Dog Food and Behaviour

[lisylisylou]

Ok this might sound silly especially as my dog is so young. My lovely dog is a 10 month old dalmatian girl which has been spade and we are in the process of training her with a fantastic dog trainer. She gets loads of exercise and walks because we know all about her breeds history being a carriage dog so we put real effort and time in to her. To be honest, she is a really lovely girl, so affectionate and we absolutely love her smiles!!

When we first got our dog she was being fed Royal Canin junior dog food and she would just go scatty but I put this down to her being a young dog/puppy/adolescent. Our dog trainer suggested that we move her onto a different type of food called Applawse which is a more natural food/not as processed and I felt that she really calmed down. However, she is quite fussy and would after a while turn her nose up at it so I put her back on the Royal Canin food (being the mother in me - she must eat, eat anything!!) and quite honestly she is starting to go mental again, having scatty 2-3 hours and she finds it hard to settle at night.

Has anyone else noticed this with dog food? I'm more than willing to hear anyone say 'no it's in your mind and you're imagining it'. I would love to know of anyone else's experience with dog food and if you've changed dog foods and have noticed a noticeable difference in behaviour in your dog. Not necessarily just Royal Canin but just I'm more curious as to whether anyone else has noticed results of change in diet

[ender]

No, never noticed any changes in behaviour that seemed to be due to diet. Physical changes, yes. My rescue had chronic diarrhoea when I got him, was fine after diet changed from kibble to raw but his behaviour has always been the same.
Young dogs do go through various stages testing boundaries, unsettled etc. Unlikely to be due to food IMHO.

[tabulahrasa]

Not with my dog...but he has a behavioural specialist (vet not trainer or behaviourist) and she says absolutely definitely food intolerances can cause behavioural changes.

[Lilcamper]

Additives can send dogs loopy just like they can with kids.

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Dog food can have a massive difference on dog behaviour. I've done some qualifications in canine behaviour and this comes up time and time again. There can be 2 reasons;

1. a poor quality dog food, like Bakers or Pedigree chum, contains additives and poor quality ingredients which will seriously effect a dog's behaviour. They also tend to cause long term health issues. I know behaviourists that say their career's are built almost entirely on people feeding Bakers.
   

1. A good quality food, which the dog is allergic / intollerant too. Royal Canin contains maize and wheat - many dogs are gluten intollerant which may be your problem.
   

I would change the food, as your vet suggested. Dogs generally don't starve themselves - honest! But sometimes wetting a dry dog food makes it more palatable. Smaller bags might help if the food is going stale before being eaten.

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Shockingly inappropriate use of apostrophes there! Sorry.