Learn the four reasons to care about your dog’s diet and three things to keep top of mind when shopping for your dog’s food. 

I love food. Growing up it was a way to spend time with my mom & gram in the kitchen, and our meals together created funny and enjoyable memories that brought the family closer. When I moved out, I felt a bit closer to adulthood when I started cooking for my first dinner parties. And now, I love meal planning for my own household.

I’m also a bit of a snob when it comes to food. The closer it is to the farm it came from, the better. I love seasonal cooking, buying organic, and reading my labels. When we can afford to eat out; I like supporting small, local restaurants that value a lot of the same things that I value.

It really should be no surprise that Chauncey, my dog, has become something of a foodie himself. Dogs deserve to thrive on pure, simple, minimally processed food. Your choice of food is so important that it can actually help prevent and heal disease.

So begins part two of my latest blog series.

A couple of years ago there was this documentary called “Supersize Me.” The lead in it decided to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for an entire month. He lived through it but felt depressed, nauseous, irritable, and experienced massive ups and downs in relation to the blood sugar swings from all the crappy carbs he was consuming. He also gained 27 pounds in 30 days. At the end of the experiment, his blood readings indicated that he was in danger of liver failure.

Dogs that have a poor diet likely experience a lot of the same effects as that documentary filmmaker. Here are a couple of tips to think about:

1. Dogs can have health issues such as continual ear infections or skin problems, diarrhea, or arthritis when they are eating something their body can’t handle. Many dogs are allergic to items in dog food, and allergies to food can express themselves in different ways.
2. What you put into your dog can and does have an influence on how your dog behaves. Food allergies can be a cause for behavioral problems.
3. Arm yourself with knowledge and personal research and choose the absolute best food that you can afford. If you are saving money on food now, you will potentially spend hundreds more at the vet later as a result of a poor diet. Dog food is one of the only products available today that you can reliably predict is better if it costs more. And you can usually feed a smaller portion of good quality dry food because each kibble is packed with more calories and nutrients than the less expensive brands.
4. Feeding your dog junk carbs will not only increase their chances of obesity, but can also be a cause of hyperactivity and hypersensitivity to normal stimuli in everyday life. Kind of like giving a kid too much sugar.

So what else is important to know???

• In order to perform routine metabolic processes, a dog’s body needs: water (lots of it), calories, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. Dogs have no biological need for carbohydrates. Their efficient bodies can manufacture all the energy they need from protein and fat if sufficient amounts are provided.
• Dog food labels are similar to those on human food products: ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. Make sure the first ingredient isn’t a meat by-product. The first three ingredients make up the bulk of the food, so those are the most important to look at when selecting a brand.
• Here’s what they do not need the following: grapes, raisins, onions, chocolate, xylitol (a natural sweetener), and raw potatoes. These are the agreed upon, life or death, foods that dogs must not eat.

To put it mildly, dog food and diet is pretty top of mind and a huge trend in the industry, so there’s no small shortage of good info out there. In Chicago, there are brand new businesses solely focused on finding the right diet for animals.  So it’s kind of a “thing”, meaning no need to feel weird about caring a ton and talking about it with others!

Can’t wait to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by and we’ll be back next week to talk up training! And if you missed last week’s post on socialization, give it a read.

Images by Bethany Fritz, Maypole Studios Photography