[Dailydrool] Food Allergies and Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

[Deb Good]

Having gone thru the whole allergy thing with Pippi, I can tell you that her Dermatologist did not recommend any dog food with corn, soy, wheat, beef or chicken in it.  If you are going to change the dog's food to something that doesn't have those ingredients in it, you have to feed that food, and that food only for 10 weeks.  If the dog is still itchy then it's probably not a food allergy.  We did this with Pip and she was still itchy and was then allergy tested.  She would have started her shots last Monday...  Anyway, the dermatologist did not recommend food or treats with that stuff in it anyway.  

As for waking a sleeping dog, I just never do it unless absolutely necessary because like so many others have posted, nobody likes to be startled awake and the only defence a dog really has is his teeth and you might get bit!  I happen to like my fingers as they are, in one peice, and attached to my hand!  When I do have to wake a dog, to have one last potty break before bedtime for example, I clap, or shake the cookie jar, or shake the dog bed or whatever he or she is sleeping on, or something like that, then make sure they are really awake before snapping the leash on.  Sean is pretty good about being woken up, but Pip would take your fingers off in a heartbeat!  Kind of like waking my husband up.  He comes up out of the bed swinging.  The kids have gone to the extreme of poking him from the other side of the room with a broom handle.  I do not however recommend this method with a dog-or my husband (he wasn't real happy about that)!

Deb