Tag Archives: dog food

Dog food supplements that help

Would dog food supplements benefit your dog? How do you choose? Which ones are beneficial? Are some unnecessary? How do you decide what’s best?

Lots of opinions

In the world of dog care, few topics are more controversial than dog food. Everyone has an opinion. If you’re on social media and belong to any dog groups, just take a look at the number of comments any post about dog food gets. Or if a new dog owner asks for dog food advice, the number of comments will be impressive.

Everyone who loves their dog wants to feed the best, most nutritious food they can. And we all have to balance that against what we can afford, and what our dogs will eat. We have two good friends whose dogs are incredibly picky. One Havanese we know keeps her “mom” in a constant state of anxiety over food. Her favorite on Tuesday may be an attempt at poisoning by Friday. 

Make your best guess

After considering all the options, reading enough labels to go cross-eyed, and finding no perfect answer, we’ve cobbled together a regimen of food that works best for us and our dogs. It’s a combination of commercially- and home-prepared foods based on sources from canine nutritionists, to veterinarians, to holistic practitioners.

Our food choices probably won’t be anyone else’s, but we do have some good ideas for supplements that anyone can use to enhance their dogs’ diets.

Flax

All of our dogs get about a half teaspoonful of milled flax once a day. We just mix it into their regular meal, usually dinner. We started using a homemade flax gel a couple of years ago when we had a house-wide gastrointestinal upset episode. The gel did help and the gut-storm eventually passed. 

Milled flax is a good dog food supplement

Then our regular veterinarian suggested it to help with some dry skin issues that Booker was having. His dandruff was a wonder to behold. She also let us know that by making the gel, we’d compromised some of the benefit of the flax – it should be used raw. She also suggested using a mortar and pestle to grind it. We used a little food processor/grinder. And then we found commercially-available milled flax and never looked back.

All four of our dogs now have beautiful coats and we believe the flax may also help keep their tummies more balanced. It’s also a source of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for everyone. And the other major source (fish) smells way worse. And Torque hates fish.

Calcium

The other thing everybody regularly gets is ground-up egg shells. It’s a source of calcium and, basically, can’t hurt. Again, ground up and added to the “Pup Loaf” that we make for the home-made portion of their meals. 

Probiotics

Because we want to avoid any more tummy explosions if we can. And, again, it can’t hurt. 

Greens/spirulina

Because our dear friend, who’s a doctor of Chinese medicine, told us to. We probably should have a better rationale, but we trust her and she loves our dogs, too.

Your choice

With so much information available on the internet, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out the “best” thing to do. The best advice we can give is to use reputable sources for information and make the best choices for you and your dog. 

Don’t be afraid to try something for a couple of weeks and see how it works. As an observant dog owner, you’ll know how it affects your dog. And of course, bring your veterinarian in on the decision, especially if your dog has a medical condition to consider.

Is your pup a picky eater?

In the decades we’ve been dog owners, we’ve never had a picky eater. We thought we did, once, but we were wrong. When Fran got Booker, her 7-year-old Boston Terrier, he wouldn’t eat the first couple of days. Turned out he didn’t like the food the breeder used. As soon as he got home and got a whiff of the stuff our other dogs ate, his no-eating days were over.

We have a couple of friends whose dogs are finicky. Interestingly – all of their dogs, as long as we’ve known them, have been picky eaters. We found that fascinating.

Rewards have many forms

One of the prime directives of dealing with dogs is that they always do what’s most rewarding. Dogs are pretty simple souls – they don’t have long-term agendas. If they get attention and better-tasting food by turning up their noses at their food bowls, they learn very quickly to turn up their noses. If the attention and tasty treats are rewards for joining the “clean plate club,” chances are that’s what they’ll do.

So we thought about our friends and their picky-eater dogs. And came to the conclusion that, on some level, they were encouraging their dogs’ behavior. Either by hovering over them for each bite, constantly offering alternatives, even yelling at them when they don’t eat.

You may wonder why a dog would like getting yelled at. Dogs don’t really understand the difference between “good” attention and “bad” attention. They just know the person they adore is paying attention. They have their person’s undivided attention for as long as they’re being a pain in the butt. 

Picky eater routine

If you have a finicky dog, try to think of the routine that surrounds daily feeding. Do you obsess over every bite your dog takes? Are you catering to your dog by offering choices? Have you ever lost patience with his behavior?

picky eater dogs leave their food untouched in the bowl

Change, if you want it, takes some determination, patience, and an ability to resist those puppy-dog eyes. If you know you can’t, it’s probably smarter to admit things aren’t going to change and adjust your thinking instead. 

