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  1. #11
    SummerBaby is offline Platinum level (1000+ posts)
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    Jan 2005
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    1,607

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    Our dog, yellow lab, will be 2 in a couple weeks. We have two crates, one in our bedroom and one in the kitchen/family room. He is fine if left for a short time, and actually usually crates himself. It's his comfort spot. He really doesn't need to be crated at night, so I ordered him.a nice bed from Frontgate for our room. I'd like to put that crate away and have him sleep on the dog bed. He does like to sleep in our room. He doesnt sleep well if he's downstairs. We don't let him sleep in the kids' rooms because he eats stuffed animals and there would be a massacre, lol.

    As for food, check dogfoodadvisor.com. We feed Fromm's and have been very happy with it. You can't switch all at once though. We switched out dog and you have to start out adding the new food a little at a time. Otherwise you risk diarrhea.

    Good luck!

  2. #12
    twowhat? is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    We started by leaving our dog in her crate with a Kong when we left the house. She did well, so a couple of months later we left the crate open and gave her access to only the room the crate was in (using baby gates). Again, she did well and we would often come home to find her resting in her crate. So then we increased the area of the house that she had access to until eventually she had access to the whole house. The one thing we never changed is that we always gave her a stuffed Kong before leaving the house, it let her know we would be gone, and was a positive association to us leaving. We also left her crate in the same place with door open for years since that was her "safe place". Eventually we got rid of the crate and replaced it with a regular dog bed. And now she has multiple dog beds strategically placed around the house but I digress...

    Obviously every dog is different but ours did well with this transition.

    It sounds like your rescue already did fine with access to the house for a short trip away!!

    Our dog sleeps in our room, but I feel like that's one thing that you can set the rules on, and that is that. Most dogs will pretty easily adapt to the house rules. If your sleep would be disturbed, then by all means have your dog sleep in another room!

    Food - our dog has a very sensitive stomach and we feed Canidae lamb and brown rice. She does very well on it. There are many high quality dog foods out there, the Costco brand is decent too! I would just try one and if it doesn't work, you can always slowly switch. We also supplement with dark green veggies, salmon skin, egg, raw chicken (backbone from a whole chicken that I butterfly before roasting), fruit. Basically bits of what we eat! If you feed dry kibble, the best piece of advice our vet gave is to add lots of water to the kibble if your dog isn't naturally a good water drinker. Dry kibble is so dehydrated that lots of dogs will eat it, not drink enough water on their own, and end up with kidney problems as they age. Our dog is a terrible water drinker so we add a TON to her kibble...it's really more of a soup LOL...and she's one of the healthiest dog our vet has seen at about 12-ish years old.
    Last edited by twowhat?; 08-23-2016 at 11:00 AM.

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