Looking back on all the dog food recall stories of the past few years, I set out in search of an answer to that question. We have a little terrier named Precious, and indeed she is precious to us. I wanted to be sure she was getting a diet that would keep her healthy.

I should explain that Precious isn’t really my dog. Her master is my good friend and housemate. He loves her, but I knew that what he knew about food could be written on the tip of one doggie toenail.

How do I know this? I watched what he ate. If he didn’t know any better than to feed himself junk food, how could I expect him to know what was good for his dog?

For a long time I stayed out of it. I watched, but followed a path of non-interference. Until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I thought long and hard about how to approach this issue with him, how to let him know that his dog needed better nutrition without offending him.

As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. He was highly receptive to my suggestions. His only concern was that he didn’t want to have to figure out what to feed her. As long as I was willing to do that, he was willing to listen.

So… I started a research project. I read everything I could find on the subject, online and offline. I even put together an ebook, Doggie Eats, to make what I learned available to other pet parents concerned about choosing the right food for their dogs.

But I didn’t just research the topic. I also conducted my own lab experiments, with Precious as my guinea dog.

Don’t get me wrong. I am unequivocally opposed to animal experimentation in the usual sense.

No animals were harmed in my laboratory. I already had a baseline: reading the label, I saw that what Precious had been eating was indeed junk food.

My research confirmed what I was already pretty sure of: namely, that what dogs need more than anything else is protein. The average dog should be eating a food that is at least 18% protein.

I looked at the label of the canned food Precious had been eating: 0% protein! Omigosh.

I went to the pet food store and looked. Most canned foods contained 8% or less protein; the highest protein content I found in any of them was 10%. And the kibbles were no better.

In the course of my research I learned that although protein is important, dogs are not strictly carnivorous. They require a small component of vegetables and fruits, which in the wild they get from eating the stomachs of their prey.

But they don’t need grains. In fact, wheat and other grains are often at the root of canine problems like skin conditions, digestive tract upset, and a variety of allergic reactions.

In case you haven’t read the label on a can of processed dog food recently, most of them are composed chiefly of grains. Oops!

But dog food recall has nothing to do with protein content, or with grains that can make a dog sick. The mere fact that a food hasn’t been recalled doesn’t mean it constitutes a healthful diet.

So… what facts did I unearth in my research that will help you choose the best food for your dog?

1. Raw food is more nutritious than cooked food.
2. Raw foods come in two forms: dehydrated and frozen.
3. You can prepare your own raw food, but it takes time and attention to detail. Just grinding up a steak will not give your dog a balanced diet.
4. If you don’t want to go raw, or if your dog doesn’t tolerate raw food, there ARE grain-free canned and kibbled foods with decent protein content and a vegetable/fruit component.

So… even if you’re not a raw food enthusiast, you can still give your dog a reasonably healthful food. And some dogs, so I hear, do not do well on a raw diet. (They say the same about people. I don’t know whether it’s true or not.)

And if you’re really into raw food, you can make your own.

The middle path would be to buy raw, either dehydrated or frozen.

So okay, you knew there was more to think about than dog food recall. But I do hope this article has given you some useful information you weren’t aware of. For more detailed insight into how to pick the best food for your dog, I recommend you read my book, Doggie Eats. It normally sells for $9.97, but right now, for a limited time… you can download it here for free.

What if it was one of those Pet Dreams memory foam orthopedic dog beds? Would you consider it then?

Probably not. But you may be one of the millions of people around the world who let their dogs sleep in their bed with them.

As a kid, I always let my dog sleep with me. In fact, you might say I considered it an honor. My dog Nippy was my best friend, and I would have gone searching for her if she didn’t come to bed with me.

As an adult, I find the idea of having a dog sleep with me far less attractive than I did back then. But it would be better, I’m sure, than crawling in with the pooch… even if he’s snuggled up in one of those Pet Dreams memory foam orthopedic dog beds!

In a recent article titled “Pets In Your Bed” published on WebMD.com, Sandy Eckstein explores what doctors have to say about the health aspects of bedding down with Rover between the sheets. You may be surprised. I was, a little….

Pets In Your Bed

When Ingrid and Shea Armour brought their new Weimaraner puppy, Cooper, home in August 2006, they were determined to keep him off their bed. So they bought a dog crate, with a bed and fluffy blankets to ensure he had a warm, comfy place to sleep.

