how can i get my boxer to puit biting my kids?

[timlewis]

Im Sorry But I Dont Think 5-6 Cups A Day Is The Right Diet For My Pup. I May Need To Up Her Food A Little But My Vet Told Me 1 1/2 Cups A Day Was Enough For Her. I Have Been Feeding Her 2 Cups A Day For The Last Few Days But 5-6 Cups Would Be Way To Much For Her Right Now. When I First Got Her I Would Just Poor Out Food And Let Her Eat What She Wanted And She Just Pooed All Over The Place. So That Much Would Just Go Right Through Her.

[catnapper]

She pooped so much because of the food. I think of Puppy Chow like McDonalds, and Nutro like a homecooked square meal. Look at the ingredients. Puppy Chow is filled with fillers and by-products. Nutro has no byproducts and it takes a while (if ver ) to get to corn, and then they don't have the whole corn (which is hard to digest)

I swear, feeding her 2 cups of Nutro is a HUGE difference than the same 2 cups of Puppy Chow. They eat less, poop less, and get much better nutrition on a better food.

I am willing to bet her poop also smells pretty bad and is kinda squishy. The Nutro will also give less stinky poo and much firmer consistency.

PS: Get a new vet. Didn't they tell you about Puppy Chow? Didn't they go over Nutrition? From the photos, she is NOT in breed standard weight.

[timlewis]

One Problem Is I Have Never Heard Or Saw Nutro And I Live In A Very Small Town So We Only Have One Vet. She Did Tell Me Something About Some Kind Of Food They Have Which Is Called Scientific Diet. And I Have A Lot Of People Telling Me A Lot Of Different Things To Do One Main Problem I Think Is That I Saw A Cat Around Her Kennel Just A Few Minutes Ago. So I Think I Will Try Putting Her Up For 20 To 30 Mins When I Put Her Food Out. And As Far A Nutro We Dont Have Any Pet Stores Around Other Than One And I Wouldnt Even Let My Pup Go Into It.so I Dont Know Where I Can Get It Unless The Vet Has It There, Have U Ever Heard Of The Scientific Diet Food Before. If Not Where Can I Find Out About It? And I Think Im Going To Pick A Couple Of People Out That Have Boxers And See What They Think No Offense To Anyone I Would Still Like To Know Everyones Thoughts And Opinion. All I Really Want Is To Have A Very Happy Healthy Well Trained Pup. I Thank You All For Your Thoughts And Hope To Keep Hearing From U All, And Ill Keep U Posted On Her With Some Pics.

[catnapper]

My cats eat prescription Science Diet. I personally don't like it -- vets get paid to push it. but its considered a premium food and is a million times better than Puppy Chow!

Don't worry, no matter how small your town is, Petco or Petsmart will be moving in soon! Both chains are building rapidly!

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Science Diet is awful...but I think it is a bit better than Puppy Chow. Vets, in general, really don't know a whole lot about dog nutrition. If you have to purchase grocery store food, I think the highest quality they have is Purina ONE and even it isn't great. 5-6 cups of (give or take a bit, depending on each pup) probably food would be right for your puppy (not all at once, like I said, about 2 cups per meal) if she was being fed a good food, but since she isn't, it is going to go right through her which does result in a lot of poop. Do you have an pet stores in your town (or close to your town)? Any pet store will sell Nutro if you do, not just the ones I mentioned in my previous post.

Here's a comparison thing between Purina ONE, Science Diet, & Dog chow...they didn't have puppy formulas for all of them on the site but I'd imagine the puppy would be similar to the adult.
Dog Food Comparison

[timlewis]

i thank you both i will try to find some nutro but i still cant see my pup eating 5-6 cups a day. she would be big as a hog i do know that boxers r suppose to be a little on the thin side maybe not like she is now but still. maybe your right but i dont see how her little stomach could hold that much food. but ill try and find some nutro and see what happens.

[coco-bean]

I personally would give your pup dog chow, i just know from experience with coco my 5 month old, it made her very sick, she would throw up a few times a day, then we switched her to Science diet and she is actually excited about eating again! I know every dog is different but for a pup of such high energy i would def. recommend higher quality! Good luck on your dog food quest !!!

