for Hobie, he's still getting his 16 or so hours of sleep a day; once he's licked his bowl clean, he settles down and enjoys a long, long nap.

posted by 125records @ 9:51 PM

2 Comments:

At 6:11 PM, Carrie said…

I can relate. Our dog Rosie is 14 and she gets 1/3 can of Nutrience Senior dog food and she can't wait for her breakfast in the morning. As soon as I come back from driving Hannah to her bus at 7am she is waiting at the door for me. She always has dry food in her dish but her favorite is the canned. I think she's almost totally deaf now though :(
At 6:21 PM, yellojkt said…

These premium brands are very confusing. We stick to lamb and rice because of his skin conditions. We only feed him dry and I think canned dog food would actually upset it.