revenge of the salmon dog food.

when we acquired beagle dog in august, he came with some overly expensive dog food and was used to having made-for-dog sausage grated over his food and mixed with water to form a gravy. so, beagle dog was accustomed to his expensive food being covered in gravy so that he could eat it. i was told that this made his food easier to eat. i thought it was a physical thing, like maybe beagle dog couldn't chew so well and needed the dog equivalent of baby food covering his solid food in order to eat. but no. it turns out that he didn't like his food, mainly because it wasn't tasty enough.

we noticed that beagle dog wouldn't eat his own food but was super interested in eating other dog's food. also, we noticed that beagle dog sometimes likes to throw up. and our response to having to prepare a gravy sauce for the dog's food so that he could eat was along the lines of: no way. instead, we switched him to a food made for sensitive dog systems, and it is now clear that he likes his food because he has learned how to break into his locked dog food container to eat his fill of nasty-smelling dog food. his food is nasty for the same reason that he loves it: the main ingredient is salmon.

i am very fond of salmon, but only when it's cooked and presented to me on a plate in a way that is fit for human consumption. salmon dog food smells like ass in a way that a salmon filet does not, so i'm really not in favor of having to smell the salmon dog food. but beagle dog likes it, so all good.

i have noticed, however, that in the couple of months since beagle dog started eating this food, he has started to smell reeeely bad. he didn't smell like this before, really, and i'm wondering if his food is causing weird things to happen inside his sensitive system and leak out his doggie pores. last time we had him groomed--and he wouldn't stop howling at the doggy groomer place so they cut his appointment short--he only smelled clean for about three days.

also, a couple of nights ago the salmon lover decided he would strategically place his poo right in the walking path in our front yard. so far there has been an understanding between our dogs and their people that the yard is pretty much theirs to do with as they please (well, within reason), but they aren't supposed to go in the walkway between the front door and the gate. they've been very good about this so far, until the other night when it was completely dark and i stepped in something that shouldn't have been there. alvin stepped in it, too. we were not happy.

i cleaned off our shoes, wondering who had broken our unspoken walkway rule, when it became clear that it was beagle dog's fault because the shoe stuff smelled overwhelmingly like salmon and poo. it was salmon poo. it was deposited by the beagle dog, and it was disgusting.

so. he has almost run out of this current dog food, and i think we're going to switch him to a food that doesn't smell so bad. i hope that makes his coat smell better. i could try bathing him more often, but he's difficult to bathe because he dislikes water, and the groomer dislikes him, and i'm running out of options.