As I discussed in this video and article, while many celebrities are tremendously talented at certain things, making species-appropriate pet food hasn't yet proved to be one of them.

Celebrity branding is a very popular and successful marketing tool.

But it's important to keep in mind that product such-and-so isn't necessarily of high quality just because a celebrity says it is.

In the case of Halo pet food, not only is Ellen DeGeneres its celebrity endorser, she's also a co-owner.

As DeGeneres' legions of fans are well aware, she seems to genuinely care for animals and is an influential advocate for pet-related causes.

That's why the recent reports that Ellen is developing a vegan line of pet food alarm me.

Not only is DeGeneres hugely popular as a comedian, actress, author and talk show host, she's also admired as an animal advocate.

As such, my concern is that her creation of a vegan dog food could persuade pet owners to remove animal protein from the diets of their carnivorous canine companions.

This move has the potential to compromise the health of countless dogs – precious pets who depend on their humans to provide the right kind of nutrition for their biological needs.

I Know I'm Repeating Myself, but … DOGS ARE CARNIVORES

As regular visitors to MercolaHealthyPets.com know, I discuss the subject of nutrition for dogs and cats in the vast majority of videos and articles here on the site.

The reason I bring up the subject so often and in such detail is because nutrition supplies the very foundation upon which the fundamentals of health, vigor, longevity and quality of life are built. The right nutrition provides a rock-solid foundation for every other aspect of an animal's existence.

Conversely, the wrong nutrition contributes to a weak, shaky foundation – one that at a minimum will not enhance your pet's vitality or lifespan. And one that worst case, can destroy a dog's or cat's well-being and quality of life, sometimes rapidly … sometimes in small, agonizing increments.

Both cats and dogs are carnivores. However, felines are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat to sustain life.

Dogs are scavenging carnivores. In general terms this means they are primarily meat-eaters, but can survive on plant material alone if necessary. The key word here is 'survive.' To survive is not to thrive. To thrive is grow vigorously … to flourish. To survive means simply to stay alive.

One of the arguments for feeding dogs vegetarian diets seems to be the distinction between obligate and scavenging carnivores. It's assumed, since dogs aren't strict carnivores like cats are, they can easily transition to a vegetarian diet (or in Halo's case, a vegan diet) at the whim of the humans who care for them.

In fact, I often see dogs referred to as omnivores rather than carnivores. I strongly disagree with this assumption. Just because dogs fed plant-based diets are able to stay alive doesn't make them omnivores.

It makes them carnivores with no choice but to eat a biologically inappropriate, suboptimal diet.

The Teeth of a Carnivore

Look into your dog's mouth.

Note the size and shape of his teeth. They're organized somewhat like scissors so he can quickly tear through the hide, meat and bone of prey animals. Those teeth are designed to rip, shred and shear animal meat. His molars are pointed, not flat.

Now look in your own mouth at your molars. See how large and flat they are? Humans are omnivores, and our teeth are designed more for grinding up plant matter.

Black bears, true omnivores, are another interesting example for comparison. They have both sharp, meat-tearing teeth and wide, flat molars. Dogs have no flat molars because nature didn't intend for them to eat plants.

The teeth of animals are specifically devised for the food they are born to eat.

The Jaws of a Carnivore

Your dog also has powerful jaw and neck muscles that aid in pulling down and consuming prey. The jaws open widely to accommodate large hunks of meat and bone.

Your dog's jaw is designed not to move laterally when prey is fighting against it. It allows only up and down movement designed for crushing.

In contrast, omnivores and herbivores have jaws that permit the lateral motion necessary for grinding plant material.

The Digestion of a Carnivore

Your dog has an expandable stomach which can hold large quantities of meat, organs, bone and animal hide.

Her stomach is short and simple in design, meant to move food through quickly.

Plant matter and veggies need more time to break down in the GI tract, which requires a different, more complex digestive design than your dog's body possesses. That's why whole vegetables tend to come out of your pet looking very much like they did going in.

