Dear Dog Lady,
Do you know what happened to the two shepherds, Shoka and Nala, on "Jon and Kate Plus Eight?" The dogs have vanished.
— Sarah
Dear Sarah,
According to nearly every gossip on the planet (and, sigh, Dog Lady is part of the pack), Jon Gosselin, the father of the brood, brought the German shepherds back to the breeder in September. The fractured family had the pets for a less than six months. Gosselin blamed estranged wife Kate Gosselin for the returns. She, apparently, thought the dogs were a messy inconvenience.
Bringing the dogs back to their den was the right thing to do. The shepherds shouldn't be in a place where the supposed primary caretakers are too distracted to take care of them. However, the larger damage may be to the small children who might have viewed these dogs as new family in a time of turmoil. What message does this send to vulnerable minds and hearts when pets disappear?
Dogs are not wag swag. The Gosselin parents rashly acquired the dogs — for free — to create action on the ill-fated TV show. Neither the elder Gosselins, nor TLC — the cable channel that produced the episode — seemed to care what would happen to the living creatures after the show imploded. TLC is part of Discovery Network, which also owns Animal Planet.
Dear Dog Lady,
We currently feed our two Labs when we get up in the morning, which works fine on a work day. But if we sleep in, the dogs wake us up by either whining or barking until we get up and feed them.
We want to switch to feeding them in the evening with the hope we can sleep in on the weekends and not have them in the routine of eating in the morning when we get up. What is the best approach to take with this?
— Laurie
Dear Laurie,
Can you blame them? These big guys are hungry. Imagine if someone fed you only once a day and occasionally snoozed through mealtimes? Your dogs are trained well to expect the food at the same time every day.
How about if you start feeding them twice a day? Give the same amount, of course, but divide it over two feedings instead of loading it into one. This method is probably better for them health-wise. Also, the double-feeding will take the edge off their need to protein-load once a day. You can better control their "gimme now" biological clocks by doling out the chow in the morning and evening.
ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ
Listen to "Ask Dog Lady" on Wednesdays from 1 to 3 p.m. on WCAP 980AM. Visit www.askdoglady.com to ask a question, make a comment, or enjoy reading Dog Lady's archives.
