Let's Talk Dog Food

What does your dog eat? How did you come around to feeding your dog that particular diet? Do you feed raw or kibble? Dog Chow or EVO?

It's a trend now to guilt people into feeding "better" diets. You are criticized and chastised if you feed your dog anything less than a $100 bag of The Best Dog Food on the market. I was there - I used to be one of them. I am not happy about it. I am not on the receiving end a lot of the time. I know how to read god food labels, when I am looking for a food I frequent sites like DogFoodAdvisor.com and DogFoodAnalysis.com. It is important to watch what is in your dog's diet and I am a big believer in feeding your dog a good, healthy diet.

Feeding your dog as a member of the family is important. A healthy diet will limit vet bills, as it contributes directly to your dog's health. As a friend of mine told me, "No one criticizes you when you're doing something right, but they will dog-pile when they think you're doing something wrong." And feeding your dog is one of those things that everyone has an opinion about now.

But, a lot can go into choosing the right food for your dog. There are a lot of factors to consider.

I am a supporter of raw food diets, but understand the limits of feeding such a diet. If you don't have any room for storage of frozen foods, it can be cumbersome and often expensive to buy foods once a week. It can be expensive to feed compared to kibble, in general, if you don't have any bulk suppliers in your area. It might just make you squeamish to handle raw foods.

As much as I want to feed Jax a raw diet I: 1) lack the storage to buy in bulk, and 2) Jax refuses to eat raw meats. I've tried all the tricks in the book. Weirdo dog.

When it comes to kibble, you might be dealing with one of two things: 1) lack of knowledge or 2) a budget. At least, these are the two I come up against the most.

One of my current students has a Golden Retriever who is 11 months old that came from a breeder. The old knowledge says to feed a "puppy diet" until the dog is at least one year old, but often until the dog is 2 years old - this isn't true, and more and more companies are coming out with "all life stage" diets. The breeder told her to feed Purina Puppy Chow. She's an older woman, and since the dog came from a breeder she didn't question the quality of the dog food. She was working with a budget, and so we settled on a better product within the Purina Pro Plan line - not the best, but there was an almost immediate change (within a couple weeks) in the dog's weight, energy level, and over-all appearance.

Dog food with goodies!

However, in some circles, I would be considered a horrible dog person for not recommending EVO or Taste of the Wild to my client.

I have fed everything from Diamond brand dog foods to EVO, trying to find something that would suit my dogs well. My older dog, Howie, had food allergies to contend with, so he was fed mostly raw with a hypoallergenic kibble to supplement. As I mentioned before, Jax won't touch raw, but I contend with an added problem of high metabolism and trying to keep weight on him. I tried Taste of the Wild, I tried EVO... but what he did best on was Purina Pro Plan beef formula. The former dog food critic inside me cringed with each bag I bought, and I was always in search of a "better" food, but each new bag I bought of "better" food would result in a 5-pound weight loss within a week of being on it.

We landed on Dr. Gary's Best Breed. No, it's not the "best". Yes, I've gotten flack for feeding it. But, my dog does fabulous on it. My dog needs grains to keep weight on. So, I end up giving up so-called "quality" to keep weight on my dog. And yes, I've tried Merrick and other foods with "quality grains."

In another scenario, my Aunt's dog could only hold down Beneful. She tried several times to switch him to better foods, but each time it would cause him to vomit - and so, she had to weigh the pros and cons, and in this case, a lower quality food was better than no food at all.

Another friend's Golden Retriever seems to be allergic to anything and everything he eats. She has been in and out of veterinary clinics for the past two years trying to figure out what was wrong with him. The only food that has brought some balance to his life as been the hypoallergenic Royal Canin veterinary diet.

In the end, it comes down to the dog (and human) in question. For families on a budget, Pro Plan is a perfectly acceptable mid-grade food, usually priced around $40 for a 50-pound bag. For others, they are feeding what they're feeding because nothing else works.

I do my best to educate about dog food. I know what "good" dog food is, and teach people how to read labels - what's good to have? What's bad to have? But, it ALWAYS comes down to the individual dog and their families. After all, as a dog professional, you are always schooling the humans, not the dogs.

