Milo
It took me a while to tell these two beautiful little dogs apart, but they are very different really. Milo is more nervous but more bossy. Merlin is more confident but the bigger barker.
Milo loves to be cuddled, but Merlin may grumble if touched or moved against his will.
Both are show dogs so they are entire. You can see how beautifully groomed Milo is.
Starting to fall out with change of diet
The two used to play together and get on famously until, strangely, a few weeks ago their diet was changed. It was changed to raw meat, chicken wings, cooked rice and what should be an excellent diet.
However, it brought out food aggression, especially over the chicken wings. Although they have been withdrawn, things have never been the same since. With feeding ‘real food’, raw or cooked, it can be quite a responsibility getting the dietary balance right. It’s a known fact that too much protein can affect hyperactivity just as the additives and colourings in certain complete brands can.
All is not quite well in other respects though, so this was maybe just the catalyst.
Obsessive lickers and high stress levels
Both dogs have been obsessive lickers of carpets, sofas etc. As soon as they are stressed in any way, they turn to licking in order to ease it – releasing the calming pheromones. It’s understandable that they shout at them each time they start. We demonstrated while I was there that although they wouldn’t be distracted, by ignoring it they actually stopped a lot sooner.
The dogs are now growling at each other much of the time. Milo eyeballs and controls Merlin. Merlin growls. Milo then
growls.
They growl around the lady owner and around doorways. They are constantly ‘ready to go’ as soon as they hear something outside.
Barking frantically they skid across the kitchen floor in a race to get to the back door first, resulting in a scrap when they get there. Again, shouting at dogs for barking makes it worse. They could even think you are joining in with more angry noise.
It’s also unfair when the dogs are doing the job they have been given. Best is to relieve them of the job!
Revert to previous diet
I suggest the dogs revert to their original diet seeing as it was working well. Having chosen the highest quality dry brand available, they should avoid all the extras which have no nutritional value and upset the careful nutritional balance.
Everything should be done to keep the dogs as calm as possible.
When I ask people for a list of the things that stir their dogs up, it’s surprising just how many stressful, over-exciting or over-stimulating things can be cut right down or avoided altogether.
A month has passed by: “we have seen a vast improvement since we first saw you…… they played a little last week. It was only for a minute or so but Milo was the one who instigated it, which made me really happy. I haven’t seen them play together for so long, so it was really nice – made my day and showed that we are doing the right things.
