[aquariangt]

If you read through the rest of this thread, you will see that neither of these brands will likely ever make editor’s choice

[aquariangt]

Akari is correct-even looking at a dog in the eyes is not good language in dog world. I highly recommend finding a behaviorist (not that I think your dog has necessarily behavior problems, but dealing with a pregnant bitch is usually a bit tougher than a normal obedience trainer will be able to help you with) and most importantly, everyone that is around the dog should attend-especially your boyfriend. This way they can teach you the proper mannerisms to have around her

[aquariangt]

Good choice, Fromm is an excellent company

[aquariangt]

the document names themselves look fairly similar. Was it the one from page 15? afaik that is the most recent one. Good luck!

[aquariangt]

Don’t lean over her, that can be aggressive stance for dogs. Especially with her heightened state as pregnant, I would make sure everyone around her has proper dog manners. To be perfectly blunt, pregnant bitches require a bit different ability than a normal dog, and I wouldn’t keep people around her right now that don’t know how to properly handle one. I hope you researched all of this before breeding her

[aquariangt]

Fromm 4 star loves their peas, it’s why only 1 of mine can eat the grain free. I’m just diligent with toppers

[aquariangt]

@dogfoodie I love the winter broths! According to my thk rep, they won’t be bringing them back as sales were low. In fact, we couldn’t order them at the store, I had to buy mine direct,y from them. But the girls love them, and I love the concept.

@dog_obsessed Fromm is a staple in my rotation, though I like the beef frittata and pork and pea more than lamb and lentil, due to lower protein than the other 4 stars, though not by much, I also don’t feed lamb often due to the warming properties. Of the others you mentioned, I wouldn’t use great life, and like annamaet. Have never used back to basics at all. Have you tried pet flow for items as well? They don’t have annamaet but I think I saw somewhere back there chewy was out of something else you wanted. I like pet flow as well as chewy

[aquariangt]

The raw ones are fine, kibble and canned from natures logic all have multiple protein sources

[aquariangt]

Natures logic raw rabbit or venison seem to work.

[aquariangt]

What other food do you have available?

[aquariangt]

I just looked it up, hadn’t heard of it before. It looks fairly low quality, not the worst you could do, but certainly much better options out there

[aquariangt]

Read the previous page about Nature’s Logic

[aquariangt]

Dori-yes. She is mean, and has no qualms about biting or scratching me. I’ve awoken to her biting my nose-not my proudest pet parent moment and she was tossed off the bed. She also hates the dogs and not-so-secretly plots my demise for bringing her into a household with other animals.

She’s a terrible eater to boot. The things we do…

[aquariangt]

they get some chew that will last them a while for that day to keep them busy while we do things. Other than that, I do get them some new puzzles and balls and toys. No real reason because they don’t care what day they get them on, but it makes me feel happy 🙂 I’m one of those “pets are my kids” type of guys…

The cat will get some catnip, and a new toy that she won’t use, look offended by, and potentially bite me. Because she’s a peach

[aquariangt]

Dani: Earthborn Primitive Natural with Lomi Lomi Tiki Dog
Liesl: Fromm Sm Breed Gold with Lomi Lomi Tiki Dog. Liesl can’t have peas so she eats grain inclusives and gets more topped than Dani does.

They both had a Sam’s Yam when I left for work. I have A bag of Simply Sojos Lamb and The Honest Kitchen Quickies that I’m using for training right now, so they got a couple on their walk, and will again on their next walk. Dani will also get 15ish minutes of some agi practice that will have some treats involved as well. I do a decent amount of training so I use low calorie treats with low fillers.

Dinner will be the same kibble but topped with The Honest Kitchen Embark.

Next bags for each: Fromm Pork and Pea for Dani, and Pork and Applesauce for Liesl

[aquariangt]

dang, I missed it

[aquariangt]

I use earth bath when I need to as well, and so does my groomer. I like the oatmeal and the tea tree ones

[aquariangt]

Ah, it sounded much like one. I would get a “soft” clicker as opposed to one of the metal box ones, they are pretty sharp. (not sure if others have mentioned, don’t have a ton of time so haven’t read through all of it yet) especially if its indoors it is too loud for my liking.

As far as reloading the clicker so its a good experience, get her really close to you, with a treat (a really high value treat, maybe some freeze dried meat or fish) and click and get a treat to her very quickly.

The concept of saying “yes” as a marker is essentially the same idea, but I think the clicker hones it in a bit more, and I find dogs can become pretty motivated by the clicker overall. Especially for early obedience classes I think it’s a great tool, by the time I’m doing CGC or more competitive obedience style classes, I don’t use it a whole ton though

[aquariangt]

Was this a zoom room?