High Value Rewards Make For the Best Training

I came across another blog post today that urged owners to use their dogs' meals as rewards for training. The author writes,

Our pooches love to work for their meals, by doing something that will reward them with food, or make them search for their food. You have to feed your dog everyday anyways, so why not use this time that is required as a training reward?

Now, I'm not telling you that you shouldn't use your dog's meals as rewards. I know people who do and who use it successfully. The bigger piece of advice to I took away from this post were the great tips regarding meals vs. free feeding. In fact, there are a lot of instances in which you should use your dog's meal during training - such as when your dog has a health problem such as allergies and cannot have commercial treats, or if your dog is overweight and using his meals will eliminate extra calories.

However, the problem that many people run into during training is when you have to find a high-value reward. I always put it this way to my students: If you eat chicken every single day for your meals, are you going to also want chicken for your desserts? When I use treats they are delicious, they are stinky, and they are not always good for you, but there you go.

I use cheap stinky treats. I use expensive, healthy treats. I use hot dogs. I use cheese. I use things that are going to make my dogs bounce off the walls. I want them to work hard to earn the super deliciousness in my hand. Sometimes I have a mixture in my treat bag, other times (usually on my "lazy days") I have just one, but it's usually not the same thing every single day. Variety makes life more interesting, right?

I am blessed with a dog who will work for just about anything; I am also blessed with a dog who has very little food aversion or allergies. He loves his food, he loves working for his stinky treats - but what he REALLY loves working for is his ball. And he will do just about anything for a good game of tug. Jax is an enthusiastic dog.

With him, I use food to begin the introduction of a behavior. Food is great because I can reward quickly, praise often, and continue; rinse, lather, repeat - over and over. I can't do this as well with a toy (the "quickly, often, let's try that again!") because we then have to play the game, release, and focus again. Once he's got it, though, I will play the game all day long as long as he's doing the behavior correctly.

That said, I prefer a toy-driven dog. I use tone-of-voice a lot in my training - I use less tone of so-so work/effort, and BIG HAPPY tones for great work/effort (with behaviors he already knows, not behaviors I am teaching). I can offer a variety of rewards with a toy - if the work was done so-so, I can offer him the toy and the praise in accordance with the level of his effort; if he performs excellently, he gets a bigger, happier tone and a bigger, happier game. More often than not, he works to earn that bigger, happier game.

But not all dogs are toy-driven, and toys do not work well in a class setting because it is highly distracting to other dogs, so what to do you do? I still encourage the use of stinky treats and tone. I use a quiet "Nooooo" as my "try again" cue; I also use a sharp "aht!" if needed, but it's rare. Reward(food) is withheld until the behavior is executed - and the accuracy of the execution will also depend on the dog's knowledge of the behavior, whether he just has the idea of what you want, or whether you have been working toward cleaning it up. But, rewards still have to be worth it. This is where the "yes!" and "good boy!" and "good!" come in play, and again, the use of your tone is going to be key. But tone is not the reward, tone/words are the marker that the dog did right and then he has to wait for the reward - much like a clicker. The food/toy is the reward. So, when you're using food as the reward, you can offer one treat in the event of a so-so effort, and a JACKPOT! in the event of exemplary effort.

**When I'm first teaching a behavior, I use a lot of jackpots (toys or food). It is not until I feel comfortable that my dog knows the behavior that begin to back off on the level of my tone/rewards.

The trick is, finding your dog's "high value" reward.

Raw diet

My last post was about feeding dehydrated raw. Well, I took the plunge and went completely raw. I've been buying raw meat and adding veggies, and Howie thinks this is the best thing ever! His first dinner was some ground turkey with carrots, apples, and bananas. This morning he had some Deli Fresh because I was able to get some chubs from a local store for free, and tonight he got steak, some pork neck, peas, and apples. Yum! He's also getting a duck neck each afternoon.

Since he was eating the dehydrated raw, I've definitely noticed a difference in him. A friend even mentioned his coat was much softer. I'm hoping that the raw diet helps his alopecia, and more importantly, his allergies.

We'll keep you updated!

Dog Food Saga, con't....AGAIN

I never thought I would be in a position as I have been recently. It's like a find a food that works, then something happens, and we're back at square one with him. I had him on Wellness CORE (fish) for awhile, but since that was about $50 for a 20 pound bag, I started looking for something comparable. I found Taste of the Wild, and Howie was doing well enough on that. Then I read about a recall on the food, so we went off of that.

