I am clueless.

I am not sure what's going on here. I feed Gigi twice a day. Breakfast: 7ish and dinner 5. 1/2 cup or less each time and in between she will get some treats for being a good girl. Today it was the same in the morning... and around 3 or so she keep going into the kitchen every couple minutes. And she seems restless, so I finally gave her her dinner at 4 and she immediatly took a nap after dinner (like she is satisfied). Then my sis came home 5ish and since then she acts like she is high on drug or something, she is restless and being very naughty... and my sister scolded her and she talk (bark) back! And it's been going on (still going on as I typed). We know she is hungry and I just gave her a few more treats... I don't know whether there is anything I did wrong or what's going on & I can't just give her unlimited food. But this is the first time she is acting like this. I tried giving her some water, and that's not what she wants. HELP!

She's trying to become "top dog" and pushing the limits! Doxies can be that way - tiny tyrants! Hold firm, girl! Yes, she's cute now, but you don't want to be fighting with her ten years from now!

Ours are still on three meals a day, so maybe she needs a third meal??? Sorry, would type more but Jasmine is sitting on typing hand :)

At her age, I was feeding Chester 3-4 meals a day. She maybe just hungry. He had that many meals a day until he was about 3 months old and at that point I started free feeding him (leaving food down all the time). He's done fine with free feeding, though he did gorge himself the first 3 days that I started.

I think she's just hungry, Jen.

Do you usually give her treats when she does this? Maybe she's learned that by doing this, you will give her treats. Josie knows exactly when her dinner/breakfast is, and will stare at you, or follow you, or whatever it takes, till you feed her ;) But she only does it around her supper time..Or yeah, maybe she needs more to eat??

I think she is only hungry too. But I am always afraid I will overfeed her and she will become 20lbs. haha... This is the first time she is acting like that. I can feed her 3 times on weekends, but I can't on weekday, cuz I won't be home until the evening. :( Maybe I can feed her a little bit more every meal, so that will last longer??? I usually don't buy her look when she gives me those eyes. ;)

There's not much danger of her becoming too fat yet, she's a growing girl. If you think she's honestly hungry, I'd feed her more, three times a day when you can, or more food two times a day when you can't.

Thanks, Karen. I will try 3 meals tomorrow and more food 2 times on weekday.
She is now finally sleeping on my sis's lap. whew... she is like an angel now... :o

Maybe this will help. :)

When I first got Chester I was lucky and I could come home for lunch, so he got fed breakfast, lunch, supper and bedtime.

Soon, I had to stop coming home for lunch and he just got breakfast, supper and bedtime.

Finally I decided all these feedings were rediculous and I just left the food down as I'd always done with every other dog I'd ever had. (Chester was my first puppy)

I don't know what your hours are, but I think she really needs three a day. Can you do breakfast, supper and bedtime?

Bedtime was actually about a half hour before bedtime to alllow for poopie time. :D

Thanks Micki. I think I will try the breakfast, supper and a lite bedtime. Seems like she likes to take a nap after she has eaten. Does 1/2 cup sound alright???

I agree that she just needs to eat a bit more. :) Most websites will say to feed 4 meals a day until the dog is 6 months, than 3 meals, and than at a year make it two meals.

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Originally posted by jenfer
Thanks Micki. I think I will try the breakfast, supper and a lite bedtime. Seems like she likes to take a nap after she has eaten. Does 1/2 cup sound alright???

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LOL yeah, it's eat, poopie, nap. Then wake up, play, eat, poopie, nap.

1/2 cup sounds ok, and make the bedtime one a little smaller if you prefer. Make sure she poopies before bed or you'll be out there in the middle of the night. :rolleyes: I was lucky and we were in the ground floor apartment. We bought a sliding glass door panel that has a doggie door in it. So at 3am I took Ches and sort of stuck him out on the little porch. He was so cute! He'd put his front paws on the grass and keep his hind legs on the porch and tinkle! Hee hee! Sorry to ramble, I just remembered how cute that was! :D

heehee... Gigi sleeps through every night. I am proud of her. :) But then every morning when I let her out of her crate (have I mentioned that on week 2 since her arrival she is in the crate in the living room every night. :D ), she will run to the bathroom, then she remembers she wants to eat, but then she REALLY need to go pee...haha... she will run back and forth and finally went on the paper and "create a little pond" on the newspaper. haha... she is very funny.

