everbell:  I would try salmon (just the cans you can buy in the store) or cod liver oil.  If it is just dry skin causing the problem, the extra fish oil should do the trick and they love it.  If is is more of a dermatitis I would see the vet (red itchy, hair falling out, etc). 

momsgspz:  Belle comes from a nice family that had an accidental breeding between their two GSPs.  The owner didn't know much about the breed standard and apparently neither did the vet he took the litter to for tail docking.  The vet not only docked the tails too short he got Belle's in the middle of one of the bones and it wouldn't heal properly.  My vet had a fit when he saw her and wanted to call the owner and reem him for butchering the dog.  In the end my vet had to do surgery again to fix the tail and get it to heal.  We did it at 6 months as we didn't want to put her under until she was 6 monts.  The vet took about a 1/2 in more off of the already short tail and it healed beautifully.  The short tail has never bothered Belle in the least and most folks that don't know the breed don't see anything wrong with it. 

I got Belle for a companion pet first and obedience dog too.  She is so laid back and sweet that I am planning on using her soon as a therapy dog.  She has what my husband and I refer to as an old soul.  Smartest dog I have ever owned.  We call her Perfect Belle because she learns so fast and never has to be corrected.

I'm always hesitant to feed in the morning especially during hunting season.  The last thing I want to do is feed two cups of food and then run the dog hard all day.  Everything I've read regarding performance dogs says that they should run on an empty stomach.

Thanks Texas Belle ... my husband has canned salmon for lunch every day ... I'll ask him to give Bo a spoonful. (I'm pretty sure it's just dry skin ... we have the same problem with one of my cats.)

Ewww! Bo loves to give me kisses after he's been chewing on his cow hooves ... as much as I want to encourage affection, that is just downright disgusting!

My husband and I are much like everbell in that our kids are our furkids.  My husband and I do not have kids of our own.  So, do we spoil our furkids, you betcha.  I have friends that want to come back as our pets (we also have two rescue cats and a rescue bird that we spoil too). That said, we do our part in contributing to food drives, cancer research, goodwill, salvation army, etc.  My personal feeling is life is short and happiness is a premium, so for me and my husband our joy is our dogs.  My two furkids got my family through a crisis in 2006 when my husband was diagnosed with at the time we thought terminal cancer.  But for those two furkids, I probably would have gone crazy.  There was many a night when they curled around me and helped me work through the emotions and tears. and laid in bed with my husband when he didn't feel good because of the treatments.  Thankfully, everything has turned out well for now.  So, yes we spoil them and they give back to us in full every day.

TB

Poor baby! Bad vet!!! She is very lucky to have you! As you are her! She sounds like such a cool dog! I had one of those who I just wanted to clone her personality! Enjoy the therapy work with her!

Eww ... so now I'll have to suffer through Rich's salmon and Bo's mackeral. Actually, as you know, I'll do anything for my pup so this will probably make it into the rotation. There's an FB very close to use which we hit routinely, so we'll just toss a  couple cans of this into the basket. At least it's summer so I can feed him outside! (The smell is one of the reasons I have only ever given my animals dry food -- I remember the stuff we used to feed my parents cats. Yech!)