RE: 2 Dogs & Diet

Question
Hi- We recently adopted a LabraDoodle who is 19months old.  She (Lucy) has been an excellent companion for our 19 mos old standard poodle (Radley).  They love to play together, tag, chase, rolling around mouthing and nuzzline each other, etc.  However, Lucy paws Radley, often in the face.  In the last two months, Radley has gotten an eye infection and most recently "hot spots".  Radley has been "hiding under a table" when in the house, during his bout with the hot spots and Lucy has been patiently waiting for him to get better.  (She doesn't mess with him or antagonize him.  Radley plays when he is outside, but makes a beeline back under the table when he comes in.  this has been going on for about 3 days.  We have seen a vet and he is on antibotics and antibotic cream for the spots.  The two dogs eem to play and "love" each other so much, but we were thinking that if we could boost Radley's immune system, this might keep him from getting these opportunistic infections.  We use Iams dog food but I was hoping you could give me some advice on supplements, or vitamins, or changing the food.


Answer
By heading for the table when indoors, Radley is demonstrating a strong conditioned fear response caused by the pain inflicted on him by Lucy.  Regardless of what food you offer, you need to control Lucy's boisterous and inappropriate interaction with Radley ASAP!  Put a strong nylon leash on Lucy when she is in the house and control her behavior.  Pawing behavior has to STOP.  Observe her very, very closely.  If she begins demonstrating this, remove her with the leash immediately for at least one minute.  Do this repeatedly until the dog begins to make the connection with her behavior.  While doing this, introduce positive reinforcement training to Lucy and give her one very strong behavior she can succeed at 100% of the time; this will take 2 to 3 weeks.  Lucy appears to be out of control and this is not good for anyone.

Regarding food, Iams is no longer the product it once was.  However, no food you offer will increase the immune response.  In fact, Radley's hot spots might be his immune response to additives in the food, and they might be produced by stress.  Ask your veterinarian to do a full blood chemistry on Radley to determine if his blood levels are normal, and you might benefit from putting him on a prescription diet to treat the hot spots.  I'd stay away from Iams.  There are several high quality foods available (I feed Royal Canin) but in this case (because of hot spots) you may need a special formula.