I don't know anything about dog food, but bless you for adopting an older dog!

eta: do you think you could wean him down to 1 or 1.5 cans a day and fill with fresh baked or steamed yams/sweet potatoes?

Oh my gosh!!!! He is adorable!! Congratulations!! How much does he weigh now? Two cans a day sounds like so much to me. Did you look on Chewy to see if they have any either less money or just cheaper to begin with for what he is getting now? I'm glad he seems to be settling in so easily. How wonderful for you to give him a great home. I look forward to hearing more about him and seeing more pictures.

What a sweet face! Thank you for adopting him!

Would YOU like to eat salmon and sweet potatoes every ding dong day? Call the shelter and ask if Joey was eating other foods. Salmon is probably a higher end food.

YOU are an angel to this sweet boy!!! That face!!!❤️

Are they those little single serve type cans? Is there a similar food that is cheaper in larger cans?

What a handsome boy! Make his meet & greet appointment with his vet and the staff. You can discuss any feeding questions then. Changes of food need to be done gradually to avoid digestive upset and the vet will have recommendations for senior dogs and information to help you decide. Enjoy your boy!

He is adorable. I think two cans a day is a lot for a dog that size. My two dogs died in 2023 and I bought their canned food at Aldi and can't remember the price but it was nowhere near that. But I mixed theirs with Purina ONE chicken and rice dry food.

Here, Kroger has large cans of chicken based dog food....you'd feed 1/4 a can a day, twice a day mixed with kibble. One large can is $2. Purina makes an affordable kibble. I trust Purina. Or....Chicken leg quarters just went on sale for $.57cents a lb/10 lb bag. Cook up some chicken to mix with kibble every week. (The neighbors feed their Dobie cooked chicken & kibble. He likes the broth too. My mom did this for her GSD.)

He is the perfect pup! Sounds like he has a GREAT personality! I'm so glad you found each other! And...so glad you adopted from a shelter. I love a happy ending!❤️

So sweet! Congratulations!

Sweet potatoes for dogs? I would think that would be a problem carb wise as dogs are meat eaters. In the one photo he looks a bit chubby...that could be why. I'm no expert on dog food...haven't had dogs in decades...but when we did, we'd give them canned food and kibble which tends to be less expensive. Unless at his age he has problem with his teeth. But if I were to switch, I'd do it gradually so his system could adjust.

https://www.arniespetfoods.com/about-carbohydrates-in-dog-food#:~:text=Dogs%2C%20as%20their%20ancestors%2C%20only,of%2040%25%20to%2070%25.

Congratulations! He’s got a very sweet face, and obviously is a happy dog if he’s adjusting so quickly. He might just know how lucky he is! I admire people who are willing to adopt senior dogs; I hope that at some point in my life I’ll have the strength to do that. Thank you.

Re his food, I’ll echo some thoughts from above. He’s a shorter haired dog, and in the second picture he’s all stretched out and not a rib in sight. I’m guessing he could stand to lose a few, so I’d ask a vet about that.

I also tend to think the feeding guidelines on the dog food packaging are insane. I give my dog literally half the prescribed amount, and still have to watch her weight to try to keep her under 70 pounds. And this is an active 2 year old puppy who runs around at the dog park daily, along with other activity. Same with my last dog, about 90 pounds. 50% of recommended diet to maintain.

I’d also ask about introducing kibble to his diet. He’d probably shun 100% kibble if he’s used to wet, but maybe he’d like a 50/50 mix to chew on. That’d be a lot cheaper.

Anyway good luck with Joey, I hope you two have many happy days together!

What a face! So adorable! What a wonderful thing you’ve done, to give an older dog a happy family and safe home.

I’ve only had cats, but the advice to change diet gradually sounds smart to me. He’s not the biggest dog, it sounds like a lot. We go to Pet co for food.

He’s such a sweetheart!

He’s so sweet! A beagle/Jack Russell sounds like an active dog, maybe all that energy calls for plenty of nourishment.

Congrats! The older dogs are often overlooked. A great addition to your family.

i’ve had 2 dogs (actually 3 since I have my DD’s part-time) and I’ve only used dried dog food.

My Golden lived to be 15 1/2 on Iams mixed with water

My Pit/ mix lived to 13 1/2 on Nutro. Mixed with water.

Our current Chiahuaha is now 11 and eats Royal Canin Chiahuaha 8 years dry no water

I would talk to a vet to see if you can transition as Michele also suggests.

Our Min Pin/Chihuahua mix cannot have wheat or corn. It makes him itch and throw up. He also has bad teeth and cannot eat dry. He gets one and half 5.5 oz can per day and weighs 15 pounds (plus bits of poached chicken for treats).

I order from Chewy. The brands are Halo, Instinct, and Blue Buffalo. Six different flavors.

Two regular cans do not sound like too much for a beagle/rat terrier mix, since both of those are bigger dogs.

first of all, THANK YOU for adopting a senior!!! my first several dane adoptions were senior dogs.

food...if joey has all of his teeth, i would seriously think about switching him to kibble. there are tons of great kibbles out there although it can be daunting picking one. this website will give you a good idea which foods are the best for which dog and will also give you information about recent recalls...

