I have had what I thought was an untrainable dog for two years. I researched seperation anxiety, and contacted many trainers and the breeder of my dog and came up with nothing. All my dogs issues would not be fixed, and I was losing sleep, hair, sanity, and maybe my wife.I found a family who wanted the dog as I had all but given up on him. The dog was to go to them the same day my wife was traveling to see her family down south and she couldn't get the dog into her plans. So we took the dog to the kennel for the weekend. Just before this all happened I changed his food to an all red meat no grain kibble to cut down on the poop I was picking up in the yard, and to see if he would gain a little weight as he was a bit light. My wife went to the kennel to pick him up and the lady there said she thought our normally loud dog had died because he was so quiet. We took him home and he was very quiet and acted as a normal dog would. When I came home from work I thought he was sick. He played with his frisbee and his kong on a rope just as he always did, but around the house he was mellow and relaxed. Then we figured the food may be the cause. I cancelled our new home for the dog, as I was not getting rid of him if it was food related. I felt bad for him. We waited for the insane anxiety to come back but it never did until... we tried him on some chicken based dog food. The dog started to get mental and vocal after only two days on the new food. The pet food store was out of red meat food. I didn't know how many dog foods have chicken in them. Even the Lamb and rice formulas have chicken. Has anyone else had a similar reaction with their dog?

Are you talking about allergy to chicken ?? Strange that no one brought up this question though I'm not a dog owner. In people allergies are often involved with behaviour problems such a depression, hyperactivity etc.

It could be the preservatives in the food perhaps.
We did a food trial with our work dogs Australia wide and the top two foods were Eukanuba and an Aussie brand called Bonnie. Eukanuba is a chicken based product and that is what we feed the work dogs BUT Bonnie was the best, however the company was small and couldn't supply the Airforce with the amounts we needed. Bonnie has since been bought by the Purina company who market their own food under the Bonnie name. The traditional Bonnie is still being made and is called Bonnie Working Dog. This food is 100% kangaroo meat. Very good dry food.

If your looking for a good diet you could try the BARF Diet. Please keep us informed as I would be very interested in the results.

Bakes

Howdy PoppaW,

Is this the weim you posted about awhile back?

If so I'm very interested. Although I must say our weim has settled down since we switched to proplan performance. I was thinking he had just matured. He has stopped chewing the firewood pile, shoes, yard toys, etc.

Maybe it was the food!?

Hey GoWyo,

Yes this is the same dog. Right now we have him on Lamb and rice and he is not as well behaved as when we had him on all red meat formula. I will be looking very closely at other ingredients in the foods we give him to see if it is chicken or possibly another ingredient. I just talked to a Rottie owner who changed food and had similar results, almost over night. I can't remember the food he was giving and is giving now... Will keep you posted.

Had a dog I had to entice to get to eat. Tried various proplan foods and getting sick and lack of enthuisiasm eating was common place. Went to a raw diet and all changed. He loved the beef, chicken, deer etc. Long and short of it is we have found high quality packaged for humans protein and bones have been a godsend. Rescued a 9 year old Gordon who was so crippled that she could hardly get around. She was on a special vet diet for arthritis. The Raw diet had her running in the back yard within a month. Not for everyone but it worked for us.