The first step is to decide when, what, and where your dog will eat. You get to choose, not your dog. Pick a schedule and stick to it. The dog gets a limited time to eat. 10 minutes is plenty. After that, the bowl comes up, goes in the fridge, and is presented at the next meal. And every meal until eaten or goes bad. 

This is a test of your will, but not your dog’s. No dog will voluntarily starve. If food is presented, and he’s hungry, he’ll eat. Unless he thinks “something better” is coming. 

Figuring it out

After about three days, he may figure out that nothing else is on offer. It may be the hardest three days of your life, but it could be worth it. Won’t it be great when you don’t have the stress of worrying about whether or not your dog will eat? When you have a way of knowing when your dog doesn’t feel well because he doesn’t eat? Rather than a “mood” he’s in?

If you do want to convert your dog into an eager eater, use a brand and flavor of food that he liked for a period of time. We know some people choose to mix a couple of different brands so that if one company changes formulas, there will be some consistency in their dog’s diet.

Think it through

Of course you do need to take into account any medical condition your dog has and any regular medication he takes. If there is a medical reason your dog is “off his food,” that’s a different story entirely. 

Our dogs do have preferences – Torque doesn’t care for fish. Booker can’t eat anything with pork. So we’ve found a food that has no fish or pork. Ours get special “treats” in their bowls on occasion. If we’re making scrambled eggs, we’ll put an extra one in for the dogs. Sprinkled on top of their regular food, at the regular time. If we’re making tuna salad, they get an extra celery stalk. Diced onto their regular food, at the regular time. 

We know it’s weird that our dogs love celery. But they do, so we treat them to it. When we choose. 

Our friends with the pick-eater dogs know all this stuff. They’ve chosen not to “fix” it, because, on some level, the current situation works for them. And that’s perfectly okay. As long as we don’t have to listen to them complain.

Your dog’s eating habits – change isn’t good

Have your dog’s eating habits changed? Is she fussier than she used to be? Is he turning up his nose at used-to-be favorites?

Cause for concern

It’s an old joke that “habit is the most powerful force in the universe.” But there’s also a lot of truth to it. And dogs are even more entrenched in habits and rules than people! Dogs love schedules. They love rules. And habits make them happy.

Changes in eating habits are significant. The reason may not be serious – but it’s always worth checking out.

Seasons & reasons

The cause for the change could be anything:

  • Normal appetite suppression in hot weather
  • A bitch coming into heat
  • Food recipe has changed and isn’t as palatable
  • Toothache
  • Tummy ache
  • Feeling ill
  • Stress
  • Parasites
  • Age
  • Disease
  • Schedule change
  • Travel

How do you know?

One of the reasons we’re not fans of “free feeding” (leaving food out all the time) is because it’s hard to judge exactly how much the dog is eating and whether there’s a change. If the household has more than one person feeding the dog, it may be impossible to judge. Same situation if there’s more than one dog – how do you know which one’s eating what? Other than seeing one get fat?

If a free-feeding situation is the one that works for your family, try to put some controls in place so you know if there are changes. Have only one person in charge of feeding the dog. Use a measuring cup to judge exactly how much is offered each day. And take notes on a calendar to chart any changes.

Up or down matters

We’re lucky that most of our dogs have been good eaters. There have been a couple of exceptions, and they both fall into the category of “when you know better, you do better.”

dog eating

As young people, we had a Boston Terrier named Daemon. He needed to be coaxed to eat, and we got pretty creative (and desperate) to make it happen. Because we were convinced that he “had to” eat kibble, we actually wound up resorting to adding people-food toppings. His favorites were Chunky Steak and Potato Soup and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Neither is something we’d recommend for dogs now, but we didn’t know anything about dog nutrition at the time. It turned out that Daemon had liver cancer. We tempted his appetite enough to keep him strong as long as he was comfortable. It may not have been an ideal solution, but it worked for the time and circumstances.

Picky puppy

The other dog who didn’t want to eat was Fran’s Booker. When she picked him up as a puppy from his breeder’s home in Virginia, he didn’t eat much of anything for the first two days. As a new mom – it drove Fran crazy. Booker’s eating issues were resolved when we switched to a different food. He just didn’t like the first one. At home or on the road, he’s been a champion eater ever since.

Do not pass “Go!”

For the rest of our dogs – we have a house rule. If the dog doesn’t eat, go directly to the veterinarian. Do not pass “Go!” Do not collect $200. And step on it.

If your dog’s eating habits change – pay attention. It may be nothing. One of our dogs had a bad case of gas. Another had a tooth ache. That started us on brushing our dogs’ teeth and it hasn’t been an issue since.

But if it is “something” – your diligence may help save your dog!

