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HANGRY PUPPIES
Now and then, I hear other trainers talking about the potential for behavioral fallout when a puppy is feeling hungry, and I agree with this. I also can speak from my own perspective: when hungry, I can be quite grouchy!
One of my clients, Sasha, has a toy poodle puppy named Max. Sasha cooks human-grade homemade meals for Max. Problem was, she was not feeding him enough and this was evident when I ran my fingertips along his rib cage (hidden by poodle curls) and felt his ribs sticking out. Because homemade food is often high in water content, the serving may look large, but when compared to more calorie-dense kibble, a visually larger portion is indeed necessary.
She was having a bear of a time with Max’s daily tantrums – lots of angry nipping, racing toward and jumping at Sasha, guarding various items like his blanket – and these behaviors occurred most frequently in the evening, before his dinner. It took several discussions before she agreed to increase the quantity of food he ate. Thankfully, she was quickly rewarded for this decision because Max’s nippiness and grouchy behavior reduced dramatically.
An increase in food, and perhaps even an extra meal added to the daily feeding schedule when the puppy is young, can make a positive difference in their behavior. (In addition, if a fecal test has not been done, that would be important to do in order to rule out any tummy upset from parasites.)
Have you experienced this yourself with your own puppy or with your puppy clients? Aside from increased nippiness, do you see any other behaviors that you associate with hunger?
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3 Replies
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Meet Sascha…I’ve been working with a friend/client who owns this Czech Shepherd and at the time you posted she was only 14 weeks old. She came from a reputable breeder and I’ve been working with this couple to get their dog started out on the right paw. They follow all of my recommendations and do their own research as well…so far so good. The issue was Sascha would really go after the wife, biting her arms and thighs, ripping holes in shirts and jeans and this was worse when her husband was out of town for work. I did a session where I taught her how to play tug but Sascha was very gentle and would be very careful not to bite hands. I got several ideas through research in this community and we tried them all. Then I came upon your post about hangry puppies and I asked them how much food they were giving Sascha compared to when they first got her at 9 weeks. She was getting the same amount of food! Aha! And who does the feeding? The wife…So I had them increase her food to see if there would be any difference and sure enough it’s been about two weeks and this girl has stopped biting mom. Interestingly enough they had asked their vet about a schedule to increase food and he said it was up to them and if they didn’t want her growing too fast they should increase the food very slowly. What?! Not sure how accurate that statement is but it seems odd. Regardless, sometimes it can be the most obvious but it’s so important to ask such specific questions to be able to understand what could be motivating a pup to engage in certain behavior. Thanks again for this great post!
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WOW, @Pugmalion that’s some great detective work you did! What a lucky puppy (and owners!) It’s wonderful that you were able to put into practice what you are learning here, and very inspiring. You really made a difference in the lives of Sasha and her people, and us too, for sharing your success. Thank you!
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@Pugmalion , thank you so much for sharing your story about Sascha. How lucky her pet parents are to be working with you!
I’m glad the post helped.
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