Cooper, however, had other ideas.

The first night he whined, yelped, howled, and cried. The Armours made it six hours before their resolve broke and little Cooper was out of the crate and in their bed, where he remained for the next two years.

“He’d sleep between us, under the covers, with his head on the pillow,” Ingrid Armour says. “He thought he was human.”

Who’s Sleeping With Their Pets?

Sleeping with pets isn’t unusual in this country. According to a recent survey of pet owners by the American Pet Products Association, nearly half of dogs sleep in their owner’s beds. The survey found that 62% of small dogs, 41% of medium-sized dogs and 32% of large dogs sleep with their owners.

The survey also found that 62% of cats sleep with their adult owners, and another 13% of cats sleep with children.

Is It Healthy to Sleep with Pets?

So is it healthy to have your dog sleeping in your bed? Derek Damin of Kentuckiana Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in Louisville, Ky., says people who suffer from pet allergies or asthma should not sleep with their dog or cat or even allow them in the bedroom.

“Use a HEPA filter and keep them out of the bedroom to give your nose a few hours a day to recover,” Damin says.

But Damin says most pet lovers won’t kick Fido out of bed, even if they discover their pets are causing allergy problems. For those people he recommends allergy shots to build up a tolerance to the pet dander that causes allergic reactions.

“But if you’re not allergic, there’s really no big issue with having a dog in the bed,” says Damin, who for years shared his bed with his miniature dachshund. “It’s fine as long as it doesn’t disturb your sleep.”

Snoring, Kicking, Cover-Hogging Pets

Which brings up another problem with sharing your bed with a pet – they can disturb your sleep. A study released by the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center found that about half the patients in the study had a dog or cat, and 53% of those pet owners said their pets disturbed their sleep in some way nightly.

“I’ve had patients that I’ve spent visit after visit going over their insomnia problems, trying to figure out what’s happening, then I find out they have a dog that’s scratching all night,” says Lisa Shives, MD, medical director of Northshore Sleep Medicine, a sleep center outside Chicago.

Shives recommends that people who have difficulty sleeping consider keeping pets out of the bedroom.

Can Pets Help Sleep?

But for people with no problem falling or staying asleep, Shives says it’s fine to allow a dog or cat in the bed.

“There are all kinds of medical benefits to having a pet,” says Shives, who sleeps with her 45-pound dog. “And some people might feel safer or calmer with a dog in their bed.”

Candace Hunziker of Kennesaw, Ga, says that’s exactly why she sleeps with her Labrador retriever mix, P.

“She sleeps against me and she has very rhythmic breathing and it just puts me out,” Hunziker says. “I have insomnia, my whole family does, and we all sleep with dogs. She puts me to sleep better than an Ambien.”

What About Sex?

And then there’s the whole matter of intimacy, with a pet in the bed. Can it interfere with your sex life? That depends, say Elizabeth and Charles Schmitz, love and marriage experts who wrote “Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage.”

“Many, many of our successful couples have pets and many sleep with them,” Elizabeth Schmitz says.

But how they deal with the issue of intimacy varies, she says.

“Some put them outside the bedroom because they don’t want them to watch,” she says. “Some give them a treat to distract them. Some don’t mind if the pet stays on the bed.”

Charles Schmitz says the biggest issue is how both people feel about the pet being there.

“If one person is fine with the dog, but the other isn’t, then you’ve got a problem,” he says. “You absolutely have to talk about it and make sure both people are comfortable with the situation.”

And it’s also important that pets don’t physically come between a couple at night, they say.

“The snuggling and the holding and the touching is critical,” Elizabeth Schmitz says. “It’s one of the seven secrets of a successful marriage. It’s more important than sex.”

Getting a Cat Out of Your Bed

And even when people finally make the hard decision to eject their pet from the bed, most find it’s not an easy task.

Ingrid Johnson, a veterinary technician and consultant on feline behavior at a clinic in Marietta, Ga., says she advises clients to never let their cat in their bedroom if they don’t want to sleep with the cat. She says for cats it’s all or nothing, so the door must always be open to them, or never open to them.

“If you suddenly shut a cat out of the bedroom, they can get very frustrated and start displaying destructive behavior,” Johnson says. “Cats don’t react well if you take away territory.”

But if a cat that sleeps with its owner must suddenly be banned, Johnson recommends giving the cat something else to do at night. Try giving kitty foraging toys to play with that feed her kibble, or put a cat condo by a window with a light outside.

