What food can I give my dog?

I’m back beating the drum again!

FOOD!

DOG FOOD!

We know that so much of the food that is pushed on us by giant manufacturing concerns is undermining human health. The British Government is now clamping down on what may be advertised on tv at times when children will be watching.

So no more burgers, chips, battered food, skeatos, meatos, freakos, chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, and so on, will be appearing on our screens shortly.

This is good news for the nation’s health!

But who is looking after our pets’ health?

Not the big manufacturers, for sure. Of course, they say that their stuff is the best - but they would, wouldn’t they.

When it comes to the health of our dogs, it’s up to us to work it out.

I’m doing my best to make you aware of the hazards and traps that are set for us. Here are some of the posts I’ve written to guide you:

Is raw feeding safe for my dog? Let’s get to the Bare Bones

How much should I feed my dog?

Beware the deadly mince pie! Christmas hazards for dogs

Keep your dog and your Christmas food safe!

What are the most effective dog treats?

“My dog doesn’t like food”

Dog feeding frenzy!

I'm not spending good money on a DOG!

What are the most effective dog treats?

And I’m revisiting this subject now because it’s coming up to the festive season - when there is unsuitable food all over the place - and you may be given dangerous toys or chews for your dog by well-meaning people who don’t know what we know.

First of all, Christmas food on the forbidden list

🦴 Cooked poultry and ham bones

🦴 Chocolate

🦴 Avocado

🦴 Grapes

🦴 Raisins

🦴 Bread/pizza dough

🦴 Christmas Cake

🦴 Mince Pies

🦴 Alcohol

🦴 too much of anything

Even a small amount of any of these things could have you spending an anxious Christmas with your dog in intensive care. And he may not survive.

So what CAN I give him?

Lacy is nearly 15 and has a full set of white gnashers

When it comes to foods, check out the articles listed above to help you make your choice.

I choose to feed a varied raw diet for my four dogs. It works out ridiculously cheaply if you put a bit of effort into sourcing, and my dogs all live to a great old age with all their teeth white and intact. (I don’t clean their teeth, the bones do.)

But there are plenty of good quality foods available if you don’t want to go down the raw route. I recommend you check out www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk This is a British site run by a Canine Nutritionist. BUT most of these foods are international, and there’s even a recipe generator there which will assess any food you key in. So, just copy down the list of ingredients on your bag of food and see how they rate it. You want to aim for 85%.

I can also heartily recommend to UK readers the foods, treats and chews you can get here:

Skippers Use this code for 30% off your order!

Butternutbox Use this code for a completely free supply of meals for your dog! (It’ll last days or weeks, depending on the size of your dog)

And to find out more about what’s really in all those prettily-packaged foods and chews you see on the groaning shelves of your local supermarket or pet store, check out the Resources below.

But be prepared to have a few frights!

Don’t berate yourself for having given your dog these things in the past. The past is gone. Just be sure you know how to avoid them in the future!

And if you’re starting out afresh with a new puppy - check out this book which gives you the lowdown on when, how, and what to feed

RESOURCES:

🐶 Skippers: Use this code for 30% off your order!

🐶 Butternutbox: use this code for a completely free supply of food for your dog! (It’ll last days or weeks, depending on the size of your dog)

🐶 All about dog food Check out that food before you buy it!

🐶 Rawhide Chews for Dogs

🐶 Ingredients to Avoid in Dog Treats | Harmful & Unsafe Ingredients

🐶 Finding the Right Rawhide Chew For Your Dog

🐶 Becker, Karen. “Dogs Love These but They Can Crack Teeth and Become a Choking Hazard.” Healthy Pets, :, 10 June 2018

🐶 Burke, Anna. Are Rawhide Chews Dangerous for Dogs? American Kennel Club, 21 May 2020,
de Godoy, Maria R C et al. “In vitro disappearance characteristics of selected categories of commercially available dog treats.” Journal of Nutritional Science vol. 3 e47. 10 Oct. 2014, doi:10.1017/jns.2014.40, In vitro disappearance characteristics of selected categories of commercially available dog treats

🐶 Home Cooking Options for Dogs, Dodds, Jean. “Bones.” Dr. Jean Dodds' Pet Health Resource Blog, Tumblr, 31 Mar. 2015.

🐶 “The benefits, though, are tooth cleaning, fresher breath, physical exertion, and mental stimulation for the dog.”
 
Hooda, S et al. “In vitro digestibility of expanded pork skin and rawhide chews, and digestion and metabolic characteristics of expanded pork skin chews in healthy adult dogs.” Journal of Animal Science vol. 90,12 (2012): 4355-61. doi:10.2527/jas.2012-5333,  


🐶 Pell, Sheila. The Dangers of Rawhide Dog Chew Toys. The Bark, 18 Feb. 2020, https://thebark.com/content/dangers-rawhide-dog-chew-toys

🐶 United Pet Group Voluntary Recalls Multiple Brands of Rawhide Chew Products for Dogs Due to Possible Chemical Contamination. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 8 Feb. 2018.

