Okay so, I’m a cat person and I know next to nothing about dogs. I’ve been getting out to my friend’s house twice a day to let her dog out to pee and poo (on a leash of course), and to feed it. How much should I be feeding a normal-sized 11 month old purebred Jack Russell terrier (it’s a fairly small dog)? At first I tried putting down a handful of dry food (Beneful brand), but she gobbled it all up in about 5 seconds, and I didn’t want her to starve so I put down more. Which she ate. She also eats the cat’s food if I don’t stop her (which is in a separate room and separate bowl, so she should know the difference).
I don’t know if I’m overfeeding her or what, but she had pooped in her crate when I got there today and her legs are all dirty (ew, gross). So I guess I should give her a bath? She has dog shampoo and a bathtub. Do I dry her off? Leave her in a towel for a while so she doesn’t catch doggie pneumonia? Will she even let me give her a bath? She’s a pretty friendly, not very well-trained female puppy that play-nips but doesn’t bite, she runs around a lot when I let her out but I don’t have time to stop by more often than every 12ish hours. And I don’t have time to take her on proper walks, but I want to give her a bath so she doesn’t look like she’s been left alone to rot in dung all week.
I know this type of dog is probably way too energetic to be kept in a crate for the entire day, but my friend didn’t want to fork out for a week at a kennel caretaking place, and I work full time and have very limited time to spend over there. So that’s that. Any random advice would be appreciated as well. I know cats can free-feed, which I tried (I put the dog food bowl into her crate overnight) but I think that’s why she needed to poop so badly that she couldn’t wait til I got there to let her out.
Please don’t yell at me if I’m doing this wrong, 'cause I know almost nothing about dogs.