First of all, it IS important to make sure a dog can tolerate a food. Blatant refusal of a food a dog was previously ingesting properly can be a sign of sickness or tainted food; however, in this post, I’m just going to address those owners that have chronic mind changers not suffering from legitimate issues.
If you dog is refusing food, and you’re fairly certain there’s nothing wrong with the food, no formula changes have occurred, and your dog hasn’t developed any new sensitivities or allergies, then you’re probably just being played. As innocent as they look, dogs are huge con artists. They behave very similarly to children in certain situations. Ever been convinced by your child to buy a toy or candy just to keep them quiet at the store? Picked up baby just to stop it from crying?

This is manipulation, and dogs are doing it too. It’s not an intelligence thing, it’s simply a natural observance of repeated results. “If I do A and get B multiple times, then repeating A will get me what I want (B) all the time.”

How does this knowledge solve my problem? Well, when a dog continuously refuses food, it means that they’ve learned you’ll add additional scraps or just leave the food out for later. If you had a feast laid out for you all day long wouldn’t you just graze all the time? This classical conditioning dogs are practicing can be solved by not allowing him to free feed. Free feeding (also one of the biggest causes of obesity) is leaving a bowl of food out all day.

Dogs need one or two scheduled daily meal times. If you plan to feed Fido at 8am and 4pm then stick to those times and take his food away when he leaves the dish for more than a minute. If there is left over food, feed less next time.

It’s that simple. Keep decreasing the amount of food until he finishes everything in one sitting. He will learn that he’s going to go without a meal is he’s stubborn. One skipped meal time, as long as you use common sense about it, isn’t hurting your dog, especially if he’s used to only taking a mouthful every hour or so.
If you keep this up, only feed around scheduled times, and create a cut off point for food availability, then Fido will learn that he HAS to eat the food, and he HAS to eat it all, or he goes without eating. It’s not cruelty; it’s about redefining who’s in charge.

In my last post, I covered searching for quality dog foods, but I’d like to emphasis how important quality foods are. There are a few categories that dogs eating poor diet fall into. First, there are those that seem perfectly healthy: well within a normal rate, nice, thick hair, eating and passing stools regularly. These dogs may live a full, normal life, without any noticeable problems. The second category includes dogs sometimes referred to as “supplement junkies.” Those who have issues such as hip dysplasia, or suffer from balding, and are currently being treated with prescription or natural medicine to cure their surface problems. Myles falls under this category. The third group consists of those dogs with reoccurring problems, no solutions, and desperate pet parents.

For dogs that are currently healthy, it may just be that they’re a very lucky dog with no allergies or sensitivities, free of any genetic predispositions for illnesses. It may also mean, and more likely, that they’re surviving, maybe even surviving well, but they’re not THRIVING.

Afterall, Purina was once the top food available for dogs. I used to work with a groomer who graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Animal Science many years ago. She’d tell me stories of how they ran trials of Purina versus Grocery store brands to determine nutritional benefits. Basically, the experiment consisted of female test dogs fed strict diets of one food. Similar sires were used to breed to each female. The diets did not matter for the sires. A female puppy was selected from each litter, with the rest of the offspring adopted out to families. The female puppy, once reaching maturity, would eat the same died as their mother, and then be bred to a new sire. This experiment was planned for 30 generations. It only lasted 7.

The problem was that the females eating solely grocery store food were not producing as many puppies as the generations went on. After 7 generations, the puppies were either stillborn, or the mother was determined to be sterile. Those dogs on Purina had not reached a point of noticeable differences at the time of the experiment’s ending.

Dog food has come a long way since this. While Peta and FDA laws have changed the standards for animal testing, breeders of successful show stock, and many rescue families have proved that, while taking longer than 7 generations, food without fillers and animal by products produce finer dogs, generation after generation. While your dog say not be showing signs of bad health, they could be aging at a much fast rate with a poorer diet. Dog’s living to be 12 or 14 is considered a long time, but wouldn’t you prefer a 17 year old companion, playing fetch until the day it passed?

Supplement junkies are addressing problems, rather than causes. If your car gets a flat tire, you can get it patched, but if you never sweep up the piles of old metal scraps and nails from your garage floor, eventually the tire will get flat again. Glucosamine and chondroitin are great for an older dog, and even younger dogs, especially larger breeds. Feeding these daily tablets can help a limping dog walk better, but if you don’t address the problem, then you’re pouring money into bandages. Change your dog’s diet AND add supplements, you’ll be a lot better off, and so will your dog.