Your dog's body also doesn't make the necessary enzymes in her saliva to begin to break down carbs and starches. Herbivores and omnivores make those enzymes, but not carnivores.

Because there are no salivary enzymes available to handle carbs and starches, it falls to the pancreas to produce enough enzymes to deal with the contents of plant matter. Over time, the extra strain on the pancreas can compromise its ability to function properly.

Your dog's pancreas is designed to produce only the amount of enzymes necessary to process fats and protein.

Dogs also don't produce the varieties of gut bacteria that break down cellulose and starch in plant matter. This means most of the nutrients in plants are useless in terms of nourishing your dog.

The Palate of a Carnivore

Most dogs don't care for the taste of vegetable-based dog foods, which is certainly more evidence of their carnivorous nature.

In order to make these foods more palatable, it is common for pet food manufacturers to add flavor enhancers like liver or other meat flavors, garlic, and fat.

There are also meat and poultry-flavored digests, made from animal byproducts, which can be added to non-meat diets to entice dogs to eat them. Of course, adding one of these digests means the meal is no longer vegetarian/vegan.

Nutrition for a Carnivore

Dogs require 22 essential amino acids to handle all their metabolic and energy requirements, but their bodies are only able to produce 12 of the 22. The other 10 must come from the food they eat.

Herbivores, with their multiple stomachs and lengthy GI tracts, are able to produce amino acids in huge numbers.

But dogs, with their short, simple digestive tracts can't accomplish this feat and must obtain preformed amino acids directly from their diet.

In addition, a dog's protein sources should provide a wide spectrum of amino acids. The protein sources with wide-spectrum amino acid profiles include beef, bison, chicken, eggs, fish, lamb, turkey, duck, venison, elk and goat.

Protein is a crucial component of every cell in your dog's body. Essential amino acids from high quality animal protein build healthy cells, organs, muscles, enzymes and hormones.

Dietary fat provides energy, essential vitamins and fatty acids. Fatty acids from animal sources are important for healing, normal cell membrane synthesis, reproduction and a healthy coat and skin.

Allowing for Nature's Design

Since carnivorous canines don't have a natural appetite for plant material, don't care for the smell or taste of it, and can't chew or digest it efficiently, how does it make sense to force them to eat non-meat diets?

Does it make sense to feed a biologically inappropriate commercial pet food with added flavor enhancers and digestive aids, when you can feed your dog whole, unprocessed, species-appropriate nutrition?

Is it intelligent or humane to dismiss nature's design for our canine companions in favor of a human belief system that supports vegetarianism or veganism?

I don't think it is.

I'm a vegetarian. Many of my Natural Pet clients and pet-loving friends and associates don't eat animal products. But we feed animal products to our dogs and cats because we have witnessed first-hand what it means to the well-being of our beloved pets to be nourished as nature intended.

If you can't tolerate the thought of feeding meat to a pet who is a carnivore, I strongly encourage you to acquire a pet that will thrive on a plant-based diet instead.

"Like women, female dogs in our study had a distinct survival advantage over males," said the lead researcher David J. Waters, associate director of Purdue University's Center on Aging and the Life Course and a professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences. "But taking away ovaries during the first four years of life completely erased the female survival advantage. We found that female rottweilers that kept their ovaries for at least six years were four times more likely to reach exceptional longevity compared to females who had the shortest lifetime ovary exposure."

Because death from cancer is so prevalent in rottweilers, researchers conducted a subgroup analysis of only dogs that did not die of cancer. This focused research further proved the strong association between intact ovaries and longevity.

Even in dogs that did not die of cancer, the female rotties that kept their ovaries the longest were nine times more likely to achieve exceptional longevity (13+ years).

Simply put, study results indicate removal of a dog’s ovaries significantly increases the risk for a major lethal disease.

