1. What Is Really Going Into Our Dog’s Food? 

This is a really concerning question for many of us. There have been rumours and some of them sound too far fetched to be true, but what if they are? Some of the things that are put into most commercial dog foods could be seriously impacting on the health of your best friend. 

One of the most common is a highly toxic preservative called ethoxyquin. This toxic chemical has been banned in human food for years but it seems to be ok to put it into our dog food. In dogs, ethoxyquin has been linked to allergies, immune deficiency syndromes and cancers of the spleen, stomach and liver. 

Factory workers who have come into regular contact with ethoxyquin have exhibited side effects similar to agent orange, from hair loss and blindness to leukaemia. This is a pretty sobering thought when you fill up a bowl of dog food and tell your beloved dog to eat it all up. 

Apart from the nasty chemicals, many grains are used to add bulk to the food. Corn and wheat gluten which are useless by-products of human food production are routinely added. And it can be hard to figure out exactly how much of these fillers is really in your dog food. If you see two or three grains listed near the top of the ingredients list, it’s probably a sign that there’s a fair bit of filler in there. 

2. Is It Doing Them Any Harm? 

If you’ve read this far you’re probably aware that there can be some really nasty side effects from some of the common preservatives that are found on many commercial dog foods. The hard thing is that often it takes years for the most serious side effects to appear. This also means that unfortunately it might be too late to save them by the time symptoms become obvious. 

Few dogs are born with a food allergy, but more and more they are developing an allergy or sensitivity later in life after years of eating discarded grain by-products.  The effects of this can range from flatulence to excessive weight gain, and your dog can’t really tell you if they don’t feel well after they eat. Other signs can include lethargy and poor coat condition. Simply changing to the right food can add years to the life of your dog, as well as more energy and vitality. 

3. Haven’t All The Bad Ones Been Recalled? 

Now you might be asking if all the really nasty batches of dog food have been recalled. While many deadly batches of food have all been recalled, that doesn’t mean that the rest are necessarily safe. Allergies can cause many long term health problems. 

At the end of the day, we never know when there’s going to another batch of commercial food that has been contaminated with plastic that could mean the end for our best friend. Do really want to be at the sharp end of the next scandal when you think about what it could mean for your dog. 

4. What Are The Alternatives? 

You might be wondering what you can feed your dog when there are so many nasty additives in commercial food. Well first of all, I want to make it clear that not every food is going to contain all of these horrible ingredients. By looking closely at the ingredients list you’ll be able to get rid of quite a few popular brands straightaway. Another thing to watch out for is fish meal, ethoxyquin is routinely added to fish meal so, unless it specifically states that it isn’t present, just don’t buy that food.

However, the only way to be completely sure of what is going into your dog’s food is to make it yourself. More and more people are taking this option. By giving your  dogs some variety in their meals you can help to make sure that they live a long healthy life.

So making your own dog health food is a great way to do the best by your dog and often ends up being cheaper too. Why not give it try and see what your best friend thinks of your cooking! 

About the Author:
Our dogs rely on us to provide them with the best possible food and care.  To keep your best friend healthy and add years to their life, subscribe to our dog health food newsletter.  You’ll find out exactly what goes into commercial dog food and how to make your own at home, cheaply and easily. Click here to subscribe at http://www.dog-health-food.com.

More Dog Resources

The most important thing in training a dog is to use basic communication that the dog has learned to understand and obey. There are 5 basic commands which are the standard that every dog should obey: sit, down, stay, heel and come. The command words used are not important but consistency in their use is. The same words in Italian or Chinese will be understood by a dog that was trained in one or the other language.

The purpose of training a dog is to have the animal behave properly when around members of the family, invited strangers and other pets. I recommend you begin training when the puppy arrives in its new home to correct unwanted dog behavior and teach discipline. Basic training classes with a professional trainer start with puppies of at least 3 to 6 months old. Before that time the owner should prepare himself and read a few books on the subject.

Dog training is all about good communication between the owner and his dog. The dog has to understand and obey simple commands while the handler has to interpret the dog’s signals when it is nervous, excited, confused or happy. Obedience training is to train the dog, according to the owner’s perspective, to know what behaviors are good and which are bad.

There are four signals used by dog trainers to communicate with the dog:

1. The reward signal for correct behavior, letting the dog know it has earned a reward.
2. The keep going signal for correct behavior, telling the dog it has to carry on in order to get a reward.
3. The no reward signal for incorrect behavior, to tell the dog to try something new.
4. The punishment signal for incorrect behavior, to tell the dog it has earned a punishment.

These signals can be sent with simple words or with a little mechanical clicker.

Obedience training is most of the time a short course of 6 to 10 weeks when the owner learns how to communicate and train his animal with a few basic commands. Breeds like the Doberman Pinscher or the German Shepherd are easier to train than others with a minimum amount of time but all dogs can be trained, even the most challenging.

About the Author:
Michel Gerard is a freelance author based in Asia. His expertise is wide and varied in a number of topics. Visit the Bad Dog Training Tricks website and learn how to stop your bad dog behavior right now => http://www.baddogtrainingtricks.com

In the early days of automobiles, most cars did not have windshields and their top speed was approximately 45 mph. Given those conditions, drivers wore goggles to protect their eyes. Now that we have windshields to protect us, you wouldn’t consider sticking your unprotected head out the window at 45 mph. Then why let your dog?

