Does anyone give Taurine for the dogs. It is in pill or powder form. Lately I have been reading about Taurine and my breeder gives this to her dogs. She suggested Puritian Pride. Thanks
One of my dogs was on a lamb based diet for quite a while because of allergies. His coat was not that good (dull and kinda greasy looking, somehow), but that could have been his allergies too. So who knows?My experience with any kind of lamb based kibble was entirely differerent than yours has been. I've talked about in posts on feeding several times.
Back when the first lamb based kibbles showed up they were touted as the answer to everything for dogs who were thought to possibly have food allergies. I think the first one was lamb and rice--I tried it on the two Dobes I had at the time (periodically I try new formulas that are getting rave reviews just to see what kind of response I get).
The results were not at all good. First of all it only took about three weeks on the lamb and rice before their coats started losing the shine and going dull. Then for the next couple of months their stool deteriorated--from normally smallish firm poops to soft, then cow pie consistency and ultimate to outright diarrhea.
We went back to the diet they'd been on before the experiment--can't even remember what it was--by what was once a major kibble manufacturer who has long since been out of business--purchased by one of the the now big companies.
15 or so years later I noticed that there was a different lamb based kibble on the market--lamb and pea--that time I tried it with two different Dobes but with virtually the same result--first a dull dry looking coat and then stools that went from normal to diarrhea and that time they both started having problems with weight--had to keep upping the quantity of food given to keep their weight in anything like show condition.
The most recent attempt to see if all the lamb products were going to do the same thing I tried someones lamb and lentil combo. This time there were three Dobes and an Australian Shepherd. One of the Dobes had instant diarrhea so I put him back on the Proplan Chicken and Rice he'd been eating for about 5 years. The other two Dobes went through the same coat deterioration from shiney to dull and dry looking and then weight loss and finally the softening of stools over time to diarrhea. The Aussie? The Aussie who would eat anything (or so I thought) said it wasn't food and he was moving out if I didn't do something about that. He evidently was willing to hold out as long as it took but I couldn't stand watching him not eat for three days (this was the Aussie who loved food and was on an eternal diet because Aussies's are such easy keepers most adults are fat.
A year or so ago I may have gotten some insight into part of the issue with lamb from a study on digestablity that MeadowCat posted. Of all the common meat proteins found in dog foods lamb is at the very bottom of the list. Fish is at the very top. Fowl is second in line. Then beef. Pork is rarely used as a protein for dog or cat food and I found a slightly different study about digestability which ranked lamb at the bottom, fish first, fowl second, pork third (with the note that it was, however rarely used in dog or cat food) and beef fourth.
The digestability issue would account for most of what I observed.
Just sayin' I do know people who have had great luck feeding dogs lamb based foods but it sure wasn't my experience.
dobebug
Thanks for that lamb feedback. Kahoots also has a chicken and rice formulation but I'm being cautious on chicken having read about dobies tendency to chicken allergies.Some dobes don't do that well on lamb--they end up with dull coats and sometimes digestive upsets--but it's an individual thing, of course. I will be interested in hearing how your dog does on it.
Here's (one of) dobebug's takes on lamb in food:
One of my dogs was on a lamb based diet for quite a while because of allergies. His coat was not that good (dull and kinda greasy looking, somehow), but that could have been his allergies too. So who knows?
Thanks Mel, good tip and timely as the 3mm Herm Sprenger off the shelf petstore prong collar managed to separate once whilst putting it on.I also forgot to mention--if you are using a prong collar, also hook the leash to a backup collar. Prongs have been known to come apart, the last thing you want when you are working with your dog.
There are various designs of leash couplers. I've not used these brands, so this is not an endorsement, but just pictures to show what I'm talking about:
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