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

while joey seems to shoot this theory down, there is a 3/3/3 rule for rescue dogs. in the past, i have found this to be true with a few of mine but others never got the memo and settled in as soon s their butts hit the couch.

I was just thinking about you, Alisande! So wonderful to see your new sweetheart. Lucky you and lucky him! I've no advice regarding the food, except that I'd suggest you ask your vet about grain-free food. There are differences of opinion.

Now go give that boy a hug!

What a cutie, complete with red collar for Valentines Day! How wonderful that you opened your home to a senior dog. :0)

Aww - congratulations on a new family member!

And FWIW, dogs aren't really carnivores, they're omnivores like us, so they don't eat meat exclusively. Cats are carnivores, tho.

IME, many dogs will eat just about anything - including things that aren't even food 😄

Well, Joey seems to have made himself at home! He looks very comfortable and quite handsome.

So many nice responses--thank you! I'll try to cover questions and comments. My granddaughter was surprised the dog food from the shelter was grain-free. She has two youngish large dogs and was told by her vet in FL that grain-free is a bad option for the heart. Then this morning I read it can lead to heart failure. Adding grains to the ingredients in canned food gives me more options.

I wouldn't mind cooking my own sweet potatoes--and beyond. I used to cook chicken (bones and all) in a big old pressure cooker for my German Shepherds. The bones emerged like paste. As for whether I'd like to eat salmon and sweet potatoes every day of my life, I can't think of a single food I'd like to have that regularly. But I do like salmon, and I do like sweet potatoes.

The cans are not small; they're 13 oz. I think the reason why they gave him such a large volume of food is that the grain-free varieties are relatively low in calories. Joey has some teeth missing, which is why the shelter say no kibble. But it's possible to soak kibble, maybe in chicken broth, and mix it that way. One of my best friends has a 17-year-old dachshund. I'll have to ask her what she feeds. I know she minces vegetables like kale and green beans and adds that to her food. My granddaughter roasts sweet potatoes to add to her dogs' food fairly often. I don't remember them being recommended when I had dogs, so maybe it's a recent thing.

While Joey was probably an active dog in his youth, I wouldn't say that's the case now. So far the most active thing he's done (other than jumping on the sofa and loveseat) was to roll in the snow last night, and then again this morning--although by then it was more like rolling in snow and ice as we were having freezing rain. I was hoping we'd have a brief trip outside, but I was not about to spoil his fun!

About the 3/3/3 rule for shelter dogs, I post things like that all the time on Facebook, and I was prepared to keep it in mind when I brought Joey home. But yes, he shot the theory down rather quickly. We are his people, and this is his furniture. 😍

My four pound Chihuahua, in the 70's , ate over half of an very stuffed 10 inch burrito when I took my eyes off it for a second. I have no idea where she put it, lol.

What a handsome guy. Congrats!

Hey, he got home as fast as he could!

Awwww! How wonderful of you and for you, Alisande!

How sweet for all of you. He appears very relaxed.

You might want to invest in some good adhesive rollers for picking up short white dog hair. ;-)

I also had a 17-year-old Dachshund and I soaked the dry Purina One w/Chicken and rice in hot water and then added the canned food which was a salmon one if I remember correctly.

What a beautiful face and such soulful eyes. Good choice Alisande. I hope you both will be very happy together. Your grandsons must be thrilled with a new playmate. Do they have a dog at home?

I can't offer any advice on dog food since our Maggie has been gone now for nearly 3 years. We gave her Blue Buffalo dog food and she devoured it. But then Labs will eat anything.

You'll probably be visiting the vet soon and I'm sure that will be a great source on info.

Ok so the big question - where is he sleeping?

What a cutie! So nice that you adopted a senior dog.

Life is full of surprises! Let's hear the back story. How did you find Joey? I'm guessing he wasn't homeless very long, to look so thrifty and to be so relaxed in your home. Thirteen is indeed 'senior'. Hence the missing teeth and what looks like a bit of cloud in his right eye (the photo). Our Westies lived to 16+ -- although not the 'best years' past 15. Their food was expensive, partly because they had skin allergies. Wishing you a lot of fun together!

“We are his people, and this is his furniture. 😍”

Love that!!!🥰

Alisande, your new “Pal Joey” is a very lucky guy, as are you. We've been feeding our dogs, (currently down to one 13 year old, Kallie) Purina Pro Plan, both dry and wet on the recommendation of our vet as well as the trainer at the foster facility where my daughter volunteers.

Kallie is also missing a few teeth but has no trouble with a scoop of dry food mixed with half a can wet as her main meal. Kallie definitely can stand to lose a few, but she gets many treats (thank you DH) in addition to her main meal. She also adores fresh broccoli, cucumbers, carrots and cooked green beans.

Joey looks like (as they say) “he fell in good”.

How’s Joey?