Diving into dog food – 5 resources for every dog owner

Once upon a time the family dog ate scraps from the dinner table.

Then dog food evolved. There was kibble. And canned food. Along came semi-dry (remember Gaines Burgers?). Prescription food. Breed-specific food. Size-specific food. Raw food. Freeze-dried food. Allergy foods. Grain-free food. Limited-ingredient food. Exotic proteins food. Even vegetarian food.

And the recalls started coming, too. Much like human foods – there are articles extolling the benefits of an ingredient one week, and the next week the same ingredient is high risk.

What’s a responsible dog owner to do?

So close he could taste it.

We all want to do what’s right. Our dogs are family members and want to give them the best diet we can, fulfilling their nutritional needs and giving them food they’ll love. How can we know? We can’t even necessarily believe our veterinarians – most receive minimal education in nutrition and the information they do get in school may be sponsored by the dog food manufacturers!

There isn’t a single “best” dog food, but there is a best choice for your circumstances, your dog, and you. Our choice is to make our dogs’ food – although we do keep dry food in the house as well. We keep our dogs accustomed to eating a dry food so if there’s an emergency, we don’t have to worry about feeding them. Kibble also makes a handy training treat.

We know our choice isn’t right for everyone. But we all want to give our dogs the best food we can. These dog food resources will help you choose that best option. Note: we are NOT affiliates of any of these websites and receive no compensation. We want you to have the best information available for feeding your dog.

Dog food resources:

Website – DogFoodAdvisor.com

We’ve been consulting DogFoodAdvisor.com for years – whenever someone tells us about a wonderful new dog food we just have to check out. You’ll find ratings for just about every food available in the U.S. market; including both dry and canned food. You can also sign up for email notices when another recall is announced.

DogFoodAdvisor.com doesn’t just rate the foods. They also give you a breakdown of what’s good, what’s okay, and what should be avoided in each brand. Not every flavor of each brand is reviewed, but there are enough to give you a good idea of the company’s food.

You can also find the best-rated foods in each category, if you’re inclined to change. We’ve used it ourselves when we needed a “back-up” dry food.

Book – Your Pet Chef Cookbook by Lisa Hennessy

Your Pet Chef Cookbook

Your Pet Chef Cookbook is the book we use to make our own dogs’ food. Complete disclosure – the author is a friend of ours and we learned to make dog food right in her kitchen. You’ll find that some dog food experts resist adding vegetables and fruits to their dogs’ meals, but, as veggie-lovers ourselves, we had a hard time accepting that idea. Besides, we’d always heard that dogs are omnivores, like people. And our dogs absolutely adore their veggies. In fact, when our agility instructor insisted that all dogs learn to play “tug,” the only thing Hope could get her first agility dog (Dax) to tug on was a stalk of celery!

Book – The Royal Treatment: A natural approach to wildly healthy pets by Barbara Royal, D.V.M.

Book - The Royal Treatment. A natural approach to wildly healthy pets

Her name really is Royal! And she’s also someone we actually know and whose expertise we value and trust. Dr. Royal is a veterinarian and practitioner of both Western and Eastern medicines. Many years ago, when she was first embarking on her journey in acupuncture, she would come to our family’s book store to give our shop cat (Merlyn) acupuncture treatments. She kept him going, despite his arthritis and kidney failure, until the ripe old age of 19!

The Royal Treatment will help you make common-sense decisions about the care and feeding of your pets. It goes into food and much more – from learning how to tell if your pet is sick, to the best way to clean their ears, using herbs and supplements, and figuring out what your pet’s behavior may mean for his/her health.

Book – Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs: The Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals by Lew Olson, Ph.D.

Book - Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs

Funny how it keeps coming up – we know Lew Olson! She’s actually a Brussels Griffon person, so although we haven’t had the pleasure in person, we’ve known her name for years. Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs is a terrific book that addresses specific issues and how we can use food as medicine, as well as feeding puppies, senior dogs, picky eaters, and more. Lew is active in both conformation and performance showing with her dogs, in addition to being an AKC and UKC judge. This book includes plans for all types of food – raw, cooked, even kibble. She also addresses the need for supplements and minerals. It does make making dog food at home simpler.

Facebook group – K9 Nutrition

This is kind of cheat – K9 Nutrition is Lew Olson’s Facebook group. You do have to ask to become a member of the group, which is a large and diverse one. The community members – and Lew herself, will answer questions and address specific issues members have. There is no judgment allowed – whatever you’re currently feeding won’t be criticized.

If you’re like us and you’ve become unsure which commercial dog food is best for your dog, we hope you’ll take advantage of these resources and that your pup thrives – no matter what you choose! And check out our selection of tasty, healthy treats for your dog!