11 months - Adult? Enough Food? Drinking from dog park pounds and lakes...

Alright, I'm gonna try and make this short as i have a tenancy to ramble...

My pup was born on May 12th, 2009, he's 11 months today and weighs 30 pounds (last time i weighed him... within the month maybe). He eats 2 meals a day, 1 meal consisting of 2/3 cups of Orijin dry kibble and 1/4 of a large pattie of Stella & Chewy's raw food (spoiled? yes he sure as heck is). Is this enough food for him? Is this too much? When is a corgi considered an adult in regards to his body? I get comments from friends and family he looks fat, but I think it's just the fur, I can feel the ribs if i pet his side and he's active and seems to never wanna go back home when we're outside.

Also, we've been going to the dog park recently, and he's loving his time there playing with other dogs and he's doing a good job about being respectful of people and not jumping on them and playing with other dogs. But the only problem I have is that he LOVES LOVES LOVES going into the puddles, streams and lakes to take a mid waist dip and then starts chopping away at the water and drinking it. I'll put some fresh water in front of his mouth but he'll just take a sip or two and then run off, play, and then find the nearest body of water and go splashing in it and start drinking from it. I'm going to assume that this is bad due to what could be in the water when he drinks it, but i'm fine with him getting a dip and cooling off. But I don't want him to get sick... and I can't find a way to correct him so he wouldn't drink the water without making him think that going into the water is a bad idea all together (which I don't care if he goes in and gets dirty, he's getting a bath after the dog park either way). Should I be giving him any extra/different types of medication to help prevent anything (he's had all his vaccinations and the like)?

Your words of wisdom are needed my dear Corgi friends.

Here's a link to the pictures I've been taking of him at the dog park... as you can see... he gets dirty within the first 10 minutes there...

http://picasaweb.google.com/grimookami

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Permalink Reply by Marius on April 12, 2010 at 4:55pm

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Permalink Reply by Ginny and Diggory on April 12, 2010 at 7:23pm

He's so cute! He sure likes the mud, huh? Since he's prone to drinking from the mud.... I'd recommend vaccinating him for leptospirosis and giardia... those are a few of the nasties that live in water that we can at least try to prevent from making your pup sick. Also, make sure he's on heartworm meds, since mosquitos can thrive around standing water and spread heartworm.

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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on April 13, 2010 at 3:24pm

Actually, I would have to respectfully disagree with those vaccine recommendations. The Giardia vaccine is widely known to be ineffectual and many vaccinated dogs still get it. The Lepto vaccine is also a tricky one as it is only good for a very short time period (maybe 3-4 months) and has one of the highest reaction rates. I do agree that those parasites could very well be in the water, I just don't agree that those vaccinations are the way to go. I just try to discourage puddle drinking, and I keep a tube of equine Panacur on hand and start at the first signs of Giardia (diarrhea/vomitting.. the stool will smell awful; give 1/3 of the tube everyday for 3 days).

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Permalink Reply by MagnoliaFly on April 13, 2010 at 6:59pm

Yeah Panacur is more effective at clearing out giardia infection. I also considered the vaccine and my own vet told me it just isn't effective enough to make it worth giving to dogs so their practice didn't even carry it. The parasite is a nasty one once a dog gets it, especially if they are a young puppy because they reinfect themselves many times usually.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on April 12, 2010 at 7:30pm

My Buffy was like that. She never saw water she did not want to wade into and swim if possible. She was very happy but muddy and never did get sick from it. There are some very swampy areas in the hiking trails by us and a few times she was just black afterwards. As long as you don't mind giving baths it seems OK. Cute photos!

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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 12, 2010 at 7:38pm

Jack does that too and so far he's not gotten sick. Just don't let him drink from puddles along the road of course because of oil and antifreeze and the like.

Standing water is not real good and in general drinking from it should be discouraged but honestly it can be hard to keep them out. They can pick up some diseases, but you can only protect them from so much.

He is beautiful! As for the food, 2/3 cup plus raw twice a day--- do I understand that correctly? He's getting a cup and a third a day plus a total of half a patty of the raw? If so that sounds like probably a bit more than the average Corgi needs; mine both get about a cup a day total. Every dog is different, though.

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Permalink Reply by Marius on April 13, 2010 at 11:57am

Thank you Beth, i'll pass along the compliments :p Hmm, perhaps it is a bit much... but should be be fed under the puppy specifications of these food bags or adult, he's 11 months, so i'm not sure when he stops being a "puppy" but food standards... he'll always be a puppy in my eyes. I took the bag's recommended amounts per day and split them to be 2/3 dry kibble and 1/3 raw and that's how i came up to the amounts per meals he's getting now. But yes, in one day he's getting 1 and 1/3 cups of kibble and 1/2 a pattie. The Kibble bag mentions 1 1/4 to 2 1/4 dry kibble per day depending on weight and activity level and the raw food, if i remember correctly, recommends 1.5 patties per day for his weight level.

Last time I weighed him, he was 30 lbs... Perhaps he's a bit over weight? Wiki states the ideal weight for Male corgis to be is 27 lbs?

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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 13, 2010 at 6:23pm

Corgis have low food requirements compared to some other breeds, and generally speaking the food recommendations on the bag are much too high for the average Corgi. Again every dog is different and there will be a rare Corgi who needs that much, but most don't.

It's hard to go by the weight of the dog. For a normal sized Corgi, though, 30 pounds is on the big side. I have two and my girl goes about 28 in good condition, but my boy is huge and his good weight is about 36 pounds. He weighed 35 at just over a year. They usually reach their full size, more or less, by about a year old though they may continue to fill out a bit until about 2.

Puppies of course need more food than adults, but by 11 months you might want to cut back a bit and see how he looks; it's easier to add more later if he looks bony than try to lose weight if he gets too big. Jack got overweight in a hurry on me as his activity slowed down when he hit about 18 months old. Not that he was quiet, but when he was a puppy he was in constant motion and he learned how to just relax a bit sometimes. They are growing and they need lots of food, and then they stop and it's easy to miss that they are chubbing up on you because it's so gradual that you can't really notice.

A properly weighted Corgi will always look stocky, but you should see a definite tuck in the waist from the side, and an hourglass shape when viewed from above, with the chest and hips being similar and the area right in front of the hips looking slimmer.