What are the most effective dog treats?

We receive thousands of marketing messages every day. We’re exhorted to buy foods which have “value added”, i.e. processed, ready-to-eat, convenience foods.

We KNOW (really! We all know!) that fresh foods are w-a-a-a-a-y cheaper to purchase, and are w-a-a-a-a-y healthier - without all those preservatives, additives, treatments. But they need a bit of work to turn into meals.

So it’ll be no surprise to the discerning reader that the same thing happens with dog foods. We’re bombarded with marketing messages and glossy images of glossy dogs bouncing all over the place. I talk about how to choose an appropriate diet for your dog here and here.

But the same marketing bombardment happens with dog treats.

Not only do you have to be equally discerning about what you put inside your dog in terms of nutrition, but there are other considerations.

Unless you’re just dishing out treats for no reason, you need to choose your dog treats carefully!

Training treats

And nowhere is this more important than the treats you choose to use in training your dog.

There are various factors you have to consider. And I outline most of them for you in my books. But for those of you who are yet to discover the joy of these books (seriously - people LOVE them! Just look at the hundreds of reviews on Amazon), here is an excerpt for you from Essential Skills for your Growly but Brilliant Family Dog: Books 1-3: Understanding your fearful, reactive, or aggressive dog, and strategies and techniques to make change

Chapter 2

Rewards - what, how, when?

Rewarding your dog with something he really likes is essential to this easy method of training. This may be with a game of chase, tugging with a toy, racing after a ball, being given his dinner bowl, a cuddle, or a tasty treat. It’s up to you to find out just what your dog likes (as opposed to what you think he likes) and reward him appropriately when he makes a good choice.

Treats are not a moral issue. They are a means to an end. The end is your dog responding to you and working with you. If employing a few bits of cheese means that my walks are enjoyable and my dog is calm and happy, then that seems a good deal to me. I only give my dogs a treat when they’ve done something I like: I aim to get through a lot of treats every day!

The treats need to be very tasty - your dog has got to really want them! And you don’t want her chewing and chomping on a biscuit for so long that she forgets what she earned it for. So the treat needs to slip down quickly and make your dog think, “Wow! How can I get some more of that?” Your dog needs to know what you like and what does not work with you.

So every time she does something you like, you can mark it by saying, “YES!” and giving her a treat. There is no need for your dog to sit in order to receive a treat. Some dogs think that sitting and begging is the only way to earn a treat, so they sit and beg and annoy at every opportunity. If you are crystal clear about what your dog is doing that is earning the reward (by saying YES), then he will know what actions to repeat, and what doesn’t pay. The sitting, begging dog has no idea what causes these random treats to appear.

When you mark an action, you want to mark as the dog is doing it. If you are marking a Sit, for instance, you need to say Yes as the bum is going to the floor. If you wait till your dog has already sat, she’s now gazing out of the window and thinking of something else. That’s not what you want to mark! As the sheepdog trainer John Holmes told us, you need to catch your dog with his mind down the rabbit-hole, not wait till he is down the rabbit-hole, when it’s too late. You want to catch your dog thinking about sitting.

Good treats

• Cheese

• Sausage

• Ham

• Chicken

• Frankfurter

• Salami

• Homemade sardine, tuna, or ham cookies

• Freeze-dried 100% meat treats

• Dried sprats

• Dehydrated liver, heart, lung, etc

.. real food in other words. Ideally, they slip down quickly so your dog wants more. Cut them into small, pea-size treats.

OK treats                    

• High-quality grain-free commercial treats

Fairly rubbish treats

• Your dog’s usual kibble - She gets it anyway. Why should she have to work for it?

• Cat biscuits

• Dog biscuits

• Stuff of unrecognisable composition sold as pet treats

• Anything you wouldn’t put in your own mouth

Do you work more enthusiastically for £60 an hour or for 50p an hour? Quite so. Your dog is the same. Be sure the treats you’re offering are worth working for!

So you can see it’s not just the quantity of treats you dish out (huge number when you’re working on something new or working against fear), but the quality is critical!

And before you suggest this may work out more expensive - think again! Look at the pack of commercial treats you are thinking of buying, and look at the weight vs the price. There is no contest with fresh foods!

So not only will you be making your training more effective - for which your fearful dog will profoundly thank you - but you’re making a tiny dent in your wallet!

Choose wisely.

And to get started with helping your Growly - reactive, anxious, fearful - dog, watch our free Masterclass here. Lots of lessons to get you started on a new path!

By the way, for English readers, here’s a load of money off a super food I regularly use and here’s another where you can get a big discount using this link - they provide high-quality fishy treats and foods, which are firm favourites with my crew!