We are a first time yorkie owner. we got an 11wk old (dropped off at our house with a not about him but had no name at the time.. I know we were surprised also lol but hes got a home now with us and to us thats all that matters then figuring out who left him).
we have a westie/schnauzer mix who I tried a 100% cooked meal with him but he never had solid movements with it to the point where he was barely making it outside. so we have him 50/50 with a holistic dog food (that is grain free etc. since he has allergies).
With scruffy we do chicken (boiled bulled from the bone and then what i dont get off the bones i put all that in the slow cooker to make the bones very soft to where they can be mooshed up since im afraid of him choking on them), carrots and peas 5 days a week mixed in 50/50 twice a day with his dry dog food. then twice a week instead of that he gets gets a mix of sardines, salmon (pink Alaskan), and chopped up apples (he loves his apples) dividing between his two feedings. since doing this his coat and allergies to things are at a lower percentage.
my question is can a yorkie having feedings like this? and if so can the have salmon and is that to much sardines for them (as for scruffy being a westie fish oil and his skin issues are best friends lol).
I've tried doing some research but cant find the answer to my question and Joey (the yorkie our 6yr old and 2yr old daughters named him, our 1yr old son doesn't talk but they already have a bond with each other lol) wants to eat out of scruffy's bowl with him instead of his own so bad (scruffy actually tries to make room so he can its pretty cute
) before I want to let them eat together like this I want to make sure that what/how I'm feeding scruffy is safe for joey since ive had many terriers going up just never a yorkie.
(they both get homemade treats since we have newly started an online homemade dog treat bakery... so our dogs are well spoiled lol the kids are too far behind
)
I also do have another question along the lines of walking and collars. I was reading that a harness or harness/collar combo is better for this type of breed due to the collaspe issue with the part of their throat. is this true? and are they hard to get use to the leash? how about training (he's not food driven like all the other dogs I have had growing up before getting scruffy as an adult through treat reinforcement then gradually taking that away to get them just to do the things on command)? right now hes at the terrier stage of selective hearing and doesn't seem to care to much about stuff like that just more of cuddling. Should i wait till he's ready/shows signs of being ready or work with him now? and if work with him now since hes not food driven is there some other tactics i can do for reinforcement?
thank you for all your help (sorry so long just want to make sure he's at his healthiest with us and we are caring for him correctly, he checked out good with the vet but we dont have any holistic vets in my area to have knowledge about the cooking thing our vet just told us the no no foods for dogs if we were going to give him a mix of people food)