dog food theory

my theory is that a dog who is put on a low protein diet is always hungry and will scavenge for any garbage food he can find while out on a walk and no matter how closely you watch, the dog will scarf down garbage that will hurt him or her... from my perspective, happiness proves this theory, but then, that is just my perspective... he is constantly begging for food when we eat, hard core incorrigible begging, and licks the carpet under where we eat and walk daily... he is constantly sniffing the ground and grass, stopping every few feet instead of walking (though that is largely in part due to his wanting to mark territory as he will try to squeeze out pee a dozen times after he is dry) and if not stopped, he will lap up anything that remotely smells like food, including some dried feces, old bread, and anything that smells like meat...

what brings this up is the fact that he just did it three times on our walk... i got him to drop the garbage the first two times, a piece of bread and an indistinguishable something, but the third time he scarfed it down before i could bend over... usually he does not challenge after the first intervention and reprimand, so something's up and the behavior is escalating (and he'll sometimes ignore his dry food for a whole day)... he cannot be left off leash in a dog park or allowed to walk without constant close supervision or he will eat crap from the ground... for some dogs it's so what? but he is on a very strict diet is seldom intentionally fed anything but this stuff the vet put him on this stuff a few years ago which makes him succeptible to stomach upsets if he eats anything else... other reading i've done suggests the low protein diet does not show significant results in helping dogs with kidney stones, but has several unhealthy side-effects like skin problems and other issues happiness definitely does show...

but the vet is a friend of jackson's and happiness is getting older, so who am i to challenge the doctor at this stage of happiness's life... alas, i hope he doesn't get sick from whatever he ate out there today... and as i am writing he is gagging up something... i put him on the porch with water so it's easier to clean up... 14 year old puppies have some habits that may never actually change...

time for dinner, aye? (narf :}