Interestingly, the rottweiler research lines up with findings from another recent study of women who had undergone hysterectomies. In that study, women who lost their ovaries prior to age 50 were at greater risk of death by causes other than breast, ovarian and uterine cancer than women who kept their ovaries until age 50.

In a study of 24 shelter dogs published in Current Biology, the goal was to determine if dogs with separation-related behaviors have underlying mood disorders which also affect other aspects of their conduct.

According to the New York Times:

They placed the dogs in isolated settings and observed their reactions — many barked, jumped on furniture and scratched at the door.

Then they placed bowls in two rooms. One bowl contained food, while another was empty. After training the dogs to understand that bowls can sometimes be empty, and sometimes full, they began to place bowls in ambiguous locations.

"Dogs that ran fast to these ambiguous locations, as if expecting the positive food reward, were classed as making relatively 'optimistic' decisions. Interestingly, these dogs tended to be the ones who also showed least anxiety-like behavior when left alone for a short time," said Professor Mike Mendl of Bristol University, who led the research.

The researchers concluded the more separation anxiety a dog exhibits when left alone by his owner, the more likely it is he suffers from an underlying, generally negative mood.

According to Professor Mendl, “We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively.”

"What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs – that a 'glass-half-full' dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one with a more 'pessimistic' nature," Mendl said.

These results could prove valuable in understanding how to better help dogs with behavior problems as a way not only to improve their quality of life, but also to reduce the number of troubled canines relinquished to shelters.

Dr. Becker's Comments:

It seems there are two ways to look at the issue of a ‘pessimistic’ dog.

Most of the media in the U.K., where the study was done, approached the subject from the perspective of human genetics, as though a certain percentage of dogs are born with a natural tendency to view life negatively.

In this country, however, writer Elizabeth Lopatto of Bloomberg.com whose article on the University of Bristol study was picked up by several other U.S. media outlets, dug a little deeper, conducting a telephone interview with one of the researchers. 

According to Emily Blackwell, an animal behaviorist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and an author of the study, dogs with separation anxiety misbehave because they weren’t trained as youngsters to know that being alone isn’t something to be concerned about.

“The process of training a dog to know how to behave, called socialization, is best done during puppyhood,” Blackwell said. And she adds that although proper training of an adult dog can extinguish bad behavior, it’s a lot more work and effort to train an older pet.

Writer Lopatto also talked with the director of the Pets at Risk program for the Humane Society of the U.S., Adam Goldfarb, who feels the University of Bristol study shows a direct link between poorly or unsocialized dogs and a negative attitude about life.

“This tells us something that isn’t reflected in the way every dog is cared for,” Goldfarb said in a telephone interview. “A dog who is being destructive is a dog whose needs aren’t being met.”

So Which is It … Nature or Nurture?

In my experience as both a dog owner and veterinarian, there is almost always a reason for a dog’s inappropriate behavior or inability to adapt to certain situations.

You may never discover what the reason is, especially with a pet that arrives in your life as an adult dog, well past the formative stage. But if your beloved pooch has separation anxiety or another unfortunate behavior, odds are something happened — or didn’t happen – to create and reinforce it.

If you’re dealing with a case of separation anxiety in your pup, I recommend you read What to Do If Your Dog Panics When You Leave. You’ll find helpful advice and tips you can begin to implement today to get the problem under control.

If you’ve just added a puppy to the family or are planning to, I hope you’ll read The Critical Importance of Socializing Your Puppy. Nothing you can do for your new little four-legged family member is as important as insuring she’s properly socialized at the right time in her puppyhood, which is before she reaches 14 to 16 weeks. Continued training and socialization should occur well into your dog’s first year of life.

Resources for Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

There are literally millions of precious dogs in the world with varying degrees of separation anxiety or other behavior problems that need to be resolved for the sake of the animals and their families or other caretakers.

Behavior problems are the number one reason dogs are relinquished to shelters. It breaks my heart to see a new dog parent of a shelter or rescued pet look helplessly on as their frightened, or aggressive, or hyper, or oblivious dog acts in ways they have no idea how to cope with.

