meredian

Oh! I should probably mention though that two days ago we started transitioning him to a new food - a higher protein food. We have been mixing it in with his other food to get him used to it. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it? However again, his bowel movements are normal.

Thanks!

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fjm

Change of food could definitely be a factor - perhaps his tum is sore? I'd try going back to the old food, and see what effect that has.

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

meredian

I've also just been reading that higher protein diets can cause hyperactivity/aggression. There's a lot of argument about whether this is a myth or not, but I believe that his food is having SOME effect on him right now. I feel like a mystery was just solved! Going to go back to the old food for now. I hope he isn't feeling too bad :( We were just trying to get him the healthiest food, but I think his previous food is just fine too.

Thanks everyone for your support.

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PaddleAddict

I doubt it's the food (unless it's making him feel sick for some reason).

To me he sounds like a very normal puppy... you will have calmer days and rowdier days. You will take two steps forward with training and then two steps back. You might have two weeks of excellent calm behavior followed by three days of puppy crazies.

He is a baby. I think people expect too much of young puppies and then think something is wrong when it's just normal puppy behavior. We see that they are capable of "getting it" (i.e., sit, walk on a leash, etc.) but we forget that they are too little for it to be 100%. Like my 18 month niece who sometimes uses the right word for the color of a certain toy (blue) and the next day calls it yellow. She is still learning.

meredian

Well, we switched his food back, but no behavior change yet. If it was his food I know it can sometimes take 48 hours.

That said it could just be a horrible mood swing! He is suddenly CRAZED acting and is still doing the occasional whining when we leave the room. I just did a training session with him and tried to play fetch with him after as a reward and he bit my leg so hard that I had to shove him off! At first I tried to ignore it but the third bite was too much. I've never had to do that before. Ugh. And my boyfriend took him on a walk this morning and said he was absolutely bonkers.

Not sure what to think of any of this as it a pretty big change from just days ago, but I guess he's a puppy and he's changing every day. We have puppy class tomorrow, thank god.

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