“All the moths and bugs flying around the light right outside that window is like reality TV for cats,” she says.

Getting a Dog Out of Your Bed

Internationally known dog trainer Victoria Stilwell says if your dog has no behavioral problems then it’s OK to let him sleep in your bed. In fact, from the dog’s standpoint, it’s a compliment.

“Dogs only sleep with people or dogs they trust,” says Stilwell, star of the TV show “It’s Me or the Dog.”

But, she says, aggressive or dominant dogs should not be allowed on beds. And if pets become a problem, they have to get off the bed.

That was the case with a couple that Stillwell worked with who slept with three giant, male mastiffs. One of the dogs started lunging at their toddler when she approached the bed, so Stilwell bought three extra large dog beds and taught the dogs to get off the bed on command.

“Make it a game to get off the bed, using lots of praise and petting,” Stilwell says. “They get no attention on the bed. Only on the floor.”

After a while, when the dogs were ordered off the bed, they got down, although Stilwell says it was at least two weeks before the dogs didn’t attempt to get back on the bed.

“You’re going to have a few sleepless nights,” she says, “but you’ve got to stick with it.” 

Cooper and Otis 

That was the case with the Armours, whose dog, Cooper, had slept with them since he was eight weeks old. When Cooper was two, they adopted Otis, another Weimaraner. Ingrid Armour said two 90-pound dogs just weren’t going to work in their bed. So they placed two dog beds on the floor at the foot of their bed and put the dogs in them.  

For Otis, it was fine, Ingrid Armour said. Not so with Cooper.

“The first night, he just sat in his bed and gave us the evil eye,” Armour says.

For the first three nights, Cooper tried to get into their bed every 10 minutes. After that, for at least a month, he’d wait until they fell asleep, then climb into bed with them.

“We finally got a water bottle and squirted him when he tried to get into bed with us,” Ingrid says. “It was a 3-month process to get them to sleep in their own beds, but we’re worthless unless we get 8 hours sleep, so we had to get this under control. Now we all get a good night’s sleep.”

SOURCES: Ingrid and Shea Armour, owners of Weimaraners Otis and Cooper, Panama City Beach, Fla.; 

Ingrid Johnson, veterinary technician and consultant on feline behavior, Marietta, Ga.; American Pet Products Association, a not-for-profit trade association of pet product manufacturers and importers, 2009/2010 National Pet Owners Survey; 

Derek Damin, MD, allergist at Kentuckiana Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; assistant clinical professor of medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Ky.; 

Lisa Shives, MD, medical director of Northshore Sleep Medicine, Evanston, Ill.; 

Candace Hunziker, owner of P, a Labrador Retriever mix, Kennesaw, Ga.; 

Elizabeth Schmitz, PhD, president of Successful Marriage Reflections, LLC; co-author of Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage and Building A Love That Lasts; 

Charles Schmitz, PhD, dean and professor of counseling and family therapy, University of Missouri-St. Louis; co-author of Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage and Building A Love That Lasts; 

Victoria Stilwell, dog trainer, star of the television show “It’s Me or the Dog” and author of It’s Me or the Dog: How to Have the Perfect Pet.

Original article source: WebMD.com; http://pets.webmd.com/features/pets-in-your-bed, Nov. 13, 2011.

So, while I prefer to keep the dog out of my sleeping environment, I see that there’s really no medical evidence that I should. I don’t have allergies. And a dog between the sheets just might mean I wouldn’t need the electric blanket. Whaddaya think?

If you love animals and reading (or writing) about pets, click here to join us. Your FREE membership will bring you the Pet Writes inbox magazine, filled with a stream of tender original stories.

You’ll also find useful and often novel approaches to dealing with a wide variety of pet-related issues. I’ll be covering everything from how to start with pet rescue adoption to how to write a best selling pet book.

Who knows? You may have a great story about how you got your pooch out of your bed and into one of those Pet Dreams memory foam orthopedic dog beds! No? Well, I’ll bet you have some great pet stories in you. Let me help you get them out!

Hi, I’m Chiwah Carol Slater, your guide to PetWrites.com.

Like you, I love animals. These days I share my home with a cute little terrier, a pet rescue adoption arranged through a friend. She and the host of dogs, cats, goats, rats, birds, and horses with whom I’ve shared my life have brought me an untold wealth of love, fun, heartache and joy.