Lots of daily exercise, species-appropriate food and calming herbs and flower essences can help, but these steps won’t cure a deep-seated behavior issue. Most of these dogs need professional, positive help. And the sooner you address a pup’s behavior issue, the more successful you’ll be at managing the condition.

If you have a dog with behavior problems or are considering offering a forever home to an adult dog with a less-than-ideal history, please don’t be discouraged!

There’s a great deal of help available out there for dog parents who need to ‘teach an old dog new tricks.’

The following is a short list of resources I think you’ll find useful, and please accept my personal thanks for opening your heart and home to a pet that needs a little extra help to become the perfect dog for your family.

The Canine Behavior Series

Dog Training Tips

Training an Adult Dog

• Tufts University Animal Behavior Clinic – Explains the role of animal and veterinary behaviorists and what they can do for you.
• American College of Veterinary Behaviorists — You can sort the directory alphabetically by city or state to quickly locate an animal behaviorist in your area.
• Animal Behavior Society — A directory of Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (CAABs). Many of these experts have websites and do phone and online consultations.
• DiamondsintheRuff.com – Offers a great article on the importance of early puppy socialization.
• The following are links to dozens of behavior-related articles at VeterinaryPartner.com, which is the public website of the Veterinary Information Network, an invaluable online resource for veterinary professionals.

By Dr. Becker

Most dog owners are at some point faced with a problem behavior in their otherwise adorable four-legged buddy.

When a troubling behavior arises in your pet, the first thing you should do is make an appointment with your vet to rule out an underlying physical cause for the behavior.

Pain can create or exacerbate undesirable behavior in animals.

So can a metabolic disorder, which is any disruption of the conversion of food to energy at the cellular level.

Examples of metabolic disorders include diabetes, Addison's disease, Cushing's syndrome, and hypo- or hyperthyroidism.

If a health problem is identified, it should of course be treated.

Only then will you know whether you're dealing with a true behavior problem or behavior resulting from a physical cause.

Once medical problems are either ruled out or resolved, undesirable behaviors can be addressed.

Identifying the Problem Behavior and Its Triggers

The next step is to identify the problem behavior, how often it occurs, how severe it is, and what triggers it.

Let's say your large dog gets very excited when guests come to visit and jumps up on them as his way of saying hello.

• Problem behavior: jumping up on people.
• Frequency: every time someone unfamiliar comes to the door.
• Severity: dog cannot be restrained; guests are pawed, scratched, licked, in danger of being tripped or knocked down.
• Trigger: visitors to your home.

Next Step: Avoiding the Triggers

Initially what you must do in a situation like the one above — since you can't remove the trigger — is remove your dog from the triggering situation. This means you'll need to put your dog in another room or the backyard before you open the door to guests.

This strategy as a first step helps your guests stay safe and stops the problem behavior from escalating.

The ultimate goal is to help your dog extinguish problem behaviors. But behavior modification training must be done when your pet is calm, because dogs don't learn well in a highly aroused state. Initial behavior modification efforts should take place outside the presence of the triggering event.

In the meantime, your focus should be on avoiding the triggers that provoke your dog's problem behavior so you can move forward safely and sanely with positive reinforcement behavior modification techniques.

Trigger Avoidance with Aggressive Dogs

If your pet is aggressive toward other dogs, places where lots of dogs gather should be avoided.

When you walk a dog-aggressive dog, try to steer clear of areas where there are other dogs, and pick times of day when few dogs are being walked. Find places to walk where you're not apt to encounter other dogs. And make sure your own energy is calm and relaxed on walks, because your dog will pick up on your mood.

When you do come upon another dog, create space between your dog and the other one, and keep your dog in control. Head collars can help, and avoid retractable leashes. Use a set-length leash for improved control.

If your dog is aggressive toward you or other family members, the first order of business is to take common-sense steps to prevent injury to the humans involved.