[aquariangt]

I actually prefer the consistency of sojos to the honest kitchen. Not that the dogs care much, and my cat won’t eat anything dehydrated. My problem is its a bit low in protein for my liking, so I use thk and grandma Lucy’s for toppers more often, but use sojos from time to time.

However, their freeze dried training treats and good dog biscuits are awesome! Staples in my house

[aquariangt]

Wheat/grain free is popular because dogs don’t get much out of grains, and wheat is fairly low nutrition wise. I don’t always feed grain free, but I don’t include corn, wheat, soy, or regular rice in anything. If I were to feed Kirkland, I would steer more towards the nature’s domain lines

While there hasn’t been a recall of this in 2 years, it is still made by diamond, which has a history of recalls and handling them very poorly. It looks decent on paper, as some of the other diamond made brands do, but not worth the risk in my opinion. Plenty of other food out there with a good price point

[aquariangt]

fwiw, I’m in Colorado and only heartworm during the summer, and did the same in Minnesota/Wisconsin. I’ve never had an issue

[aquariangt]

oh. they’re new bags are interesting looking. you could try contacting them to find changes as well. As far as SN Puppy-I used it for a bit with my most recent and she did very well on it. I especially like the SN Source-I still occasionally toss it in rotation

[aquariangt]

Wellpet is on the editor’s choice list

[aquariangt]

BCN gave you some good advice, a couple things to add:

The Fromm 4 Star line is all life stages, so you don’t have to worry about the whitefish and potato (other than the fact that it is about the lowest protein food Fromm offers)

Try this out for slowing down the eating:

I can’t say enough good things about Kyjen’s slow bowls. They also have “Mini” ones that are smaller and cheaper for dogs like a corgi that don’t need a ton of food.

Try alternating around in the 4 star line and see if another food helps. Or, try out some limited ingredient diets and start checking off what works and what doesn’t. BCN is correct in that a lot of Fromm has similar ingredients, even among the different blends. If I was going to pick up a bag to start off with, I would grab the Game Bird or Surf and Turf. Good luck

[aquariangt]

Fromm 4star has pretty small kibble size. I agree the different protein choices are great, but the one thing with Fromm (don’t get me wrong, they are a fantastic company) is that especially in the grain inclusive lines, the protein levels are very low. The Grain free is better-getting around 30% and a bit higher, but they do use peas to get some of that. I have one that is allergic to peas, and already its a huge pain to find kibble that she can have that has decent protein and isn’t just chicken. She eats a few of the Fromm 4 star grain inclusives though-just be diligent about adding canned or raw or meat toppers to help that. Overall-I highly recommend them

[aquariangt]

based on everything else purina has done, even though they tote it differently, it will be either run of the mill, or inferior overall. Even their “Active Dog” blends are like 30% protein max, with by product and all the other junk that comes along with it.

[aquariangt]

Tricky Trainers may work if its a small enough pill. I just use canned food when I need to get a pill in

[aquariangt]

The biscuits aren’t raw. They also would not work for a pill, not soft at all

[aquariangt]

I’ll second/third/fifth what everyone said about keeping up with a rotation. Get one bag of what the breeder fed (hopefully they send you home with some) and once that’s close to gone, start mixing a new food in. With a puppy it’s pretty easy to get them on a rotational diet and be able to switch as often as you want. I switch after every bag, so approximately 3 weeks. Make sure you are switching up protein sources to keep a variety as well. I have a few brands that are always in rotation, and then I try to try something new every 5-6 bags as well

for toppers-since it’s a topper I give them a different one every day. I keep a variety of canned, dehydrated, and commercial raw to throw on top there. The fun thing about that is you can really get a big variety going-I keep a box of honest kitchen, a bag of sojos, and usually some frozen pucks of nature’s variety around. Then I just raid the store for whatever toppers seem fun at the time. I like Simply Nourish, Weruva, Tiki, Fromm, Earthborn-many others as well, but those are the brands most often in the house.