I’m sure your pets have done the same for you.

“My” animals taught me that it was really they who took care of me, at least as much as I took care of them.

It all started with Nippy, a black cocker spaniel pup we found at the pet rescue adoption center (we called it “the pound”) when I was six. I don’t recall how she came to us. From a shelter, I suppose. Or maybe from a neighbor whose dog had birthed a batch of new pups.

For three years, Nippy shared my bed, my play, my heart. And for that, all I did was feed her out of a can, twice a day! And give her water.

I confess I cheated a bit on the water, rinsing her dish only every other time.

In return, Nippy put up with my wrapping those little green rubber bands that came on the morning newspaper around her nose.

She loved me through wads of peanut butter stuffed into her mouth, and didn’t seem to mind my laughing as she contorted her tongue and lips in an effort to unstick her teeth.

She walked me to school every morning and met me to walk me home in the afternoons.

And she snuggled close to comfort me on dark, scary nights when big shadows moved about the room.

She was the family dog, but she was my best friend.

I admired the sheen of her wavy coat in the sun’s rays. I bathed daily in the sea of warm brown love streaming from her eyes. And when she lifted a paw to my shoulder, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she “got” me to the core.

She never barked. (None of my dogs have been barkers.) She never complained, not even when we sat on her back and goaded her forward. She had the softest belly!

She wasn’t perfect. As a pup, she nipped at our heels. Hence her name. And if my sister couldn’t find her left blue slipper, we all knew Nippy had hauled it away and that when we found it it would be wet and gooey.

The day Nippy had puppies under my parents’ bed, my awe was unending. So wet and warm and squeaky… six little Nippies, two of them with white on their chests just like their mama.

 Other animals had come and gone in my life, each leaving its own mark on my heart. None of them has eclipsed my love for my childhood black spaniel soulmate.

Some of my most beloved pets came to me through pet rescue adoption centers. How can you know whether you should you should try it? Consider the following:

The most important thing in choosing the right pet is how the animal relates to you. Even if you’re buying for breed, would you want to live with an animal who didn’t open your heart? Rescue centers and breeders both have loving dogs, but you won’t relate to all of them. So take your time. Go to a rescue center, and go to a breeder. Feel them both out and then decide.

If you’re thinking you want a particular breed, it’s just possible the right dog may be sitting at your local rescue center. Most of the pedigreed dogs that end up in rescue centers are never picked up by their original families.

If it’s the pedigree that matters to you, go to a breeder. You won’t get papers from a shelter.

On the other hand, if you’re a softie who would delight in saving the life of a healthy, good-natured dog, head out for the nearest shelter. Every time you look into your pet’s eyes, you’ll be so glad you did.

PetWrites.com is intended as a haven for the animal lover in you, and offers you a special opportunity if you are also a lover of words. I invite you to explore upcoming posts for solutions to your pet challenges. And feel free to express the emotions your own pet stories bring up for you.

The “Your Own Pet Stories” section is devoted specifically to this purpose. Email your stories to chiwah@petwrites.com. Please attach a photo (.jpeg or .png) if you have one. I can’t promise to print every story, but I will email you back and I will print those that I can.

If you love animals and stories about animals, click here to become a PetWrites.com member. Your FREE membership will bring you a stream of tender original stories. You’ll also find useful and often novel approaches to dealing with a wide variety of pet-related issues. From how to start with pet rescue adoption to buying drugs on the internet for your pet to how to write a best selling pet book.

I hope you’ll return and become an active participant in the site.

The short answer, of course, is YES.

Why?

The short answer to that is that even the most mundane-appearing medications can affect animals in ways you wouldn’t expect. (For that matter, they can have unpredictable effects on humans, too.)

Do you really want just the short answer? Too bad if you do. You’ve come to the philosopher’s bone. Your reward? A little applied philosophy to chew on.

I know a man I’ll call Marty (not his real name) whose cat, Soupy, was feeling mopey the other day. Just not herself. Marty picked her up and held her, and she sat there unmoving. Not like her. Soupy was a spunky cat.

Marty loves his cat. She’s been with him through thick and thin. Soupy is always there, rubbing against his leg while he works. If he’s feeling bad, she senses it and climbs up into his lap to comfort him.

When Soupy starts feeling bad, Marty gets nervous. He can’t stand to watch her suffer.

