[Joanne B]

Charlie is a 3 year old shih-tzu/ poodle cross that I adopted from a rescue shelter. He has always been a little picky about his food. I thought I found a good mix when I combined Rawz turkey and Smack chicken. Last week, I tried to clip his nails. To my chagrin, he bit me and drew blood in 4 places (this was not the first time I have clipped his nails, so I am also concerned as to why he bit me). The dynamics of our relationship has changed some since then, and I am trying to regain his trust. The problem is, he has also stopped eating his food. I have been feeding him raw elk meat (my husband hunts) to make sure he eats something, but I would like to find a dehydrated food that he will eat. Any suggestions?

[anonymous]

How long have you had him? I have scars from a small breed, been on antibiotics twice. Some of those little ones can be aggressive.
It may be best if you take him to your vet clinic or groomers about every 8 weeks for a nail clip.
My poodle mix does well on Nutrisca salmon and chickpea kibble as a base with a spoonful of cooked lean meat or scrambled egg and a splash of water. Raw food sent her to the emergency vet x 2. Bowel obstructions, vomiting, diarrhea.

[HoundMusic]

For dogs that tend towards aggression, lowering the protein can sometimes help. I have a Beagle pup who gets “the crazies”, and will sometimes get so worked up that it turns into aggression :/ In this instance, switching him from puppy food to adult with 23% protein drastically reduced the hyperactivity. Sometimes dogs can get a reaction from certain types of protein, so if he’s been on chicken, try beef, lamb, fish, etc.

Ditto to anon101’s raw food warning. Lost count of the times over the years raw sent my dogs to the Vet (we also had a bowel obstruction once), and my second Beagle, who was a sweet, friendly little pupper turned into a food obsessed, aggressive, stand-offish jerk on raw. Completely changed his personality. That, and it most likely was the cause of his seizures.

[momofGSDs]

First have you taken him to the vet? When there has been a sudden change it could be health related.

As for the comments about Raw, absolutely not true. Raw does NOT change the dog and does not cause obstruction.

[Susan W]

If you need a good quality lower protein food, try Verus Opticoat or Adult maintenance. You can contact them for free samples so you can try before you buy.

[Susan W]

Also! Try adding a little baby food to his dog food (not to his raw elk).

[Acroyali]

If your dog has stopped eating, and has bitten you bad enough to draw blood in 4 places during a routine procedure he’s done without issue in the past, I’d get to the vet. Yesterday. Something could be wrong, or hurting bad enough, that eating is the last thing on his mind and being messed with creates cranky behavior. (I liken it to having the stomach flu and having a manicure or facial done. I normally enjoy those things, but not when I feel rotten. If your dog feels poorly, this could explain his reaction but a vet visit is an absolute MUST to figure out what, and where, the source of the problem could be.)

I’ve fed raw for many, many years and have never had a dog “turn” on me, so I can’t offer any suggestions on that. (My personal experiences have been dogs that are more even-tempered, less high-strung and much easier to live with and train when fed a species appropriate diet.) Over the years I’ve had only two pets that couldn’t handle raw, and those instances were due to health problems in the gut. One was able to be on raw once he healed, the other was not and ate homemade cooked.

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