If you have a dog in the third category, you may, surprisingly, be a little more lucky. While it is a horrible thing to see a dog in pain, it’s much easier to discover the need for change if there are very visible problems. I love having customers come to me asking what they can do to better the life of their dog. When I was working in a small brick and mortar boutique, a favorite dog owner of mine came in with a dog that had serious problems biting his own feet. First, they tried a natural spray repellent that made the feet taste bad, while this worked part of the time, the dog eventually licked the taste off and continued to chew. They then tried interactive toys, stuff to keep him busy. He would lose interest and quickly return to his old habit. This woman was eager to find a solution, and really wanted to make her dog happy. While she knew she didn’t have the extra money to have an allergy panel done at the time, she knew this wasn’t a life threatening issue, and that a little time for detective work wouldn’t be an issue.

By far, the most common and undiagnosed cause of itching, excessive shedding, diarehea, and the like are food allergies. While corn, wheat, soy, beef, and chicken are the most common, it can also be caused by something like eggs that are found towards the bottom of ingredient lists. What we did was first read the ingredient list of his current food. The main ingredients we discovered were corn, wheat, soy, chicken meal, so the plan was to eliminate them all, then reintroduce each one slowly. If you’re looking for a fast solution, try picking a grain-free food with rare protein sources such as Taste of the Wild. You’re more likely to eliminate multiple allergens in one shot with a grain-free food, and if rare or novelty protein sources are not in the current diet, then they can be eliminated as a cause. I suggest working through a bag (size depends on your dog) and evaluating the situation at the end of the bag. While many boutiques will offer you samples to try certain foods, it’s important to note that these are mainly just to see if the dog will eat the food, to justify buying a large bag. You will rarely, if ever, see a difference with just a sample bag.

What’s nice about high quality dog food companies is that most work with retailers to allow returns of any unused dog food that isn’t working out. I’ve had customers switch between 4 or 5 brands before they found the one with the magic ingredients. Don’t be afraid to return a bag if it’s making your dog’s symptoms worse. If you’ve isolated the allergens, be sure to find a few foods without those specific ingredients to keep in rotation. If you switch every other, or every third bag, your dog is going to be less likely to develop a new allergy.

How does this all relate to Myles? Well, as I said previously, he has suffered from chronic ear infections his entire life. I was fairly convinced that it was a food allergy, and decided it was time to become very proactive about find a food that would eliminate his problems. My ideal food would follow a few simple (or simple sounding on the surface) rules.

1. (and most importantly) it must eliminate Myles’s infections
2. Myles had to like the food
3. My other 3 setters had to like the food
4. It must remain in my budget

While 3 and 4 weren’t absolutes, it would be nice if the food met all of these conditions, thankfully, the one I eventually settled on did. We tried Fromm, from surf and turf to beef frittata, I just couldn’t please them all. We tried Diamond Naturals, the lamb formula was the only one everyone ate, but if gave poor Sydney gas. After almost a year of trying new foods, only to go back to the old one, I would that TSC carries a food called 4life. While it features an ingedient list that’s almost identical to that of Diamond Naturals, I gave it a try. Even though my setters are all over 50 lbs, I picked out the small breed formula because it had the highest protein percentage. There is nothing wrong with feeding a small breed formula to larger dogs if it’s only labeled as a small breed formula because of the kibble size.

So, Myles and the rest of the gang continued on 4Health for 4 or 5 bags, we continued to see improvements in his appearance. The other boys stopped licking his ears, and he stopped shaking his head. Today, before leaving the gang with the dog sitter for the weekend, Myles went to the vet to get a refill on his medication. It turns out he didn’t need a refill and we left the vet’s office for the first time in 3 years 100% yeast infection free!

1. Balanced, Homemade Raw Diet
Many vets will disagree with this option for a few reasons, one because it is only beneficial if you’re correctly balancing the meals, the other we’ll get into later. To get started, purchase a cookbook specifically for canine raw diets. There are also numerous recipes available online. Be sure to use a trusted source. The benefit of an at home diet is that you have 100% control over ingredients, allowing for more nutrients, and greater protein rotation. Protein rotation is necessary to prevent allergies and allow greater nutrient exposure.

