Adopted Carin

Question
QUESTION: Just adopted a approx. 3 yr. old Carin female from local animal control.  Do they do better with canned food or dry?  I bought her Iams small chunk but she's not too interested. She's only about 10 lbs. and recently has had a litter. She learned some bad habits like begging when you are eating.  Also, is there a short summer cut? We are in Utah and it gets pretty hot.

ANSWER: Mary Ann

THANK YOU !  This little girl sounds like she really needed a good home.  She is probably still quite stressed from being at the shelter and a new home, and even without those factors, it's pretty normal for dogs to skip meals periodically.

I strongly recommend dry food because a wet food diet often causes a ton of tartar and other teeth problems.

I would also recommend that you not feed her free choice.  That seems to build bad eating habits and makes it really hard to keep track of how much she is actually eating.

She should be eating about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of dry kibble twice a day. Put down her dish, and whatever she does not finish in 10 minutes and she goes without until the next meal time.

As to her coat. Cairns are a hard coated breed which means they should not have their hair cut.  Instead, people who want to do it the "right way" strip the hair - which means it gets pulled out - Cairns' hair is shallow rooted and comes out easily.  This keeps their coat wirey and water resistant.

http://cairnrescue.com/general/groom.htm#novice

Now, I don;t do that. I use a tool called a mars coat king shown at this link.  You just brush it through the coat and it takes it down in the proper manner.  It is fine to take them right down to their skivvies for the summer too.

http://www.groomersmall.com/ck_results.htm
http://mall.cairnrescue.com/mdse/show_item.php?itemno=G01

Good luck with your new friend and let me know if there's anything more I can help with

-Beth



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again,
Thank you so much for your help! I know that Carins should not have their hair cut however, she must have been matted with they found her so they chopped at her hair and it looks terrible.  What should I do?  By "skivvies" do you mean to shave her or just cut her hair short?

Answer
I would not shave her. I would try to groom the rest of the coat down to a short length and keep it short while the trimmed part grows in.  When I said skivvies, I meant her underwear. This is the ideal time of year to groom a cairn really short so their coat can come in nice and hard.

-Beth