New dog behavior issues/Raw feeding advise

[sarafi]

After years of fostering a few dogs and many cats we have finally found our dog

Her name is Zoey, and she is a 1 1/2 year old pug/poodle very funny looking but a really nice dog.

We had her for one month, then went of vacation for one month and I have had her sans husbandly help now for almost a week and I am looking for a little advise.

All of the background:

This dog has had four previous owners so far, so has a lot of different issues to address. Poor socialization with other dogs/strangers, not housebroken and acts like she is starving all of the time, begging/jumping, etc. She has been to the vet and wormed and is up on shots/heartguard and all the rest.

She is part Pug and we live in Japan, so she wilts in the heat and boy is it hot. This limits the outdoor exercise she gets. I run her before 5:00 am (it's hot/humid even then) feed her when we eat at 6:00, play outside for a few hours and then we run errands/take showers and she is crated. I feed the kiddos lunch around 11, and take the dog out to play fetch while they eat as she is such a distraction and pesters them/eats all food dropped by my 1 1/2 boy. Then it's usually a short bike ride to a park, more play and then naps for kiddos and couch time for the dog. We do a quick 10 run in the afternoon, and feed around 4-5 whenever the kids are hungry. She gets a bathroom trip every few hours she is out, and is starting to catch on. I use no negative reinforcement or punishments in house training and just today she barked at the door when she needed to go out!

So on to the the questions:

1) I am starting with chicken wings to transition to raw. She LOVES them and is eating 4/day but still acting starving. Is this a pug trait, or am I just underfeeding? She also acted that way when I fed her commercial dry food and she only weighs 9 lbs.

2) How long do you think I will have to separate her from the other eaters in the house before she can handle a kid eating a cookie in her presence without just about killing herself with excitement? I would like to be able to eat at the same time everyone else is, but that is just not happening right now. Partly this is due to my baby thinking it is great to throw food her way, but partly this is really something this dog came to us with.

Any suggestions? I'll come back again with her socialization issues, but for the moment we don't greet dogs/people until she calms the heck down and when we do greet them I make a huge deal about how excited/happy I am to see them. This seems to be helping.

TIA

[Ola_]

For raw, I would go with about 3% of her body weight per day. With a tiny dog like that you're only looking at about a quarter pound according to my calculations. Don't let her tell you that she's starving, I've got one of those too and she really chunked up when we switched to raw because I was accidentally overfeeding her. However I'd go for more meaty items than a chicken wing - how about a bone-in thigh?

Can you get a crate or at least some baby gates to separate her during eating times? I think the excitement won't go away for a while but this will keep things a little more sane. Also, it will teach her that when humans are eating it's nap time and nothing exciting happens for her. Once you've been doing this for a while you can start teaching her a "place" command so that she will go lie on her bed or blanket without confinement. But for now I'd go with physical separation to start getting her used to that.

[sarafi]

Thanks Ola_

I started with the wings thinking they would be a good first try, but she devours them in about 30 seconds so I think you are right about trying something a little meatier next time. Off to the store.

I do crate her for breakfast and dinner and she's fine (it's right next to the table) I also make the kids clean all the food and have taken to mopping after every meal before letting her out but she still acts like a nut for about a 1/2 hour after every meal. Hopefully she will catch on soon.

[Arduinna]

The devouring of food is totally normal for a pug IME. Our pugs have always been very food focused. Same thing with the following people around that have food. Ours aren't obnoxious about it, as we haven't let them get away with it but if they even hear anyone in the kitchen it's off to investigate and see if anything gets dropped LOL

The excitement thing is also really normal pug behavior although ours gets exited at meal time before he gets fed not so much after. But we also feed outside not in a crate, so maybe she is excited because she is let out.

I'd alternate the wings with meatier cuts like thighs, ours also love pork ribs and other cuts.