2. Commercially available balanced Raw Diet
This is a great option for dogs receiving meals during boarding or while in doggie daycare. It’s also helpful for owners with autoimmune problems, or issues handling plain raw food. Commercially available raw diets, such as Stella and Chewy’s, undergo a food safe process that seals in the flavor and nutrients, while removing bad bacteria from their food. This option can be pricey, but is very convenient, as they are packaged small frozen patties or medallions. Simply take the next day’s portion out, place it in the fridge, and you’re all set. Some companies (including S&C’s) also have a freeze dried option.

3. Balanced, Homemade Cooked Diet
I was first introduced to this as a little girl in the dog show world. It’s very convenient if you also feed your family unprocessed foods. Meat, dog safe fruits and veggies, and on occasion, limited amounts of rice, are all combined into meals. Meals are either cooked daily, or in batches to be frozen and then reheated before serving. As with homemade raw diets, recipes are available online and in dog specific cookbooks. Home cooked meals have the same benefits as a homemade raw diet, but some nutrients are lost during the cooking process.

4. Canned Food made with Human-Grade Ingredients
Be sure to check that the ingredients are certified “human-grade.” If it’s not written on the package, it most likely isn’t. This is by far the most expensive source of food for your dog, and can be high in sodium. If you have a lot of money, and little time, canned food may be your best option, just be sure to keep an eye on those nutrition labels.

5. Human-grade dry food.
Commercially available diets aren’t HORRIBLE for your dog, however, proper nutrition label analysis should be performed, and flavor/brand rotation should be practiced as well. www.dogfoodadvisor.com is a great site to evaluate your dog’s food’s nutritional value. Generally, you should be looking for a food void of corn, wheat, and soy, animal by-products, and high amounts of sodium, and other fillers such as rice. A score of 4 or 5 on the dog food advisor’s system is advisable for a proper diet.

6. Premium or Super Premium Canned Food, those available at big box stores such as Petco and Petsmart. While these do contain higher quality ingredients than those found at grocery stores, these “premium” canned foods contain a high amount of fillers and animal by-products.

7. Premium or Super Premium Dry Food
Basically the same as the canned food, although void of moisture and some ingredients lost during processing. With the high prices of these foods, you can typically find a brand, of equal price, with a much better looking ingredient list.

8. Vet recommended canned food.
While it may seem that your dog has an extremely rare allergy or disease, and vet recommended food is the only cure, this is highly unlikely. Vet recommended food, such as science diet contains many poor ingredients, and can put a pretty large dent in your pocketbook. Vet’s get kick backs from these companies during vet school. Many top vet schools have contracts with mass marketed companies to either lower tuition, or provide free bags of food for students’ pets. Little information on proper dog nutrition is taught in the standard curriculum.

9. Vet recommended dry food

10. Grocery store canned food

11. Grocery store dry food

12. Semi-moist pouched food
This contains a controversial ingredient, related to antifreeze. Studies show that while this is an approved ingredient in pet foods, long term damage has occurred as a result of ingestion.

13. Unbalanced homemade raw or home cooked diet.
While this falls in the same category as #1 on our list, if not properly balanced, it can be the worst thing you put in your dog’s bowl. Don’t just dumb the left over pasta and scraps from last night’s dinner in his bowl. Homemade dog food is a science and takes research to insure good health.

This list isn’t meant to make you feel guilty about what you’re dog is currently eating, it’s more about becoming aware of the options available, and selecting a better alternative. Raw diets are the best nutritionally and closest to what wolves eat, but it doesn’t mean that they have to be fed exclusively.

If the mess, or cost, is a concern, consider a raw meaty bone in the morning, or a few medallions of commercially available raw, and then follow up with a dry food dinner (with water mixed in of course, to prevent bloating). It’s important that if combining raw food with other options that the raw food is fed first and be allowed to process, before the second meal. This allows everything to properly process, and prevents fast digesting raw food from sitting behind slow digesting dry kibble in the digestive track.

10. Who done it?

9. Are you stupid? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

8. I don’t think I’d mind sharing a room with this cutie, even if he talks in his sleep.

7. I just hate it when my foot tries to steal my food too.

6. “Red Labs are smarter than the other ones.”

5. These next two videos will get you ready for the holiday season!

4. More fun in the snow!

3. Dog’s are clearly more clever than they let us humans think.

2. Who doesn’t love a good dog tease?

1. And the winner is…(not just because I’m biased to English Setters)

Generally speaking, a dog is considered overweight if it’s 5-20 percent above its ideal weight. Anything above twenty percent is considered clinically obese (i.e. a lab with an average skeletal structure that should normally be 60 lbs is weighing in above 72 lbs).

