dog behavior training

A healthy dog is easier to train, and as diet is very important to health then a good diet will support your training process. A common ratio for an appropriate dog diet is 40% meat, 30% vegetables and 30% starch.

A good quality dry dog food should be a key constituent in what you feed your dog. It helps both offset the cost of meat and starts to balance the diet. Dog foods are labelled with a list of ingredients, with the highest proportions listed first, through to the smallest at the end.

In the “Ingredients” or “Typical Analysis” section described on the packaging, a good dog food will have little, and in many cases, no “waste” animal content, which are sometimes described as “by-products”. These products are often unfit for human consumption. Any dog food that does have waste or by-products in any sizeable amount should really be avoided. It might be cheaper and the products themselves do not necessarily make the product dangerous, but they do carry higher long-term risk to muscles, bones, coats and the general health of dogs, especially if a part of their regular daily intake.

A number of points pertinent to achieving the 40/30/30 ratio:

• Meat - Lamb, beef and chicken provide protein, good for healthy coats and musculature. As an aside, it’s a bad idea to let dogs, cats and similar pets have chicken bones as they splinter easily and can cause choking.
• Vegetables - carrots and greens are a good balance for dog nutrition, providing the vitamins and minerals essential to good bone development. They also provide the right levels of hormone and enzyme for good health. I’ve always found that different individual dogs are partial to a particular vegetable but don’t like others, which is useful to explore when assessing what to feed your dog.
• Starch - the usual provider of this for a dog is brown or white rice, though not in too large a quantity, especially not in an older dog. Starch provides the carbohydrates to build energy and maintain strength.

Some breeds are often stated to be sensitive to certain foods but this varies in individual dogs. There will also be exceptions when a dog is unhealthy for a little while.

Small amounts of water can be added to dry food to make it more palatable for some dogs.

The sheen on your dog’s coat, the state of its eyes and what is coming out at the other end are the most easy indicators to allow you to assess your dog’s health, but a balanced diet helps provide these. Spending just a little more on better food for your pet is worth it in the long term.