We are a typical Indian family living in Singapore and have as our loving pet a 4 yrs 9 mth old male GSD named Jackie, who's been with us since one month of age and who came with us to Singapore from India two years ago. Jackie is too close to my wife, to the extent that he immediately starts having separation anxiety when she goes out the door. The anxiety is at its worst when she goes out of station for a few weeks (which is why she rarely does that).
Following his very initial few months in India we put him onto commercial dry food which he used to eat on his own till about 6 months of age when one night he suddenty developed digestion related problems, vomiting, loose motions and his gut had even come out. We got scared and rushed him to the hospital where they carried out tests to find nothing so in two days' time he was operated upon. The vet said he could not find anything inside except his pancreas "looked" not normal enough. He did a massage and then stitched him up. Various reasons were cited - infected dog food, vaccine not genuine etc. The boy survived. That was Dec 2003.
Immediately following the operatio he completely rejected all dog foods so we switched him to home-cooked food. Based on his vet's recommendation we slowly tried to change over to a mix of meat, vegetables and roti (Indian bread) but without salt, oil or spices - mostly in a boiled and stewed form. He did not like eating it so first we thought perhaps his liver was not very good yet. Later it turned out it was the taste that he disliked - too bland for him. He hates it till date and refuses to eat it on his own, so has to be force-fed / hand-fed. That continued till date and today he would not eat on his own even if hungry - it has become a habit. And he would not eat off anyone else's hand except my wife's! If I try he would growl and / or chew me down! A couple of times we have tried leaving the food in front of him but he would growl and sit tight, but would not budge. We give up and then start hand feeding him again. After all he is our boy - cant let him go hungry while we eat!
The only time or stuff he eats on his own is when he is offered the following: ice-creams, roasted or fried or spicy varieties of meat (kebabs, sausages etc.), fish, chicken.
It so happens that my wife is now having to go on a six-week tour of India, Europe and the UK with our son (I stay behind and the home maid stays to look after the dog) and this where our dual problem starts. One is the imminent separation anxiety that would anyway bear heavily on him (he sits at the door all those weeks waiting for her to come back). To top it is the feeding problem. We have about a month now before she leaves and hence we are desperately looking for help.
His daily exercise habits are in place, for your information.
What would you recommend?
Following his very initial few months in India we put him onto commercial dry food which he used to eat on his own till about 6 months of age when one night he suddenty developed digestion related problems, vomiting, loose motions and his gut had even come out. We got scared and rushed him to the hospital where they carried out tests to find nothing so in two days' time he was operated upon. The vet said he could not find anything inside except his pancreas "looked" not normal enough. He did a massage and then stitched him up. Various reasons were cited - infected dog food, vaccine not genuine etc. The boy survived. That was Dec 2003.
Immediately following the operatio he completely rejected all dog foods so we switched him to home-cooked food. Based on his vet's recommendation we slowly tried to change over to a mix of meat, vegetables and roti (Indian bread) but without salt, oil or spices - mostly in a boiled and stewed form. He did not like eating it so first we thought perhaps his liver was not very good yet. Later it turned out it was the taste that he disliked - too bland for him. He hates it till date and refuses to eat it on his own, so has to be force-fed / hand-fed. That continued till date and today he would not eat on his own even if hungry - it has become a habit. And he would not eat off anyone else's hand except my wife's! If I try he would growl and / or chew me down! A couple of times we have tried leaving the food in front of him but he would growl and sit tight, but would not budge. We give up and then start hand feeding him again. After all he is our boy - cant let him go hungry while we eat!
The only time or stuff he eats on his own is when he is offered the following: ice-creams, roasted or fried or spicy varieties of meat (kebabs, sausages etc.), fish, chicken.
It so happens that my wife is now having to go on a six-week tour of India, Europe and the UK with our son (I stay behind and the home maid stays to look after the dog) and this where our dual problem starts. One is the imminent separation anxiety that would anyway bear heavily on him (he sits at the door all those weeks waiting for her to come back). To top it is the feeding problem. We have about a month now before she leaves and hence we are desperately looking for help.
His daily exercise habits are in place, for your information.
What would you recommend?