He's doing great, thanks! I have more I want to add in response to some of the comments, and I'll do that tomorrow. I got delayed by a power outage, but it's back on. Meanwhile . . . he likes his new bed!

I love the contentment on his cute face. I look forward to your post tomorrow. Please give him pat for me.

he is just so adorable!

While at Aldi I checked the canned dog food and it's $1.89 and I think my two liked the chicken stew.

He's adorable and it sounds like he's fitting right in. I just wanted to caution you on making any big changes all at once with his food, might be something you want to ease into if its salmon and sweet potato that really has been his main menu. You don't need an upset tummy or allergies to mess up your so-far lovely beginning.

My sister and her husband always cooked then froze containers of chicken and vegetable food for their shepherds. It worried me a bit, wondering if they might be missing an important mineral or vitamin in their mix.

We have done a lot of afternoon dog sitting for a neighbor in the last few weeks and both little guys have food allergies! DH keeps his pockets full of treats for them that cannot be beef or contain wheat or they are itching and scratching. The last treats I bought that have worked out well are salmon and sweet potato in a rather small bag from Trader Joe's! $3.98 per bag. Or I scramble them an egg - egg prices are making that no bargain these last few weeks either 😊

Hi again! As to where Joey sleeps, I thought it would be upstairs with me--if not on my tall bed, at least in a dog bed on the floor. But the shelter told me the flight of stairs would be too much for him. So he stays downstairs by himself. He doesn't seem to mind. When we had the ice storm and very loud winds, he barked at every fierce gust during the night. I couldn't sleep through that, but since then he's been pretty good.

Maire_Cate, I'm so sorry to hear about Maggie. I'm thinking she wasn't very old, but that could be another instance of me misinterpreting the passage of time. Yes, my grandsons are thrilled, especially the 11-year-old, who comes to visit Joey every chance he gets.

Before the shelter put Joey up for adoption they took him to a vet and had him examined, had bloodwork done, got him all his shots, and had him microchipped. He was an owner surrender because he was "too much" for them. I have the intake paper the owner filled out. It says he's good with cats, good with kids (lived with an infant) crate trained, and not neutered.

We do have a problem though. For his first four days he ignored my cat, Scruffy. Casual sniff, and then he'd move on. Scruffy, though, not used to dogs at all, avoided even getting near him. Then two days ago without warning he barked aggressively and lunged at her, and then he did it again last evening. I learned that both beagles and Jack Russell terriers are prey breeds, and this could get dangerous. I'm keeping them separated for now (Scruffy upstairs), and will give some thought to next steps. I hope they can adjust. Meanwhile, I feel bad for Scruffy. I've had her for 11 years, so she's at least 12. Her favorite routines, including sleeping by the woodstove, have been taken away from her.

Re food, I switched him over, as gradually as I could, to Purina One True Instincts, which I thought contained brown rice or barley, but are in fact grain-free. The switch had to take less time than planned because of the weather. Everything is still covered in a thick layer of ice, now with snow on top of it. The only way for me to get a new supply of dog food was to have Walmart deliver it, and that couldn't include more of the salmon & sweet potato product he'd been eating. He gobbles up the new food, but he's been gassy and itchy, so I think I need a plan B. Both of my granddaughter's dogs reacted to chicken dog foods.

Chisue asked about the backstory--how I found Joey--and I'm glad, because I think it's interesting. It involves a couple of small coincidences, and if you attribute significance to coincidences (as I do) you might find it interesting too.

I'd been thinking about adopting a senior dog for some time. At first I thought the shelters would have an abundance of them waiting to be adopted, but that turned out not to be true. I perused the shelters' websites occasionally, and paid attention to the shelters' Facebook posts that appeared on my screen daily.

One day I realized I hadn't checked the website of the shelter where my daughter's best friend got her three dogs, so I Googled it but couldn't find anything. I didn't realize I'd gotten the name of the shelter wrong. Around the same time, I found on one of my bookshelves a book of dog stories by James Herriott. I'd read most of his previous books, and as I set this one aside to give to my middle grandson, for some reason I remembered how Herriott had always had Labrador retrievers until he was reluctantly talked into getting a Jack Russell terrier. To his surprise, he and the Jack formed the closest bond he'd experienced. That's the way I remembered the story, anyway. I hadn't thought about that story, or Jack Russells, in decades. I wondered if there might be a senior Jack Russell out there somewhere.

What happened next is that a post from my daughter's friend's favorite animal shelter appeared in my Facebook feed. I recognized the name of the shelter immediately, and realized I'd gotten it wrong when Googling. The post included two photos of a sweet looking dog, and it said that Joey was a beagle/Jack Russell mix, surrendered by his owner, and desperate for someone to give him a home for his last days. I don't think they meant "days" literally, but 13 was certainly not young. I knew right away that I'd been thinking about this specific shelter, and thinking about Jack Russells, and I felt I was supposed to have this dog. And now he's here. I was his only applicant.

Alisande, that’s a great backstory. So glad it brought you and Joey together! Keep us posted on the Joey/Scruffy issue. Hopefully things will smooth out.👍🏻