I was in Kennesaw last Sunday working with a new Home Dog Training client and his six month old Pointer named Montgomery. Monty, that was his nickname, was a very happy puppy with a lot of energy.  It was a little bit of a challenge to get his focus and start him on his learning process, but we prevailed. After a few hours he was paying attention to my client and his family.  He was no longer jumping on them, could walk well on a leash, and knew several of his obedience commands. 

My clients were very happy and excited to continue their training experience with Monty.  As we were finishing up, they mentioned that they had tried several dog foods for Monty and were not very happy with any of them.  Most of the brands were the ones that they had found by watching TV commercials. Monty would either not touch the food or would experience stomach problems after eating the food.  My client wondered if we had any suggestions.

 

Feed your dog a nutritious dog food

 

I started out by telling my client that we are all driven by marketing and often make our dog’s feeding decisions based on how entertaining the advertisement was on TV.  This is never a good idea when it comes to something so important as our dogs lifetime health and well being.

I have never tried to pretend to be a nutritionist, but I would like to share some “rules of thumb” guidelines when looking for your dog’s food:
  • If you feed your dog a good, quality food; you can surely help extend his life. Just as we are encouraged to eat healthy, so should make sure our dog is on a healthy, nutritious diet.

  • Feed your dog dry food. Unless you are prepared to brush their teeth on a regular basis, wet food, although possibly healthy and nutritious, can lead to accelerated tooth decay.

  • When you are at the dog food store looking at the dog food ingredients, make sure that the meat is the very first ingredient. It is very bad if see the word “by-product” following the meat. This means that it is a part of the animal that is normally thrown away. This is not healthy. You would never think of eating a meat by-product.

  • When reading the ingredients, you don’t want to see corn, corn meal, maize, or any other corn derivative in the list. Corn can not be digested and simply passes right through your dog, providing no nutrition. The only thing that corn does for the dog food is add to his weight and to adrenalize him.

  • I don’t normally “pick out one dog food brand” to disparage; but this time I will. Don’t feed your dog Beneful. It simply makes them hyper and more likely to misbehave and not listen to your commands.  I have solved many dog training and behavior issues by having the client get their dog off Beneful.

If you have any questions about your dog’s diet, I recommend that you ask your Veterinarian. They are the ones who clearly understand your dog’s particular health concerns and can help direct you towards the products that will provide your dog with a happy, healthy, and long life.

One last thing. Many people ask us what we feed out dogs. We feed all our dogs a high quality dog food called Life’s Abundance. We have been feeding our dogs this product since 2007 when one of our dogs almost died from the dog food we were feeding him.  The dog food had been recalled and we were never informed or made aware of the issue.

We did a good amount of research and found a great, American-made product called Life’s Abundance. Life’s Abundance has never had a recall and has strict measures in place to  minimize the possibility of tainted food ever reaching your dog’s dog bowl. Our dog’s love the food, it is extremely safe, and highly nutritious.  Feeding our dogs this excellent food gives us great peace of mind.

Please call Robin or me at (770) 718-7704 if you need any dog training help.  We are blessed to have been your local dog training experts for over sixteen years.  We have trained over 5,000 great dogs and loving families and are ready to help you.