If it were up to her, Daisy would probably live off a diet of roly polys. This morning I caught her trying to off an entire family sleeping in the grass. But puppy cannot live on roly polys alone so in trying to be the best puppy mom I could, I overwhelmed myself with too much research. (If anyone says there's no such thing as too much research, they probably haven't met me.) I'm the type who does so much research that any clear choice I had in the beginning becomes obscured by new details or conflicting reports. It took me months to do research on a new camera I wanted and by the end of it, I was so torn about which had better, usable features that I decided not to get any. Deciding on a new cell phone is even worse.
But I digress. I googled "best puppy food" and read all the top stories and analyses and why one was better than the other and why grain-free was best or why raw was the best. I read about nutritional needs and how raw food diets require raw bones for calcium but that you had to match calcium with phosphorous or vice versa. It was daunting.
I finally chose Orijen Puppy Food. It was supposed to imitate a puppy's natural diet by focusing heavily on meats. The first several ingredients were meat products and the rest were all ingredients I recognized. I mean, I could eat this food in a pinch.
I brought it home and mixed it in with Daisy's old food (Science Diet) and she gobbled it down. She even went so far as to pick out most of the new food from her bowl so it definitely got the stamp of approval from her.
I then decided the expensive food wasn't enough, I would make her food. I did a ton more research on homemade dog food before finally deciding on simple things that she'd eat. I do mixes of chicken, quinoa, carrots, apples, brown rice or green beans. I make up a batch in the beginning of the week and feed her about a tablespoon with her kibble every meal. She loves it. The first time I fed her she ran over to me afterwards and gave me a lots of love and happy kisses and tail wags. My work has thus already paid itself off in spades. Nothing beats a happy, healthy puppy who loves you.
She also decided that walks were no longer fun and she would just sit and stare at me while I tried to walk. Somehow she still managed to look cute while doing that, but it wasn't working on me this time. I had a period of time where I got so frustrated with her that I just wanted to give her away to the first person who wanted her. And she would just stare at me like she knew. However, as someone pointed out, I had to outsmart her and use my human brain to do so. How do I outsmart a cocky, obstinate, bratty little puppy with more attitude that body mass? Google. I googled how to get my dog to walk on a leash and I found an article about little treats along the way. Basically we walk and when she's walking well, I drop her a little treat. If she stops, no treat. And you know what? I actually got her to take a stress-free walk around a couple of blocks! She is still distracted by other dogs and people, especially children, but with one little tug she follows behind...and then I reward her a little bit down the way. My human brain prevailed and Daisy lives to see another day! Win-win all around.