What a good girl, sleeping in her crate every night! Chester was only about 1.5 lbs when we got him and he slept in the bed with us. Well, he obviously couldn't jump off the bed so I used to get up every night and stick him out the door whether he wanted to go or not. :p Didn't want him wandering to the end of the bed and doing his stuff down there and me sleeping through it! :eek:

1.5lb??!!:eek: :eek: :eek: Soooooooooooooo tiny. :) He sound too cute. :D Give him a kiss for me... and Millie and Aneko too. :D

I've just checked our calendar and our little porkers have each gained 1.5kg (just over 3lb) in six weeks and they're not fat - so three meals a day isn't hurting them :)

We work all day too, so they get their 'lunch' at about 4.30pm, and a smaller dinner about 8.30pm.

Kong makes a ball with bone-shaped holes in it so you can put in cheese bits, or dry food or whatever, and the dog rolls it around the ground to get the treats to fall out. Maybe one of those could give her a few calories during the day???

Starting from next week I will be working from 9:30-6. :( I don't know...
But I may switch dog food brand too, maybe that will help.
Does your dogs have kongs? I need to know WHAT to put in it? If I put dry food, do I seal the kong???????:confused:
Gigi is 4lbs now. I think she is doing ok??

What food are you feeding her, Jen?

Here's the kong site's recipe for a Perfect dog. Scroll down for recipes and the bet ways to stuff (and seal) a kong.

http://www.kongcompany.com/how2use.html

She is on Science Diet... but now I heard they use too much filler. Someone told me to try Nutro. Any suggestions? I was trying to find the old thread(s) talking about the different dog food brands, but can't find it.

I will go look at the link you gave me. Do yours play with Kong? Do they like it?

It's really hard to overfeed a young, active growing puppy. Two meals a day are not enough, IMO.

You can put dry food in them, or wet food, cheese, cream cheese or peanut butter, or a mix!

There are recipes and ideas at http://www.kongcompany.com/

Or you can get an empty plastic soft drink bottle and put some dry food in it, will take her hours to rattle the dry food out :)

Beat me to it, Micki!!! :D

Is she too little for a kong? See? I am REALLY clueless. :o If it's not snowing tomorrow I will go get one.

Science Diet is not one of my personal favorites, and I would definitely choose Nutro over it.

All three of mine love the Kong, although Aneko is usually the first one to poop out and give up. Millie is totally food motivated, so she'll go at it for hours. :)

There are a lot of good foods, just buy the very best that you personally can afford.

Some good ones are

Wellness
Innova
Natural Balance
Nutro
Nature's Recipe
Chicken Soup for Dog Lover's Soul (very popular, good ingreds)
Canadae
Flint River Ranch
California Natural
Royal Canin
Go Natural

Micki (and everyone else): Thank you soooooooooo much for your help. :D

I will go to PetsMart tomorrow and shop AGAIN. :D You won't believe HOW MUCH money have I spent on Gigi so far. :) I guess I don't even want to know myself... haha...

No problem! Have fun shopping. We're going tomorrow, too.

BTW, Gigi is not too young for a Kong, that was one of the first things we bought for Ches. :)

I gave her a baby kong this morning, she seems to enjoy it. Is it normal that dogs can't get everything out of the kong? I am wondering if the opening is too small????:confused: I tried to "glue" everything with some peanut butter... Maybe I will get her a small size and just put PB and her regular food to make it healthier??????????????:o

I remember when I first adopted Binx, and didn't know how much to feed him. My father echo'd the sentiments here...you really can't overfeed a puppy. I, too, was lucky, and could come home for lunch. I fed Binx three meals a day until he was 9 months old. Now, I feed him two.

could you leave food down during the day for Gigi? OR, get one of those timer release food distributors, and have it set for 'lunch time'.

Good luck.

Chilli lives in Hong Kong... faaaaaaaaaaaaar away :( (I miss her!) . My mom is very straight even though Chilli is going to be 8 on the 18th (Happ Birthday!) , she only gets 2 meals (9am and 5pm) and she gets like 3 or 4 treats a day. Each treat contains like 6 pieces of dog food, since Chilli is a chubby dog, my mom has to watch what she eats. And that's where I got my fear that Gigi will be overweight!!! Chilli does not eat a lot, but she is an indoor dog and have very little exercise. I will just have to be sure that Gigi gets enough exercise.

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Originally posted by jenfer
I gave her a baby kong this morning, she seems to enjoy it. Is it normal that dogs can't get everything out of the kong? I am wondering if the opening is too small????:confused: I tried to "glue" everything with some peanut butter... Maybe I will get her a small size and just put PB and her regular food to make it healthier??????????????:o

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I think the baby kong was too small for B&S as well, so we bought the next size up. They still can't lick all the way in and get bored with it quickly ... luckily the pack came with a round Kong :) that has holes in it. They like that much better!

She has 3 meals today along with some new Nutro Lamb and Rice dry food. She seems better than yesterday. We shall see what will happen tomorrow. When we go back to 2 meals + a kong.