Identifying which situations seem to trigger your pet's aggressiveness is important. If your dog is aggressive at meal time, she should be fed in a quiet spot, and needless to say, she should not be disturbed while eating.

If she's aggressive when awakened, don't allow her to snooze on furniture, and if you need to wake her, call her from a distance.

If her aggression appears during a particular game you play with her, avoid the game.

If your dog is aggressive toward visitors, your first priority is to keep guests safe. Secure your dog in another area before allowing visitors into your home or yard. If you have a lot of visitors or your dog is hard to catch, leave a leash either by the door or on your pet to improve your control over the situation.

Trigger Avoidance with a Territorial Dog

If your dog snarls, growls or barks excessively looking out a window or door, or from behind your backyard fence, you'll need to block either his visual or physical access.

Close the blinds, close the door, or restrict your pet's access to the room or the fenced area where he becomes territorial.

If you have more than one dog and they fight, it's often a territorial behavior problem. Separate the dogs at meal time and maintain control over toys and any other triggers you've identified.

You might also choose to use leashes or head collars at home to have better control when a fight starts.

Managing a Destructive Dog

First, remove all temptations (also known as avoiding triggers). If your dog gets into the garbage, place it behind a cabinet door with a lock or in another hard-to-reach spot.

If your dog counter surfs, make sure no food is left out. If she chews up shoes, items of clothing or other belongings, make sure she doesn't have access to those things.

Provide your pet with plenty of exercise, attention, and toys that are mentally stimulating.

Crate train your dog and tuck her in there when there's no one available to supervise her behavior.

If she's eliminating indoors, review and implement house-training techniques.

Managing Your Own Response to Problem Behaviors

When your dog is actively engaged in a problem behavior, your response must be calm and controlled.

Try to remove your pet from the situation if it's safe to do so, or remove the trigger. Failing that, calmly try to redirect your dog's attention with a command he normally responds to, or attempt to distract him with a food treat, a favorite toy, a walk or a ride in the car.

Remember, you're only using these diversionary tactics to avert potential disaster. Doing so at every turn will only reinforce the behavior you ultimately hope to extinguish.

All you want to do in the heat of the moment is not make the situation worse. When your dog is highly aroused, upset and reacting with undesirable behavior, it is not the time to attempt to train him.

Punishment Creates More Problems and Solves Nothing

If you find the evidence of a problem behavior after the fact, for example, a puddle on the carpet or a shoe chewed beyond recognition, the only productive thing to do is clean up the mess and vow to avoid the trigger in the future. Ask yourself how your dog was left unsupervised long enough to relieve herself on the floor or destroy footwear, and decide what steps you'll take to avoid the problem next time.

Most importantly, you never want to respond to your dog's undesirable behavior with aggression or punishment. Punishing your dog after the fact for a behavior you didn't see happen can quickly turn her into a sneaky piddler or destroyer of belongings.

Being aggressive and punishing with a dog in a highly aroused, reactive state is a recipe for disaster. This type of response can cause the dog's behavior to escalate, resulting in injury to one or both of you.

Punishing your dog can increase his anxiety, fear and aggressiveness, while making no change in his behavior. It can also sometimes stop only what you see on the outside, without improving your pet's underlying emotional state. Often the result is a problem behavior that appears randomly, giving you no opportunity for trigger avoidance.

With all that said, you also don't want to respond in a comforting way to a problem behavior. Your dog can easily mistake comforting words and touch for praise, which increases the likelihood he'll continue to perform the undesired behavior.

The Goal of Trigger Avoidance and Control

The goal in managing your pet's problem behavior is to keep it from escalating while you work with your dog toward a more permanent solution.

One of the main goals of positive reinforcement behavior therapy is to change the dog's underlying emotional state. Once your pet is no longer aggressively aroused and full of fear, she is open to learning different responses.

If you feel changing your dog's behavior is something you need help with, I recommend a consultation with a certified animal behavior specialist.

