Rajah and Lacie, my 2 Schipperkes have become a little.. pudgy. We have changed their food, altered their portions and begun walking them more frequently.

This has been going on for about a month. Rajah, my 31 pound (when he started) male weighed today, is now 28.2 pounds. He is doing very well and I am quite pleased.

Lacie is frustrating us quite a bit. I am very worried about her. She started out at 20 pounds and today weighed 19.4 pounds.

We are feeding them Eukanuba small breed dog food for adults. I chose this formula because of the 28% protein rather than using food with a ton of fillers and cereals.

I am feeding them twice a day (about 7-8am and about 7-8pm) and I am using the recommended portions.

One problem I am having is that Lacie totally does not want ANY dog food regardless of what kind it is, soft, moist, dry or anything else. She ignores the food.

We have begun providing the meal, putting Rajah in his kennel to feed him since he scarfs his food right away and then goes and eats Lacie's food too (who doesn't give a care anyway).

We leave her food for 15 minutes, what she doesn't eat, she gets taken away from her. Almost 1/2 of the time if we do not redirect her back to her dish over and over, she will ignore it. Then it is gone.

The rest of the day she is scoping the kitchen, sniffing everything, waiting for an opportunity to goad Rajah into stealing food off the counter, getting into the garbage or whatever.

We have begun blocking the kitchen entry at all if there is ANY scrounging opportunities available. (The other day, I had a cheese cake cooling on the table, about 12 inches from the edge.. not THAT close.

Rajah pulled it off and Lacie took it from him. They also got into the chocolate Hershey kisses I had stored for baking and they both got sick.

Anyway, I am at a loss. Why the HECK isn't she eating? I can't afford to provide her with people food just because she is a stubborn spoiled.. well,... FEMALE DOG!

I am looking at maybe finding a supplier of Wysong dog food. I heard it is good for dogs and tastes good. Maybe she will eat that.

Lacie is wheezing a lot with minimal movement, she looks like a small potbelly pig.

Can anyone provide any advice?

Sher

Sher, I hope you find a solution soon, but in the meantime, HERE'S a helpful site.

The bitch** is healthy. She is also a "round hound". As she is healthy she will not starve herself to death or sickness (I've yet to meet a dog with anorexia.It must be that Our Dogs doesn't carry pictures of leggy, skinny,bitches as role models for pups !). She'll be fine on Eukanuba. If she is losing weight gradually on the measure of Eukanuba appropriate to her breed and age then stick with that and stop her getting anything else.Don't give in and allow her any alternative ! (OK so you can give her Iams or another Eukanuba equivalent, but her choice cannot go beyond that. Me, I'd stick with Eukanuba until she gives up and eats that and not bother with the niceties of near identical products ) If she doesn't eat it, ignore her.

I have this battle with Katie the Yorkie here at present. Her trick is not opportunism. She is much more straightforward.She just lies to me.She comes up to my chair, stares at me meaningfully, and gives a commanding, short, yap ! If I ask 'Out?' she turns and makes for me to follow her.If I do that, as often as not I find she's not heading for the back door but leading me to the dogfood cupboard, the door of which she promptly scratches pitifully, all the while giving me sad looks.This is thoroughly dishonest. She's only meant to do that if I ask 'Food?', which I do do if it is a mealtime. (See, that's what happens if you talk to your dog !)

Getting her to the right weight requires lots of willpower: the family's and the owner's, not hers She won't have a choice, with any luck.

**Sher, it's all right : Lacie is a bitch. We can use the b-word around here,can't we? (I know exactly what else you mean). That said, I once horrified a passing American woman who was out walking with her young daughter in Newmarket, when I yelled " Stop pulling , you stupid bitch !" at my standard poodle.

LOL

I know it is going to be harder on me than her... although I admit SHE won't think so!

She has always been a finicky eater... just the way she is. She is one of those 'snacker' sorts of dogs. Eating when SHE feels like it. But I can't allow her to do that when we have the dog-vacuum named Rajah waiting in the wings!

And I am satisfied by the nutritional content of Eukanuba but I WAS/am willing to consider other alternatives if they would be warranted.

Lacie does the pathetic look too, soulfully and reproachfully scratching at her dish when she wants fed... but then ignoring it when she IS fed.

Pain in the butt dog!

I meant to add that Eukanuba, and other dry foods of that kind, do lose their attraction to any dog if they are left exposed to the air.So don't leave it out uneaten and do keep the sack or bag sealed. (They may lose some of their nutritional value too, if stale, but I never know whether that is correct or just some dogfood industry spiel at dog shows Certainly my hungry dogs will be very reluctant to have it if it is a couple of days exposed or left for long in an open bag )

I recently weighed Rajah.. he is now down to 27 pounds. He is looking fit and trim and needs lose only a smidgen more weight. His energy level has gone through the roof.

Lacie on the other hand has done very poorly. She is now 21 pounds. In fact, we had her on starvation rations (literally less than half the amount she SHOULD be getting) and I was monitoring her very carefully. She lost nothing in 2 weeks of time. So, I put her back on her correct food portion levels and she gained weight.

I was observing what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating physical status such as weight gain, hair loss/breakage, skin flaking and problems, a faint odor (when both dogs had gotten a fresh bath and Rajah was NOT having an odor and she was) and grunting and wheezing with minor activity.

Keeping all these things in mind, I suspected Hypothyroidism and so we took her to the vet. They did the blood work and came up with a very definite deficit in her thyroid function. In a year and a half since the vet last saw her, she has gained 7 pounds.

She is now taking Levothyroxin (the same meds that humans and cats also take for the same condition). We just started her on this yesterday evening and she is taking it very easily with mini-marshmallows hiding the dose (per the vets recommendation).

I anticipate a slow recovery, but I am glad we finally figured out what was wrong with her. We wouldn’t have realized there was a problem if Rajah hadn't lost his weight with such ease using the same weight loss regimen.

Anyway, thanks for all of your input and suggestions.