Learning lessons the hard way

As much as I have read and researched and tried to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible with Ruby, there are always mistakes to be made. And as mistakes go, this is quite a messy one. 

So for all those people out there in bloggy-land who are thinking of becoming a puppy parent, I have a valuable lesson to share with you: 

Do NOT suddenly change the dog's brand of food

Gillian, the breeder, gave us a pack of puppy food that we were using up until last Monday. We had already bought a supply of another brand before picking the dog up (trying to be super prepared), so when the breeders food ran out, I just switched to the new stuff......BIG mistake!

Ruby's newly firmed up poop, suddenly loosened again and has not improved over the last 5 days or so. 

So today, I went back to http://www.petsathome.com/ and bought some more food; the same brand that we were using until the switch last week. She is now back on the Purina brand and we are just going to stick with it until her digestive system gets used to being back on it. 

Having read into this, I have discovered that puppies do not like sudden changes in their food. It definitely doesn't agree with them. Well, we've found that out to our cost (and to the benefit of kitchen towel manufacturers whos shares must have gone through the roof given the amount we have used).

For future information, if you need to change the puppy to a different brand of food.....do it          G....R....A....D....U....A....L....L....Y.

Start by introducing a bit of the new food, then each day, slightly increase the proportion over the course of a week or so, until they are weaned on to it. Trust me. If you don't do this, you will be swimming in a lake of runny dog poop.

Between the frequent visits to the doggy toilet, Ruby has been her usual boisterous, energetic self. She has had a particularly good time with her antler chew today.

Ruby loving her antler

We also bought an extendable lead today. It has already proved its worth by allowing Ruby to explore around the garden without the need to drag a human through the shrubbery. It's not something I intend using on normal walks when she is able to go out and about. But it is a very useful bit of kit to give Ruby (and us) a little bit of freedom in the garden. Silly me, didn't get a picture of it in action so I will try to put that right for tomorrow.