Hi,

Wondering if anyone can help me. We have a 15 week old male Dobermann who's currently being feed on Nutro large breed puppy complete food. However, he is extremely hyperactive, snappy, bitey, and it's been suggested that it could be something in the food. Before anyone bites my head off and says all Dobermann puppies have moments when the lights are on but nobody's home :D this is our third Dobermann and we also have friends who have Dobermanns, and his behaviour is to the extreme.

He'll be playing quite happily one minute, and then the next he'll just snap and will run round the room lunging and biting at everyone, growling, crinkle nose, grabbing at anything and anyone, the lot. We're covered from shoulders to toes in bite marks, bruises, cuts, etc. The food thing is a last resort (although one of the first things a dog trainer who we spoke to suggested) as he's doing really well on Nutro condition-wise, but we're just out of other ideas. We've tried everything to lessen, or at least divert, the biting from buying half of the pet stores' supply of chew toys, kongs, organic vegetable bones, to yelping like a litter mate, growling like his mum would of, ignoring him and looking away/stopping play, isolating him (he just comes charging back in for more when time's up), distracting him (he'll dodge anything you put in his way to get to the must-have flesh), the usual NO (said in a hundred different tones and volumes to no avail), gently holding his mouth closed, using the off command (which he does know when he's not in one of his crazies). I never thought I would try it and I hope this doesn't kick off another debate about this method,  but we even tried a water spray bottle (he didn't care one bit!).

Obviously we don't expect anything to work overnight, or to have a puppy who never bites but absolutely nothing has any effect whatsoever. He's doing very well at training and knows lots of commands already but he entirely loses the plot and is literally out to lunch when he goes into one, so all verbal control is lost. He doesn't seem to hear anything you say, or pay attention to anything you do. He's not aggressive at all in other ways - you can put your hand in his food bowl, take items away from him that he's chewing on/playing with, get in his bed with him, pick him up, etc.

He's been like this pretty much from day 1. I did do a search and found some other posts from people saying Nutro seemed to tip their dogs behaviour over the edge too. I also read an article about dog food saying that corn is linked to behavioural concerns as it inhibits the uptake of serotonin, and that it metabolises in much the same way as sugar does in people. I also read that Beet Pulp is extremely high in sugar. Nutro has both these things. Could that be a possible answer? We're at a loss with what else to try.

Does anyone know what other large breed complete foods there are that are similar in quality (but preferably don't contain these ingredients!)?

Thanks!

I think you will find that your dobe is just being a dobe ;-)

Not a very helpful reply, Admin !  Just as well tohme has offered more constructive advice.
I've owned a dog very similar to this one and, believe me, it's no joke trying to cope and do your best for them.

Thanks joyce :) Glad someone knows what I'm talking about!

Why not try your dog on a food that does not contain maize (corn) such as Burns, Naturediet, JWB etc; what have you got to lose.  Generally there is not much sugar left in the sugar beet pulp, as it has all been extracted for human use; it is there as a filler.

If the dog still appears to be having a problem you may wish to read Val Strong's book The Dogs Dinner in which she explains the benefits of extra Vitamin B and a carbohydrate meal of say baked potato, pasta etc one hour after the normal one in cases of inhibited serotonin uptake.

regards

Thanks for the reply. We're definitely going to try our boy on another food - like you say, what have we got to lose. Do you know if it's vital that he has a food that's specifically for large breeds? JWB just seem to do a general puppy food but I checked the Burns website and I see that they do a canine extra food for large breeds so maybe we'll give that a go. I'll come back when we've completed the change over and let you know if there's been any change :)

I've also taken down the details of the book you suggested so I'll keep those at hand too.

No it is not vital that he is on a diet for large breeds; when I fed commercial dog food I never fed them a large breed diet and my breed would be of a similar size and activity level as your own.

Diet manipulation can assist many dogs in many different ways; sometimes alone or as part of a holistic treatment of your dog.

regards

Thanks - there's just so much choice out there now that it's hard to know what to do for the best. When our other Dobes were puppies the foods available were fewer and far more general. Anyway, we're off to the pet store this weekend so I'm just gonna zoom in on Burns. I really hope we might have found an answer here. I'm sure it would be a huge relief to him to if he found himself feeling more settled and calm.

I have a dobe puppy also (my second one) he is now 22 weeks and we have a similar problem with him.  Also occasionally he runs around chasing his tail (well stump of a tail), or he sees his willy and tries to get that - but he growls and bites.  Then all of a sudden he is back to normal again.  It seems to be with him when he gets a bit bored and wants someone to play with.