[Purple Poodle]

It seams to me that your dog is not getting the proper exercise that it needs. If you have an energetic dog (like Poodles) they need at least two, 30 minutes of good tiring exercise.

Tuesday loves to go for a run, being out of shape myself I try to "run" with her twice a day and she gets lots of outdoor time in the yard with the other dogs. I hate to break it to you but unless you start giving an outlet for him now your hyper puppy is going to turn into a hyper adult.

Science Diet is one of the worst food on the market, I would feed Ol' Roy before resorting to Science Diet.

 

[Purple Poodle]

Really??? My vet recommended Science Diet and it costs about $60 for a 40lb bag... Can you tell me why it's one of the worst and recommend something better? What do you feed your dog(s)? Has anyone else hard bad things about SD?

Vet recommend it because they profit from it. It bad because of what its made out of, you can see the ingredients here. Its mostly corn which dogs as well as humans can not digest so it just comes out the other end. I feed and suggest people try is Nutro. I like the Max (Chicken) because it is the only food I have found with quality ingredients that every single dog that has come though my home (fosters) and even my cats like to eat. They poop less and my Toy Poodle mix Cher had awful digestion problems but after being on Nutro for almost a year now she has had no problem and not a single one of my 7 dogs have gas. Its great and affordable. If I had the money they would all be on Nutro Ultra and when I can afford a bag I mix it in with the Max. I have yet to try the canned but am fixing to because of my 10yr Cocker mix Clover who has bad teeth.

When he pulls towards something or just pulls in any direction stop walking and don't start again until he has stopped pulling, they learn pretty quickly that pulling means they stop and walking nice means they get to move and explore. If he just goes after other dogs get him to look at you and praise him for ignoring the other dog. He is neutered yet? If not I would suggest getting him fixed as soon as possible.

See what a difference exercising does for a dog? That is a cure all for chewing, digging, barking, jumping and other bordom habits.

Good luck!

 

[Purple Poodle]

I have just now heard about that and it seams that its almost always the Natural Choice. But you can find lots of bad things and good things about every brand of dog food and it hard to pin point weather or not it was the acctual foods fault or a plant mistake or maybe the stores falt, it could have been molded or the bag could have had something spilled on it, the bowl the dog ate out of could have had something to do with it. More and more people now a days are blaming it on the food they feed and pointing fingers. The first story on the link you posted said the lady had been feeding the food for a week, any food changes should take more then that amount of time to switch and what did the dog eat before that happened? Was there rat poison around? Did it lick a frog? Many things come into play and you have to take everything with a grain of salt.

If you feel uncomfortable switching foods then by all mean don't do it. I have never had a problem and any problems my dogs have had were from outside sources. Cher, (she is my problem child) likes to eat cat poop and becomes very sick, lethargic, wont eat anything, bloody stool and vomits.

On to the neutering thing, if it were me (I would have him fixed ) I would ask myself why would I want to breed my dog? If he was bred would he be contributing something positive to the breed and its standard of perfection? What you said here -> We haven't really looked into it, does it affect the way they act around other dogs other than aggression? <- Would suggest you no breed him and look into what owning an altered male dog consists of. Unaltered male dogs can and will have same gender aggression, they can have dominance issues, become possessive of toys or even you and your home. They will seek out females in season and there is not a lot you can do to stop him and many male dogs will become aggressive around bitches in season. I know an unaltered Poodle dog who will stave him self for weeks if there is a bitch in season any where in a 5 mile radius and will whine and howl for days. The owners are having him neutered this month.

Anyhoo I have to go but I'll be back because I have more to say!

Good luck with him!