Is This Within The Realms Of Developmental Normalcy?

[Niques]

Some of you may remember a post a month or so back about James not eating his dry food. He's since been vet checked and the opinion was that he was either indicating a need for fewer calories (i.e. reached his growth potential) or had suffered a very minor bout of pancreatitis. Neither of which I'm inclined to agree with, but anyway, moving on. What was confirmed was that there's nothing wrong with his mouth/teeth, which was my concern given his food selectiveness.

He's still not showing a great deal of interest in his dry food, but what I have observed is that he's much more inclined to eat when I'm with him. If I put his treat ball down inside he'll bat it about, chase it and eat (albeit, still not as enthusiastically as in the past in regards to the latter). If I put his treat ball down outside it gets ignored. And thinking back, this is also what he was doing with a "recreational" bone (i.e. big bone, very little meat) back when I first mentioned the problem - it was left outside with him all morning while I was out and he didn't touch it, but when I came home and sat with him he happily tucked in.

In addition, he has lately become unsettled when left outside alone. If he's left out on the deck he'll keep popping up at the window and climbing onto the outdoor furniture to peer in when previously he would sleep. If he's left in the yard proper, he whines or sits under the deck and sporadically barks, where previously he'd, again, just nap or check out interesting things in the garden and spy on the neighbours.

The only time when he's really happy to both be left outside alone and eat is when he's put out with his evening meal of bones.

If James had a first fear period I really didn't notice -- he's always been an extremely outgoing, confident pup -- so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. But I notice he's at the age (12 months) of a potential second period so I'm wondering if all of these behaviours could be considered a normal part of that? And if so, how do I manage it?

Should I be keeping him inside more? He's getting put out for a couple of hours a day at the moment because I don't want him all of a sudden getting used to being around me all the time as I'll be back at uni soon.

Thanks and well done if you've made it through all that Any advice is appreciated.

[kirst_goldens]

i wouldnt increase inside time i feel that would make it worse?? im not a trainer and nobody has advice it would seem :S maybe copy and paste what u wrote here to one of the trainers in here and see what they think?