Since we were Dobe novices, everything that we went through during Versace’s puppyhood turned out to be a new challenge for us, and a steep learning curve.

As mentioned briefly in my previous post, feeding him was not easy.

Having a non-food-oriented pet was alien to me: you see, most of my previous pets ate absolutely EVERYTHING I had given them.
Give goldfish and koi a bucketload of pellet food and they would literally eat to death!  (I was devastated when that happened to me as a child, it was indeed a hard lesson learned.)
Do you think my hamsters ever got bored of sunflower seeds?  No way, they couldn’t get enough of it throughout their lives.

I didn’t know dogs (or to be more accurate, this particular dog) could have an eating disorder.

Versace preferred to have meat alone, but that was not recommended by the breeder:  in addition to giving him a certain amount of protein to assist his growth, we had to feed him a mix of other stuff as well.  In his puppy years, we fed him beef mince or cooked chicken plus pasta (sometimes rice) and mix vegetables.  Of note, for some reason, chicken and peas always led to really bad wind problems, stinking the entire floor out with a lingering, foul smell that no air freshener could neutralize.

We had to give him dry dog food too, for nutritional balance.  According to him, that was not “food”, however.  He preferred having a wide variety of foods rather than just “boring dog food”, which, I must admit, was entirely my fault as Ms. S has pointed out…

From the cheapest to the most expensive, we tried all dry dog foods available from supermarkets, pet specialty stores and vets.  He did like all of them… for a day or two.  Once the novelty value wore off, he lost interest.  Buying a big bag of dog food was thus a complete waste.  Sigh.

Giving him tinned dog food was also a total waste of time (and money).  Do you think he would eat that smelly jelly-like mush?  He did, a few times, but he must have been absolutely desperate at the time, because that normally didn’t even register as food in his mind.

To entice him, we would sprinkle “liver powder” on to his food.  Bad move!   Give a dog an option and he would expect a different option the following day.  As far as food was concerned, we had both undoubtedly become his servant.

Considering that neither Ms.S nor I ate meat, Versace had a pretty good deal.

[Conclusion] Would-be-dog owners, be warned: Don’t give your dog a snobby name, or he/she may expect gourmet food every day!