So what did he do? He did what he does for himself when he’s not feeling so hot. He gave his cat a half-tablet of Aspirin, hoping it would ease whatever was bothering her. Did she have a headache? He couldn’t tell. But it was just aspirin, right? So at least it would do no harm.

An hour later, Soupy vomited. She hadn’t eaten much at her morning feeding, but what she had eaten spilled out onto the rug.

Now Marty had a bigger problem. Not only was his cat sick, and getting sicker; his wife was upset at the new spot on the rug, too.

When it happened again after she ate a little something at noon, Marty’s wife insisted that he call a vet. The vet told him to bring Soupy in, and a sample of her stool. So he did.

After running a few basic tests, the vet announced she’d found blood in Soupy’s urine. When she asked a few questions and learned that he had administered aspirin, she congratulated him for bringing her in and explained that aspirin can cause severe seizures in a cat, and even death.

Marty was horrified. He watched as she induced vomiting and administered activated charcoal to absorb whatever acetylsalic acid might remain in her system. She kept the cat for a couple of days to administer IV fluids to balance out Soupy’s electrolytes, and gave her a little sodium bicarb to alkalize her urine.

Today Marty picked Soupy up at the vet, a few hundred dollars poorer but a happy man. Soupy is her old self again.

It might not have turned out that way, the vet told him, had he waited any longer to bring her in. (Marty’s taking his wife to dinner tonight to show his appreciation for making him take the cat to the vet.)

So… the question remains: What would YOU have done if your beloved pet was moping around, depleted of energy? Here are some simple suggestions:

1) Watch and wait. It might just pass.
2) If it doesn’t, ask a vet what you should do.
3) Refrain from administering any medications, even aspirin, on your own.

To learn more about when you need to call a vet and how to buy drugs for your pet online, I suggest reading a bulletin put out by the FDA: Purchasing Pet Drugs Online: Buyer Beware. You’ll receive it automatically with your FREE PetWrites membership. Click here to join.

As part of your free PetWrites membership, you’ll also receive frequent updates on natural and homeopathic pet aids, which are often as effective as drugs (and sometimes more effective), and free of side effects.

Humans have a lot of ideas about what goes with what, what’s normal, and all that. But I have an inkling those are just ideas. Nature does as she pleases without asking our permission, and sometimes she comes up with an inspiring combination.

One such poignant combination was recently pointed out by Carolyn Resnick, creator of The Carolyn Resnick Method and Liberty Horse Training.

I’ve excerpted that story for you here. If you like it, I invite you to click here to become a PetWrites.com member and receive regular mind- and heart-opening pet articles.

Here’s the excerpt from her site:

A Visit from a Friend

I got another visit from our sparrow. Again, I asked Maestro to canter around me and upon his first step into the canter, here came his friend flying onto his back from some unknown place. This was the second time this little bird has done this when I began training. He flew away when Maestro came to me. I scared the bird off his back, from me being too close to him. The little sparrow has joined the horses and rides all of them daily. I have watched him for some time and the only reason he seems to want to sit on the horses is that it is fun. He eats from the ground with the horses and sits on them with no interest in picking bugs off them. Usually I see sparrows in groups, but we do not have any other sparrows on our ranch right now.

Sometimes the horses try to shoo him off their backs, but he will not go. I have seen the horses flinging their heads violently in the bird’s direction when he is on their backs and he just hops a few inches to safety on another part of the horses back. The horses then forget he is there and go on with their day. The horses do not scare him at all. When he is on the ground with them, their moving feet are inches from him and he is fine with that. However, I cannot get 10 feet from him before he will choose to fly away. I get the crazy idea that evolution will change him and he will become friendlier to us. I envision that he could evolve riding on us as well.

Original source: www.carolynresnickblog.com/2011/10

So… why do I think a sparrow and a horse are such a wonderful example of odd animal pairs? Maybe it’s because the sparrow seems to be just out for a good ride. He’s in it for the fun of it. Sure, the horses consider him a pest, but as long as he doesn’t bother them they’ll let him hang with them.

He’s a gutsy little fellow. If you’ve ever spent any time around horse hooves, you know how big and sharp and menacing they can be, even to a human. But he is not intimidated. He’s going for it!

So, go for it! If you were to something gutsy today, just for the fun of it, what would it be? Let us know in a comment at the end of this post. And click here to become a member of PetWrites.com and receive more messages like this one.