Question:I have a six-year-old golden retriever that I work every day for an hour or two and hunt him up north on grouse for two to four days straight at a time (three to four times per year) and out west for pheasants for three days at a stretch (once a year).

He is full of energy and in excellent condition (of course, after three days of hunting, he is slowing down and, at 70, so am I). My vet always comments on how he looks the way a dog ought to look, weight and conditioning-wise.

His only problem has been a chronic one--excessive wax build-up in his ears, more one than the other but to some extent in both. I can tell he is uncomfortable at times when he shakes his head and scratches at them or rubs them on the ground.

About once every one to two weeks, I have flooded his ears with ear cleaning solution (typical mild acid solutions) then use cotton balls (no Q-tips) soaked in the same stuff and go down as far as I can. I generally get a fair amount of wax out that way but the problem continues. I have often wondered whether I should have the vet put him under and take a good look to see if there is any debris in there, but I hesitate to risk that procedure, and the vet doesn't seem too anxious to do it, either--he suggested the flooding technique mentioned. Should I have him checked?

For years, I had been feeding him a premium dog food with 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat because I was under the impression he needed a lot of meat and fat, especially during the hunting season, and he seemed to love it too. But thinking maybe his ear problems were caused by an allergy, I switched to another dog food about a month ago; this one has no meat at all (soybeans, rice), with 21 percent protein and 10 percent fat.

His ears do seem to be improving--I don't see the wax build-up anymore and he shakes his head less. I should add, I often buy straight hamburger, cook it and mix some of it into his dog food; I have done that with both dog foods and am still doing it. I give him about a cup a day of hamburger but not every day. I also continue to give dog biscuits (three per day), and he also gets a piece of whatever I eat frequently--bananas, apples, and a million other people foods--not much of it, but some here and there.

So my next question is, what does a working dog really need in terms of fat and protein?

He is a naturally thin dog and, like all the goldens I have owned (four since 1970), I leave his food out all day and he eats whenever he wants. For some reason, my goldens have never overeaten and they have never been remotely close to being fat, so I don't have to control how much. But I would guess he eats maybe two to three cups per day.

Is the dog food I'm currently feeding enough for him, and should I have his ears checked anyway? I would feel really stupid if there was something in there all these years and I had done nothing about it…what makes me wonder is that one ear has always been worse than the other. --JC