First Post

[mystic_wings]

Ok, so I haven't been a dog person since before kindergarten. I'm totally a feline person. Love me, love my kittys, & run, run very fast from the dogs. I was bitten when I was in third grade & I never quite got over it

Comments

[jp_poohbear]

Both can be "solved" by changing the food. I had a rescue puggle who was 40 pounds and could hardly walk by the time i got her. I put her on the greenbean (as many cans of cut green beans as she could eat, with a little kibble on top) diet and increased her exercise to several long walks a day, once she could walk easier. She shed 10 pounds in about 6 weeks. If your dog needs to lose a significant amount of weight in a short time period, this will certainly do that. I told my vet what I was doing and kept her updated throughout the process. Once the dog loses the initial weight, you can slowly decrease the amount of greenbeans and increase the kibble.

That brings me to the shedding issue. I have found that with most dogs, coats improve once the diet is adjusted and they are getting what they need nutritionally. Typically, if Sumo is on a grocery store (i.e. Purina or Ol' ROy) brand dog food, the food will be full of fillers and because the food lacks nutrition, Sumo's coat won't be as healthy and shiny as it would be if he was switched to a quality dog food without fillers. I use Nutro Ultra and am very happy with it. It does cause a lot of horrendous gas because it's organic, but both of my pugs have better, shinier coats that don't shed.

I'm glad you have seen how wonderful the puggies are. Once you go pug, life is snug as a bug:)

(because you always have a pug curled up next to you)

[puppy_ciao]

I had the same problem with Doozer having gas on Nutro Ultra- I switched to Innova EVO and it went away- it's also a holistic food but it's grain free.

On a side note, Nutro Ultra isn't actually organic, but it is holistic which is good. I'm not sure why it made Doozer so gassy but I've heard of a lot of people having the same problem w/it.

[wendy_belgard]

Is the green bean diet something you invented, or did you get it from somewhere? I'm very interested, because my Shmooey's diet (as designed by a nutritionist at Angell Memorial hospital) is basically scrambled eggs, barley and a vegetable. I always use green beans and he does seem to love it.

[jp_poohbear]

I heard about it from a friend of mine that also does Rescue. She had a foster shin who was tipping the scales. My vet was familiar with it as well.

Basically, it's as many cans of greenbeans as they can eat. You can use the low sodium if you want, but my dog liked the salt for taste. Every time she was hungry I opened up a can of greenbeans and she got her fill without adding weight. Twice a day I put about 1/8 of a cup of kibble on top of her greenbeans and it worked out very well. She was up to about 7 cans a day, and she started to wean herself off of them as she started losing weight and wasn't so hungry anymore.

I highly recommend it!