There are also some excellent online resources for dog parents who are looking for canine behavior and training tips. A few of my favorites include:

• The Canine Behavior Series
• Dog Training Tips
• Training an Adult Dog

Setting Realistic Expectations

There are certain things your canine companion may never be able to do, and it's important for the bond you share and your pet's well being that you accept what you cannot change.

An under-socialized dog may never handle dog gatherings or strangers well.

Dogs with phobias, especially storm phobias, often never quite conquer their fears.

Aggressive dogs can learn to be less reactive, but often owners of these dogs will need to make lifelong adjustments to insure the safety of both their pet and all who come in contact with him.

Just as every human being is different — some people love crowds, for example, while others avoid them at all costs — your dog is an individual and can't be expected to adapt perfectly to every conceivable situation.

Your pet doesn't have to be comfortable no matter the circumstance. If she has problems on walks, at the dog park, riding in the car, or when a neighbor's pet runs through your yard, first avoid the trigger.

Then use positive reinforcement behavior modification to see if she can learn to successfully, consistently respond with new behaviors to old triggers.

Prepare for some successes and some failures. Explore the limits of your dog's tolerance and when you reach them, you'll have a clear understanding of what you can and can't expect of her.

Most pet owners do not think twice about spending big dollars to buy their dog premium dog food, the best health care or even blissful days at a doggie day care facility. Most pet owners also don't think twice when it's time to give Bowser a bath. Grab the Head and Shoulders and fire up the backyard garden hose. But lets give it a bit more thought than that.

But a proper dog bath is key to maintaining your pet's vigorous good health. The skin is the body's largest organ and a perfect dog bath is key to stimulating blood circulation and keeping the skin healthy. Improper bathing can cause a matted condition in the coat which is uncomfortable to your dog. The first step in the perfect dog bath is a good brushing.

For short-haired dogs brush in a circular motion with a curry comb made of rubber with teeth cut into the edges. It will pull the dead coat out. Slicker brushes will take out the dead undercoat. Start on the legs and hold the outer hair so that you can brush from the skin outward. If it is not removed, the coat will easily mat. Use this technique all over the dog – legs, body and tail. Dogs resent the tail being brushed so save it for last. For fine-haired dogs use a natural bristle brush. Moisten the area to be worked with a good coat conditioner.

For long-haired dogs use a pin brush if the coat is not tangled, a slicker brush if the coat is tangled. Start at the legs, again brushing from the skin out and brushing only a few hairs at a time. The secret to thorough brushing is to brush only a few hairs at a time. Check each area with a comb; if the comb goes through without stress continue all the way up to the middle of the dog's back. Go to the loin area and to the back legs; then move to each side of the back of the dog.

You are now ready to wash. Never use human shampoos to wash your dog. Dog shampoos are specially formulated to match the pH level of a dog's skin. Human shampoos can strip a dog's coat of essential oils. The right way to bathe a dog is determined by the texture and length of the coat. Short-haired dogs are washed with a vigorous circular motion which will pull out the dirt. On dogs with a medium- length coast, use a back-and-forth motion. As the hair gets longer, go only in the direction the hair grows.

Step 1. Rinse the dog completely.

Step 2. Apply the shampoo along the back, working up as much lather as possible; do the same with the belly, legs and tail.

Step 3. Rinse the coat with one hand to run water on the dog and the other hand in a kneading fashion to work the soap out. Make certain all the soap is out as dried soap will dull a coat and cause skin problems.

Step 4. Before towel-drying, squeeze as much water out of the coat as possible by pulling the hair straight out and squeezing at the same time.

Step 5. Use a washcloth to clean the dog's face and avoid getting water in his ears. Moisture inside the ears provides the conditions for fungus infections.

Step 6. Towel dry your dog and use a hand-held hair dryer on thick-coated dogs but never use a human hair dryer as they run too hot and can burn the dog and damage the coat.

Voila! A clean, healthy dog.

By Doug Gelbert  copyright 2006 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Doug_GelbertArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/156064