Just like with humans, weight alone should not be the judge. Dogs, particularly bully breeds, that are extremely muscular in nature are naturally going to weigh more than another dog the same height. The best way to tell if your pet is overweight is by his or her physical appearance. The ribs should easily be felt under the skin, a waist should be visible from above, the stomach should be tucked and not sagging, and the back should form to the dog’s natural bone structure. The absence of these traits is evidence that your dog is overweight.

In the chart provided below, a healthy pet should score a 3.

The easiest way to control pet obesity is through prevention, and it all starts with nutrition. Dogs and Cats are carnivores, they need meat. Foods high in starches can add unwanted weight. Corn, Wheat, and Soy in particular, as well as other grains are difficult for dogs and cats to process and those extra carbohydrates translate to extra pounds down the road. Dogs acquire their needed energy from fats, not carbohydrates. A corn based diet (commonly found with Hills Science Diet, Purina, Pedigree, and other grocery store food) will not help in achieving an ideal body weight.

Dry food, also referred to as kibble, is the worst for a dog trying to lose weight. Starches are needed to bind the kibble into small bite sized pieces. Raw and canned foods, as well as properly homemade diets, are recommended for dogs trying to lose or maintain their weight because of the high moisture and meat content they contain. If price and convenience are a concern, and dry food is the best option for your situation, make sure you are knowledgeable about what to look for in those ingredient lists. Meats (particularly named meats) should occupy the first few spots on the list; avoid corn wheat and soy, especially if they are in the top 5 ingredients. A good dry dog food will contain a carbohydrate level of about 20-30%. Most grocery store brands of food contain nearly double that.

Feeding the proper amount is also a necessity. Create a schedule and stick to it. Free feeding (leaving an unlimited quantity out for a dog or cat to just graze on all day) is very dangerous. It’s hard to have portion control and consistency with this method. Feeding your pet the recommended amount for their breed and body weight, once a day, is adequate. If they are slow eaters, or seem hungry throughout the day, try splitting their food into two meals fed at different times.  This is also a great way to get variety in your pets’ diet; feeding a balanced raw or home cooked meal in the morning and a smaller amount of dry kibble at night will allow for a more nutritionally sound diet and will assure that your pet gets all the nutrients they need to thrive.

Aside from proper nutrition, a dog needs exercise. Living in a condo or apartment, especially in a big city, can make exercise a chore. Look for dog parks and dog friendly beaches. Chicago’s Montrose Beach is the city’s first legal off leash beach for dogs and it is open during regular park hours. Going to dog specific parks can also allow for fun and playful interactions with other dogs and dog owners.

Supplements can be an excellent way to enhance a proper diet and exercise plan. Canned pumpkin, such as Fruitables, is great for dogs and cats. Their specific weight loss formula contains pumpkin and oatmeal, making it low in calories and high in fiber. By replacing some of a dog’s regular meal, dogs are filled up on a low calorie food that is easily passed through their digestive systems.

There are a variety of methods out there to aid in your dog or cats’ weight loss goals. Before starting any plan, it’s best to get current weight measurements and advice from a knowledgeable professional.

Fortunately, for the animals at Chicagoland’s largest Humane Society, a generous donor gave about fifty rolls of fleece to help out the animals. At our house, free hours are spent sewing dog beds for their kenneled dogs on the adoption floor.

Making a dog bed is simple to do…

For a 4’x4’ dog bed… (The directions can be altered for different size crates and kennels and for cat beds.)

Things you’ll need:

• 3 Yards of Fleece
• Thread
• Sewing Machine

1. Start by laying out your fabric, it should be approximately 9’x5’ so the floor of an empty room, or a large table will be the best workplace.

2. Fold the fabric width wise, with right sides together.

3. Sew on 3 sides from fold to fold, leaving about a 10” opening in the middle. (It’s important to use 6” seam allowances because it will add more padding, and allows the topstitch in the next step to close the bed, eliminating a step in the process. Dogs in shelters experience a lot of distress and separation anxiety, so many are prone to chewing. Because of the cleaning methods and draining system in a lot of shelters, it’s not recommended that stuffing is used because of the mess it makes.)

4. Turn the bed right side out through the 10” opening you left in the previous step.

5. Topstitch around the ENTIRE bed (including the folded side) about 2-3” from the edge.

6. Enjoy your dog’s new bed!

7. Repeat and donate to a local shelter.