Allowing your dog to stick its head out the window is a very dangerous habit. Their eyes are exposed to dirt, rocks, dust and other debris. These materials can easily puncture and scratch your dog’s eyes. A line of pet goggles have come out which are to help prevent these types of injuries. However, even if you can train your dog not to paw them off their heads, there are still many other dangers when your dog’s head is out the window while driving.

Damage to the ears is another big concern. When the dog’s ears flap in the wind, their soft earflaps (pinnae) can easily become irritated, swell and become very tender. The constant and rapid flapping of the pinnae against your dog’s head from high-speed winds causes trauma to the ear and results in swelling. Repeated trauma such as this can cause lifelong problems for your pup.

Allowing your dog to stick its head out the window can also lead to more severe outcomes, such as falling out of the car or getting their head stuck in the window opening. Taking a turn a bit too fast, traveling over bumpy terrain or an overly excited pup can cause your dog to lose balance and easily fall out of the window. These types of incidents occur more frequently than one might imagine and can cause severe injury or death to dogs.

It should go without saying, but another very dangerous idea is to allow your dog to ride in the bed of a pickup truck. All of the dangers of sticking its head out the window from inside the car are increased, since the bed of a pickup offers little or no protection from wind, debris, or falls. In addition, a pickup’s metal bed can reach dangerously high temperatures on hot days, which can cause damage to the soft tissue on a dog’s paws.

The best place for your dog to ride is in the back seat or cargo area of your vehicle, properly restrained of course. Utilizing a pet safety belt, car seat, vehicle pet barrier, or a travel crate is the best ways to ensure that your pup’s travels are happy and safe. Sure, crack the window, but no heads out!

About the Author:
Kim Salerno is the President and Founder of TRIPSwithPETS.com. She founded the pet travel site in 2003 and is an expert in the field of pet travel. Kim is a veteran of the travel industry – formerly serving as Director of Internet Marketing for Certified Vacations. Her mission is to ensure that pets are welcome, happy,and safe in their travels. Visit her company website at http://www.tripswithpets.com.

1. Generic Fats And Proteins.

If we want our dogs to eat well, why would we even consider giving them food with “animal meat” as a primary ingredient? Would you ever consider buying “animal meat” from the butcher and cooking it up for the rest of your family? I hope not!

Generic meat can hide all manner of substandard animal parts that you wouldn’t knowingly give your dog. So to keep using the cheapest parts they label them with a very vague term like “animal” meat. This could always be a nice cut of meat, but let’s face it, if there was beef in the food, they’d be labeling that way, not “animal.”

While it’s true that dogs in the wild would eat just about all parts of an animal not too many wild animals would have concentrated growth hormones and pesticides in their organs. We’ve all heard of things like road kill and pet bodies being put into our dogs’ food, but we’re never quite sure. There are a number of nasty things that can be put in under the term “animal” so it’s probably the most important thing to avoid in your dog’s food.

2. Corn or Wheat Gluten Meal.

These are cheap by-products of the human food industry that have been put into dog food. These forms of protein are incomplete for a dog so they aren’t put in there for the dog’s dietary needs but just because it’s a cheap way to fill out dog food. This is also a handy little rule of thumb to judge the quality of the rest of the food. Either of these ingredients is a pretty good indicator that the food is going to be poor quality overall. There is also a higher chance that there’s cheap but toxic preservatives and additives in there, too.

Rice and soy protein concentrate are slightly higher quality but still have the problem in that they are incomplete proteins. For a dog’s nutritional needs there is a vast difference between a pant protein and a meat protein.

3. Meat By-Product or Digest.

These are usually parts of the animals that are considered unfit for human consumption. Why would we want to feed to our dogs something that we wouldn’t even consider? Quite apart from that, usually those parts aren’t eaten because they are places that toxins concentrate within the body. Some by-products may be listed as fit for human consumption, but unless this is specifically stated it’s pretty safe to assume that it’s no good.

4. Ethoxyquin.

This is a cheap and commonly used preservative that extends the shelf life of the dog food by stopping the fat from going rancid. However this particular preservative has been banned for human consumption and has also been linked to many pet health problems. There have been many cases of dogs developing skin and coat problems from having foods containing Ethoxyquin added to their diet. Conversely it has been noted that within days or weeks of stopping the consumption of foods containing Ethoxyquin, serious long-term health problems have cleared up. And this is just the most researched effect of Ethoxyquin, with many more possible nasty side effects.

5. Too Many Grains.

While some grains are actually a good source of minerals for dogs, often there’s far too much of them to be healthy. If grains are used to fill out the bulk of the dog food, then it’s really not going to meet the nutritional needs of your dog.

Grains and grain by products are often the waste from the production of human food and although there is a certain amount of protein in grains and cereals, it really isn’t the same as animal proteins. Meat is the type of protein that dogs will get the most nourishment out of. Grains, on the other hand, are not something that dogs would be eating in the wild and so their bodies have a hard time digesting it properly. This leads to overeating because they’re not getting enough nutrients but at the same time getting too much in the way of carbohydrates that they can’t deal with. This often leads to dogs getting obese.

With all the sneaky labeling on commercial food, knowing about dog health food is really a key component to giving your dog the very best. Giving them the best possible nutrition is vital and will add years to their lives and they’ll be much healthier and have more energy. It’s up to us to get educated and give our dogs what they really need for the best nourishment.

About the Author:
How would you feel if your dog died at a young age and it was completely preventable? We need to know what goes into the food that we feed our dogs and if it’s making them sick. Our newsletter is chock full of tips for healthy eating, delicious recipes and information about what really goes into commercial dog food. Click here to subscribe: http://www.dog-health-food.com.