[Love That Collie]

Tim, just a suggestion,........if I were you , I would contact 4 or 5 different
breeders. Email them, call them whatever suits you. You can see a number of different breeders on such websites as Qualitydogs.com to name only one.
Then see what all of them suggest. Email them pictures and tell them what you have posted here. I have found breeders of most breeds of dogs to be very helpful even though they didn't sell you your dog/pup.

I know from experience the better the dog food the more nutrition that the dog or puppy absorbs, therefore less stinky poop and less poop all together.
I have a large breed dog and have always had a large breed dog, he now weighs 75 lbs and only eats 2 cups to 2 3/4 cups per day. BUT, when he was in his growing stage between 3-6 months he was consuming, at times, 5 cups a day, I didn't know where he put it all, he was fed 3 times daily. But on the average, during that big growing stage he did eat around 4 cups a day, give or take a few ounces and his "output" was not even imaginable compared to what he ate at the time. He has been on Canidae for a long time now. Less output, uses more nutrition and healthy as a horse.

I agree with the previous posters from experience that most vets don't know all that much about nutrition unless they specialized in that additional field and yes, my vet too reccomended Science Diet too and I never took that recommendation. Vets who sell this also get some kind of compensation for it but that's not why I didn't use it. Anyway, that's just my input for whatever it's worth but I would contact some breeders and ask them what they feed, how should your dog look/appear and tell them what you are feeding her.

[dragonfly]

I agree her ribs are very prominent and also her hip bones are sticking out on the top, so I think she is a little too thin. 1 3/4 to 2 cups doesn't sound like very much for a growing pup, especially a high energy breed. Our dog is 6 months now and he still eats about 3 1/2 cups a day and he's not too fat and not too thin. I would switch her food and then up the amount to try and get a bit more weight on her.

Thanks for all the biting tips folks, I have the same problem with my dog even though he's older he was not trained at all when I got him and he still has some lapses of judgement. Hoping he'll be easier to train once he gets the snip-snip here shortly.

[new mom to a veiled]

My boxer puppy Tyson ( who I still really miss) was very thin also when he was about Daisy's age.....and he was on a not so good food when I got him. I changed him to Natural choice large breed puppy and he not only put on some weight but also got a much healthier coat and skin. I would feed him about 4 cup a day.....1 cup per feeding. As was said before, she was pooping so much due to the type of food, not just the amount she was eating. Please pm me if you would like to chat......

[LilacDragon]

First off, I would like to recommend two books to you. Boxers for Dummies and Dog Training for Dummies. While the titles may sound offensive - they are excellent books - easy to read with excellent advice.

Boxers are very high energy! Lots of excercise is needed daily. Personally, I would make sure that the kids and the pup are not allowed to interact at all unless there is an adult present.

As for food - Boxers can be very gassy. Canidae is an excellent food as are a couple of the others mentioned earlier. I would avoid foods that contain corn, soy and any meat by products. Science Diet is pretty bad food for the price and not something that would make it in my front door. Neither is puppy chow.

My pom eats a cup of food a day and he weighs all of 8 pounds. Your pup most definately needs more then what she is getting. My suggestion would be a cup and a half in the morning, a cup and a half at lunch and a cup and a half for dinner. You will find that with better quality food, your dog is digesting and utilizing more of the food and pooping less.

[lady_bug_mistress]

hi! i'm new here et love this site! i had to write to you to say first off your dog looks fine. ive had 4 boxers, not counting 2 litters with a total of 14 pups in all. im no expert, but boxers have such a high metabloism they are almost always that thin. my first boxer didnt really start to put on weight until he was 5 et calmed down. even then he just put on muscle. my GSD on the other hand is a different story lol. as far as getting your boxer to stop nipping the kids..i had to teach both my kids et the dogs together. my kids now know the "rule of thumb" with boxers...you run from boxers, they WILL chase you. not to intentionally be aggressive, but in my experience they are VERY play oriented. we use toys a lot, ranging from tug ropes to balls (be careful with more then one tennis ball at a time though because a boxer can et will fit up to 3-4 in their mouths et could possibly choke). as the dog grows et the mouth gets bigger soccer balls are good, but invest in stock because they can easily bust them lol. we change toys a lot too, because our boxer has the attention span of a nat, so we try to keep her interested with variety. like i said, i'm not an expert but i hope my experiences could help you.