[aquariangt]

Sort of. Wishes and beams are very jerky like

[aquariangt]

I do use real meat jerky for training treats sometime, if you’re looking for a solid one

[aquariangt]

They added a third two that is ancient grain based and white potato free. Preference, Kindly, Hale (anyone else hate the names of their food?) Solos, Grandma Lucy’s, and as InkedMarie said-lots of people seem to like SSLL. There are some others but those are the 4 brands I see people talk about the most. I’ve used Sojos and Preference from THK and that’s all so I can’t speak to it too much, and I’ve only used those pretty sparsely so hopefully others will jump in

[aquariangt]

None of the Acana Classics are available in the states. My assumption is because of limited manufacturing capabilities from their plant. They are opening a plant in Kentucky sometime in the coming future, so that should make more of acana’s formulas available

[aquariangt]

I switch every bag as well, unless I don’t have enough to feed a full meal then it gets mixed. I also buy a range of cans and alternate between a random can and dehydrated for each meals toppers as well. Lots of variety is good, and once your dog has a healthy gut, you won’t need to do any sort of transitional period

[aquariangt]

Bcn it gave the sort version of why most people here dislike bb

[aquariangt]

http://www.chewy.com/dog/ruff-dawg-k9-flyer/dp/38886

I haven’t used the OD disc, but I do like these k9 flyers, though my dog that will play with them doesn’t have an aggressive mouth at all

[aquariangt]

Wierd, my second paragraph didn’t post. As far as cars- I’ve seen people that like both raised and car harnesses, but I’m personally a crate in the car type of guy. Too many stories of accidents and dog jumping out and getting hit or lost for my liking, but maybe ruff gear has a good harness? I like their products in general. My car crates are much lighter and soft sided compared to my home crates

[aquariangt]

For collapsible I use kurgos, and like bcn, I kept it in my car for when we are just toting around town- the ollydog one I use for hikes and other bigger things. They do have some other cool stuff, though I’ve never tried a backpack, I could stick that on dani and she would just judge me. She has a very judgemental look that I get from her often

[aquariangt]

I like the ollydog bottle, and you can get a karabiner on there so it just hangs off your belt

[aquariangt]

A really great book I read: “The Truth about DOGS” by Stephen Budiansky-the entire first chapter is about how dogs are manipulative to get what they want. It was humorous, and also totally true. Dogs aren’t great at self regulation, and will beg if they think they can eat again.

It’s one fun thing about training labs in my opinion-they are ALWAYS willing to take more food, and certainly don’t need much else for motivation

[aquariangt]

Fun tool-a couple comments.

1. Is “Rice” inclusive of all rice? I didn’t see a choice for Brown Rice separately. Is Brewer’s Rice also lumped in?

2. When I clicked Peas, I still got foods that have peas. Luckily it shows what’s in them so I can quickly scroll past

[aquariangt]

All of that is great. I also recommend switching to something not too rich from beneful to start with. Don’t jump from that to a 5 star, maybe pick an easy transitional food. I’ve seen people use Precise Foundation for such a thing, and I think ive seen BCN suggest Nutrisource or Nutrisca? as well. Then from there you can transition into something more rich.

that’s my 2 cent suggestion, good luck

[aquariangt]

Peas is the only thing for sure so far. Still working through a few other things

[aquariangt]

I would recommend InkedMarie’s sticky post at the top of this page as a starting point. It has a list of grain and potato free foods, then you just have to hunt through a few more ingredients.

My forewarning is that those tests are pretty shifty, and if you took it again, you could get different results. Use it as a guide for trying out some foods, but still keep every ingredient panel and keep a close eye on him, as he could still be reacting to something in the food.

Canned foods tend to have less in them, and dry food cleaning teeth is a myth, so if you’re willing to feed all canned, that’s better anyway

[aquariangt]

The two pates I like the best are Fromm Gold, and Simply Nourish Source.

[aquariangt]

They were purchased by Del Monte, and some of their formulas have changed (the one I know of off hand is the rolls of food-they added some sugar and such)

[aquariangt]

I was wondering that too Aimee. I haven’t used it so have no ties.

Peter, I’ve heard great things, my problem is I don’t mind ordering food online, but I prefer to buy from the store to try something out to make sure it works for my guys, so I never got around to trying it. Someday

[aquariangt]

Roosters are such a pain. The last rooster I had…well we’ll leave it at “dog food”

I don’t particulalry like eggs, so it’s wierd that I’ve kept chickens for so many years. Dogs get some, give them away constantly it seems, and occasionally eat them. I wonder if it’s worth the effort some days, though they aren’t too tough to deal with

[aquariangt]

I have my chicken area blocked so that there is no wind. It seems like they don’t mind the cold so much as long as they don’t get too windy or wet. During certain really aggressive snows/rain I have some sidewalls from a tent that i have repurposed a bit and forced into service as chicken walls

Do you even get winter down there in texas? 😉

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