Then:

Now:

Five and a half months old, 41 pounds.

Biscuit realized he hadn’t said “hello” in a while, and this bothered him cause he’s a friendly guy!

5 months and 38 pounds of adorable, mischievous puppy.

You may have noticed Edwin and I are taking a little mini vacation this week. He’s off to Chi-town with family, and I’m trying to do all the Christmas shopping that exams prevented me from getting done!

If you haven’t heard, parts of the east coast were slammed this past weekend with record snowfall. Eek. I’m still working on digging out my car, and I take my life in my hands every time I leave the house. We did have Bake-a-Thon, however many of our usual bakers were unable to make it due to the snow… more on that later this week!

In other news, my baby dog is becoming an adolescent dog. And we got him to finally wear his Christmas bandanna – take a look!

Hey gang!

Thanks for all the great comments in our dog food discussion from Tuesday. Here are the collected links that were shared in case you missed it – a lot of good information was exchanged both here and on Facebook:

• Consumer Search – Best Dry Foods
• Dog Food Analysis
• How to Read a Dog Food Label (.doc)
• What’s Really in Pet Food? (.pdf)
• How to Grade Your Pet’s Food (.doc)
• Why Feed Your Pet Good Nutrition? (.doc)

I decided on Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover’s Soul – Large Breed. The ratings I found for it were consistently strong. Consumer Search ranks it as one of the top four best foods and dog food analysis gives it a thoughtful four star rating. It’s also very reasonably priced – I just bought a 35 lb. bag last night for $38 including tax.

Once we decided that we liked the food, then it had to pass Biscuit’s test. Thankfully, Biscuit loves it. We did a taste test where I held the Chicken Soup chow in one hand and Purina in another. I repeated the test, and also did one where I held Chicken Soup and Science Diet in another hand. Chicken Soup won every time.

Unfortunately it can be a little difficult to find in stores. The only store in Charlottesville that sells it is Pet Supplies Plus, and they were out of stock earlier in the week. Ordering online is an option, but I shudder to think of what the shipping costs would be for such a heavy item. Hopefully our 35 pounder will last us a little while!

Even though our vet recommended Science Diet, after reading the above links I feel confident that the food we decided on is healthy and nutritious for our pup. I’m sure I’ll be visiting this topic again in a few months when he moves to adult food!

Have a great weekend!

Hey DC readers!

So we’re trying to decide what brand of puppy food to keep Biscuit on, and I was hoping some of you fellow foodies could help!

We did some online research and found that Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul has good quality ingredients and is reasonably priced, so we’ve been trying to change him on to that food. But at our first vet appointment yesterday, the vet suggested that Iams and Science Diet are good brands that have a lot of long term research under their belts. When we pushed back a little he said that Iams were the people who broke the story about melamine in pet food a few years ago but that they didn’t get any credit.

I like science and data… so I appreciate that companies like Iams put a lot of money and research in to their product. I also understand that millions of dogs have been on Iams for years and done extremely well. I also understand the philosophical argument that better quality foods (without things like corn gluten meal and meat byproducts) should be more nutritious. We know that a fast food cheeseburger isn’t good for a person everyday, so we’re likely to think it’s not good for dogs either. But aside from passionate debate and outcry on the message boards, I haven’t seen much actual data about what’s better.

Have any of you run across data about what is actually healthier for dogs in the long run? What does your vet recommend?