bad odor

Question
Hi, I have a 2yr.old boxer that I rescued from a local shelter.  I've had him a couple of months.  I bath him every 2-3 wks. He has a terrible dog odor even after bathing him.  He stays in the house alot and our furniture has a terrible odor.  I feed him alot of table food. Do you think its coming from his diet.  If so what do you recommend. Hope you can help

Answer
Hi Jeannie,

It could be a sort of "detox", depending on the condition he was in when he came into rescue and when you got him - as health improves, the "impurities" from inside the body sometimes work themselves out through the skin.  Once he's back to good health, the odor should diminish considerably.  If he was in good health when he came into rescue, then it may well be his diet.  You say you feed him a lot of table food - that's not necessarily bad, but if you're feeding mostly things like trimmed fat then that could be part of the problem.  You might also look at a grain-free, or low-grain diet for him; dogs don't have a dietary need for, or the ability to digest, grains, and so they often cause problems with digestion/elimination, skin and coat, eye discharge, etc.  Many companies are now making grain-free formulas - offhand, Innova, Solid Gold, Wellness, Timberwolf Organics a few.  One last thing, you might want to back off on bathing him if he's not actually dirty - the odor is coming from his body oils, and bathing strips those oils which can cause the body to produce even more of them than usual.  You might try some between-bath wipes or sprays, such as those from Earthbath (www.earthbath.com).

Good luck!!