Back to Natural Balance Fish & Sweet Potato, because it seemed pretty comparable. Then the hives came back. So, I called my vet and we had a long conversation about it. After said conversation, and after a conversation with a friend of mine who is starting her Greyhounds on this new food, we decided that switching Howie to a much simpler food would probably be best.

Enter The Honest Kitchen: Keen. I had been wanting to go to a raw food simply because it's so much simpler and I KNOW what he's eating, but hadn't really found one I liked. I didn't want to go straight raw simply because I don't have the fridge and freezer space for it right now - The Honest Kitchen, however, is dehydrated raw food...so, you scoop it into a bowl, add water, any fruits & veggies & supplements you want, and presto: dinner! Even better, it's affordable. A 4 pound box of the dry stuff makes 17 pounds of wet stuff and cost me ~$25.

Tonight was out first meal on it, and Howie thought it was nom! nom! nom! We have a vet appointment set for Thursday to follow up on his alopecia, and the vet & I are going to go over his food more in-depth then.

I'm not recommending the food yet. Give me about a week (or two) and I'll let you know if we like it or not! But, it looks great, convenient, and fairly customizable. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the line for us, and no more food switching!

The Dog Food Saga

Howie has allergies. We've been battling them since I got him. For the first five months of his life (or, at least for as long as he was eating solid food) he and his siblings were eating Diamond brand dog food. There were no problems, but I've heard and read that many allergies don't come out until after a year of age.

When I got him, he was on Nutro Ultra Puppy, before switching over to Blue Buffalo. Howie isn't a pickey eater, but I loved Blue Buffalo, and he was doing great on it for about 6 months. Then we switched over to Blue's Wilderness formula, and aside from horrible gas (probably from the 42% protein content) he seemed to do okay on it. The the itchies started. After about 20 minutes after eating, he'd be rolling around on the carpet. So, I switched over to Natural Balance and their Limited Ingredient Diet line - the only one he seemed to be able to handle was the fish & sweet potato formula.

Then, about three weeks ago, the hives showed up. I woke up one Monday morning (which ended up just being a bad Monday morning all together) and my dog was COVERED in hives down his flanks and haunches. And he was rolling all over the carpet.

And before you say, "Oh check your cleaners and detergents," I use mild cleaners, and nothing has changed. I use All Free & Clear for laundry detergent, and never use fabric softener on Howie's things. So, it wasn't that.

So, I loaded him up with Benadryl before I left for work and made a vet appointment for after work. I came home, and the hives were gone. So, maybe it was something outside? The boyfriend thought maybe it was the acorns falling from the trees. I canceled the vet appointment, since they'd probably look at me if I brought in a dog who was perfectly fine, and kept an eye on him. Kept him loaded with Benadryl for a coupel days, then weaned him off of it to see if the hives came back.

After a few days of no Benadryl, the hives did come back, but not nearly as bad, and he wasn't itchy or uncomfortable. He was just covered in bumps. Around this time, it's time to buy a new bag of dog food, so I start looking. I had a couple sample bags of Merrick's Before Grain, which I was mainly using as stuffing for his Tug-A-Jug, and decided to try him on that.

Now, I know it can take up to a full month for the old food to be completely out of the system, but within a couple days of feeding the Before Grain, the hives were gone! So, I went to buy a big bag of it. Not two days later, the paw licking started. So, it was back to the Natural Balance.

Yes, I know it's smart to wean your dog onto a new food, and I always recommend that people switch over slowly, but Howie has never had a problem switching cold turkey - no gas, still has solid poops, and no throwing up. He's always been fine, but I'll usually half-and-half for a couple days.

Anyway, after two days of being on the Natural Balance again, the paw licking stopped. And today, about 4 days back on NB, the hives came back. There were few of them, but they were there. So, it was time to go shopping again.

I decided to go all out and get Wellness CORE. Since grains and chicken seemed to be the big culprit (I thought it was beef in the past, but it might have been the chicken he was sensitive to), I went with their fish formla. It will take a few days to see if he really benefits from it, and since I opened the bag (unlike the larger bag of Before Grain I have to return) we'll give this one the full month to make sure it's working.

We'll keep you posted!