[Bruce's_Mom]

My good friend will be going out of town from the 21-Jan10, and she had just purchased a new doxie puppy...I mean it is tiny and in my opinion was too young to be taken from its mother, but despite having simply purchasing the dog over the internet, from what I guess is a mill given they had about 6 available litters, and having it less than a week they were going to leave it in a kennel...I felt so sorry for him that I volunteered to babysit! Well now I am concerned about the dog for several reasons, and had a few questions for YTers about what would and would not be appropriate while I care for the little guy:
(1) The dog appears healthy and is up to date on shots and wormings (otherwise he would not be allowed near my Bruce), but I suspect he has been handled improperly and I worry may have been a little roughed up...I watch my pal's boyfried grab him by the skin on the back of his neck and just be rough with him, and apparantly they do not think this is a problem and will only do the bare minimum with the vet...So do you think it would be inappropriate to take him to my vet and have this checked (think his neck/back may be hurting) while they are away?
(2) They are feeding him crap, Purina 1 puppy chow...Would it be okay for me to blend and switch him to a better food, if I buy them a couple large bags of it? I would like to do this because well their dog seems to have issues with the food (stools are not runny but not solid, poops too much, is itchy, etc), and I do not want my Bruce to get into this crap while it is in the house...
(3) They seem to think it is good to leave him in his crate like 9 hours per day in order to "help with the potty training process." I personally cannot do this because it in my opinion is mean...But would it be wrong for me to switch him out ot the crate and put him in Bruce's old xpen with pads?

I know it is there dog, but I worry about the little guy...What are your opinions?