Toby is now 14 months old, the first year of his life has been great but also hard work at times, well now all that hard work seems to be paying off,
we had one last thing to get Toby through and that was stopping him from getting so excited when people call at the house, he was jumping at them and get so excited, but we've cracked it,
We did it by making him sit and wait, if he still didnt behave we would put him in the kitchen, its taken a long time but now when people call he sits waits and when people go and fuss him he does'nt jump at them,
we had our dishwasher repaired this week, the man came in the house and until the man took notice of Toby he just laid on the floor and ignored him, im so proud,
Toby seems to have calmed down so much in the last few weeks, we changed his food recently, to Burns i just wondered if that could have something to do with it, he was on Beta which is about 24% protein, he is now on Burns which has 18.5% protein, only i have heard that a high protein diet can make some dogs hypo.

Heidi

I don't think it is the protein itself that is the problem otherwise how come all our raw fed dogs are not bouncing off the walls...............?

What I do think is that some foods contain an awful lot of additives, colourings, preservatives which we know can impact on behaviour and health as recent studies on children have proved.

Also you have to factor in the other constituents of the dog food which also have an effect.  For example maize, which is can be the largest single ingredient of some dog foods, especially those "prescribed" by the vet, is tryptophan deficient; tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin and when the uptake is impeded for some reason this does have an effect on behaviour.

Also, she says boring the pants off everyone, the protein %age on the packet has not got a lot to do with what %age of the protein is actually available to the dog.  Neither does it quantify what is complete/incomplete protein. So whether or not the label says it is X %age of protein generally does not have a lot to do with the price of fish.  (IMHO)

Thankyou Tohme,
I must say i didnt think about the additives and colourings common sense really, my son goes hypo with colourings,

Heidi

I think you mean hyper. Hypoactive would be low activity. Anyhow, congratulations on getting your dog to behave. I think your training and patience is paying off.

Carrie

Thankyou Carrie, yes i ment hyper, it feels so good when all that hard work pays off,
we were out walking today and we met one of Tobys mates (terrier) for some reason the dog snapped at Toby so Toby just came away, a little while later Toby went to say hello again, he laid on the grass in a submissive manner, he is such a softy and they made friends again :)

Heidi

I make loads of spilling mistakes Heidi, don't worry about it :D

finding as i get older the spelling gets worse :D

Heidi

snap! :p

Oh Heidi...I'm the world's worst speller!!!! Too lazy to check so I just write.

Carrie