Spoiled Children

How to spoil a schnauzer! I could write a "short book" on this topic. As I fed my two girls tonight I pondered this thought. How in the world did I get to this point, I wondered. Here I sat in the middle of the kitchen floor between two schnauzers, one who was eagerly eating her food and the other being fed with my fingers. The finger-fed girl is the baby and most often just walks away from her food. Sometimes I can persuade her to eat it later in the day. Lately, not at all. Now I have been told and I have read that you should just leave them alone, take up their food, and allow them to get hungry. The supposition is that they will learn to eat when it is offered. Ha ha! They just don't know Miss Kami. Sometimes she doesn't eat for days --- unless I finger feed her and then she eats just a little.

My girls are Lebanon, Tennessee girls. The breeder they came from uses Flint River food. This is the first time I have had any luck with feeding them this food long term. My Sassy quit eating it and refused; by the time I got Piper, Sassy had diet issues. Eventually I had to put her on a special diet so I fed Piper the same diet (as Sassy) pretty much. Now that Sassy is in Schnauzer Heaven I have been able to successfully put Piper back on Flint River and keep Kami on the same diet ---when she eats.

But this is the rest of the story. Through my experiences with Sassy Jane I learned lots about feeding doggies. I had always thought it was bad to give them human food. I learned that there are many dog owners who feed raw. There are some vets who feed raw. I belong to a group on Yahoo these days who feed raw and believe in holistic methods. The person who is admin of this group teaches at a university in Texas (PhD.) and knows everything you can think to ask about nutrition for animals. When Sassy was so, so sick I often went to her with my diet questions to help me work through her problems. Her name is Lew Olsen. Through this group I have learned lots. Through my own vets I have learned a bunch.

You see Sassy had chronic pancreatitis. When she had attacks they would almost kill her. The only way I could get her "innards" back in sync was to put her on a diet of rice and chicken. This would stop the pancreatitis and it stops diarrhea. The chicken has to be without fat or skin so I used canned chicken packed in water. My vet told me as she got better she could also have ground beef if I cooked it until it changed colors, drained it and rolled it between paper towels.

When I first got Kami Sassy was dying. Her diet was chicken and rice. So Piper and Kami got Flint River kibble with chicken or ground beef on top. Sassy has been gone six months now and these other two that are left are ----s p o i l e d !!! They expect chicken or ground beef on top of their 1/3 cup of kibble each meal!

Now that I have written this (I think) I have figured out how they got spoiled and I know who did it. They have no idea that they are being treated like princesses in a humanoid home!! I wonder if they know how lucky they are??